Monthly Gallery Tours – February

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.

11 February: Tom Brookes – PhD student researching farmer protests

This month, Ollie will be joined by PhD researcher Tom Brookes. Tom’s new project explores how concerns over the cost of net-zero transitions, changes to subsidies, and other pressures have led to widespread farm protests. This timely work has already brought him close to the action, as divisions between UK farmers and policy makers deepen. Why have farmers taken to the streets? How can we bring agriculture and nature advocacy closer together? Why is rural life critical to environmental recovery?