Weekly What's On – 25th Nov to Dec 1st
What’s on at MERL this week? Rural reads book club Thursday 28th November, 5.30-7pm Free. (£1.50 for tea & cake) Drop in and join this informal group discussing books on a rural theme. This month the book we’ll be talking about is Trespass by Rose Tremain. As there is no meeting in December, we have […]
MERL at the MA conference #2: Our Volunteer Coordinator's view
Rob Davies, Volunteer Coordinator, writes up the session he led on ‘overcoming fears of working with volunteers’at the Museums Association conference… I was one of a small group of colleagues from MERL who attended the MA conference earlier this month. I was there to lead a session entitled ‘Overcoming your fears of working with volunteers.’ […]
MERL at the Museums Association conference #1: Our Curator's view
In the first of a series of posts from our colleagues who attended the MA conference recently, Isabel Hughes, Curator of Collections and Engagement, summarises her talk on ‘Collecting Cultures’ and reflects on the conference as a whole… The Museums Association Conference is the biggest gathering of museums people in the country. Despite the cutbacks […]
Alfred Waterhouse and MERL
written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer for Our Country Lives. Buildings are, in most cases, more famous than their architects. Exceptions are rare, such as St Pauls’s Sir Christopher Wren, or Frank Lloyd Wright (and then my limited knowledge collapses..). One architect you may not have heard of, but whose buildings you certainly will know of, […]
Discovering the Landscape #1
written by Claire Wooldridge, Landscape Institute Library Officer. Since the arrival of the Landscape Institute Library and Archive a few weeks ago, I have been immersed in a new world of international architectural design, rural development, urban regeneration and land art. Initial sorting of the library materials is underway – we have received approximately 60 […]
Volunteers' Voice #7 – Tour guides
Volunteer Coordinator, Rob Davies, talks about working with volunteer tour guides to make guided tours at MERL more interactive and engaging… I had a meeting with my volunteer tour guide team last week which prompted me to dedicate this post to volunteer tour guides. Tours are an excellent way in which museums engage with visitors, […]
Rural Reads Review #3 – Waterland by Graham Swift
Robert Davies, reviews our October ‘Rural Read’… The book for MERL’s Rural Reads monthly book club last month was Waterland by Graham Swift. The book is set in the Fens and covers a time period of 200 years, successfully bringing the fens to life for the reader with vivid descriptions and endearing characters. For the scale […]
Picture of the month #5: Artist in butter
Caroline Benson, MERL’s Photographic Assistant has come across a most fascinating craft (which, sadly, definitely isn’t one which will be on display at our Traditional Craft Fair!) We didn’t quite squeeze this particular ‘Picture of the month’ into October, but I think it’s worth the wait!! This month’s photographs are from a collection recently deposited […]
MERL Traditional Craft Fair, Nov 9th 2013
Greta Bertram, MERL Project officer and Heritage Crafts Association trustee, explains how our Traditional Craft Fair connects with MERL’s extensive craft-related collections… It’s nearly time for the annual MERL Traditional Craft Fair, and this year we’ve got fifteen of our most skilled local craftspeople exhibiting (and in some cases demonstrating) throughout the Museum. As ever, we […]
Hot off the lorry: the Landscape Institute archive and library has arrived!
written by Nancy Fulford, Project Archivist. We are really excited to welcome the archive, library and associated architect’s collections of the Landscape Institute at MERL. Earlier this year the Institute decided that we would be the new home for these collections which have largely been in storage and inaccessible since 2008. The Landscape Institute was […]