I Love Museums
If you’ve been on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram today, you may have noticed the #ILoveMuseums hashtag trending all over your timelines. Musuem staff, volunteers and visitors across the country, including our own University Museums and Collections have been tweeting their personal reasons for loving museums, but the press release below explains what’s behind the hashtag… Today is […]
Volunteers' Voice: Louise
As today is Toddler Time day, our Volunteers’ Week post is by Louise Bell who helps out at this regular event for our youngest visitors… Four years ago, I moved to Reading. I didn’t know much about the place and didn’t have any friends in the area. I had previously lived and worked in a small, […]
Volunteers' Voice: Shreeya & Rasmi
Today’s Volunteers’ Week post is by Shreeya & Rasmi, students from a local secondary school, who volunteered to help us brainstorm ideas for the new museum. They ranked different types of interactives, compiled a possible teenagers’ book club reading list and a list of national days related to the museum that we could highlight on social media… […]
Volunteer's Voice: Sophie
This week is Volunteers’ Week and we are celebrating the wonderful work done by our volunteers and thanking them for all the hours and effort they put into making the museum the best it can possibly be. To showcase our brilliant volunteers every day this week we will be posting blogs written by the volunteers […]
Volunteers' Voice: Lisa
Today’s Volunteers’ Week post is by Lisa, who’s been volunteering at MERL since 2012… I joined MERL as a Volunteer in 2012 in order to gain some experience in the museum sector. At the time I was studying for my BA and it was MERL that influenced me to study my MFA Fine Art at the […]
Volunteers' Voice: Alessandra
This week is Volunteers’ Week and we are celebrating the wonderful work done by our volunteers and thanking them for all the hours and effort they put into making the museum the best it can possibly be. To showcase our brilliant volunteers every day this week we will be posting blogs written by the volunteers […]
Volunteers' Voice: Celebrating Volunteers Week!
Assistant Volunteer Coordinator, Rhiannon Watkinson introduces this week’s celebration of volunteers at MERL… At The Museum of English Rural Life we could not function without the hard work and dedication of our amazing volunteers. Around 120 volunteers ensure that the museum not only runs smoothly but is a place full of passion and friendly faces. […]
Sew Engaging at the Rising Sun
Dr Jane McCutchan is back in Reading for the latest stage of the Sew Engaging project… Drop in at Rising Sun Arts Centre, near the Royal Berks Hospital on a Thursday morning, and you are close to Heaven. Eleven o’clock and the clients have stopped for a tea break. The chair under Dennis (not his real […]
Rural Reads review: Far from the Madding Crowd
As the Rural Reads Plus book group is now taking inspiration from the University of Reading’s Special Collections as well as the Museum of English Rural Life, our recent reviews have been published on the Special Collections blog, but this one takes us back to our roots…! Rob Davies, Volunteer Coordinator, is clearly a fan! […]
Volunteers' Voice: Object handling
Volunteer Coordinator, Rob Davies, explains how museum volunteers are learning how to deliver object handling sessions. For the past 6 months we have been working with Museum’s Consultant Charlotte Dew to create, develop object handling sessions for visitors to the museum which will be delivered regularly by our volunteers when we reopen. We’ll also be […]