Monthly Gallery Tours – October

Curator of MERL Collections, Dr Ollie Douglas, will be joined by a different specialist for each of these monthly tours. Together they will take visitors on a short conversational guided trip through the galleries approaching our collection from a different perspective that reflects the guest speaker’s expertise, ensuring you’ll learn something new every time.

Each tour will last about 45 minutes and will culminate in a pop-up display or an opportunity to peek behind the scenes. At the end of the session there’ll be a chance to ask questions and to chat with Ollie and his guest.

14 October: ‘Fences’ with Associate Professor Jeremy Burchardt, University of Reading

Join Ollie Douglas in conversation with Jeremy Burchardt to tear down some barriers between the present and the past. What would possess a landowner to install unscalable, ugly metal fencing on either side of a public right of way? Why did the British grow a hedge over 2,000 miles long across India? Will fences soon be invisible technologies? Come along to find out more about the history of drystone walls, electric fences, barbed wire, hedge laying, and the different reasons why we choose to divide and enclosure the countryside.