Where Do We Go From Here? — Audio Trail
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Reading’s museums hold a vast array of objects that represent the lives of many different people. Like the diverse population of the town, these artefacts carry with them a diaspora of experiences. Items at Reading Museum convey the histories of local and global connections alike. Those in the Museum of English Rural Life welcome countryside […]
Our Green Stories: Life on Land Films
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Stories we live by: Life in the Anthropocene
![A mixture of cultivation and craft objects with a shellmex petrol pump globe and a mannequin in a smock wearing a facemask](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/IMG_5420-823x365.jpg)
Museums offer a useful way to engage people in discussions about environmental change, habitat loss, and the climate crisis. But how good are museums at asking the right questions or at highlighting the right concepts? Taking a critical approach to the words, stories and images selected for display in The MERL, this online trail takes […]
Hear our Voice in the Countryside – Video Labels
![Display case containing museum objects, crafted picnic items and makaton symbols](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/Featured-image-770x365.jpg)
Coal Mining: It’s the Pits
![Painting of a historic coal mine](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/P-DX-709_img_001-featured-770x365.jpg)
The Landscape of Housing
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In 2022 The FOLAR symposium held at The MERL explored how Landscape Architecture worked in alliance with the design and planning of post-war housing. This exhibition explores these themes by highlighting some of the key Landscape Architects of this time, using documents and drawings from the Landscape Institute collections held in our Special Collections.
Unpicking the past
![Jones Family CS - featured image for sewing memories exhibition](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/81_82-featured-image-770x365.jpg)
Migrant workers: hidden rural mobilities
![Image of daffodil pickers showing how UK farming relies on seasonal migrant workers](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/Journey5_LARGE_28cm3307px300ppi_FeedingTheNation_25Jan2022_Featured-770x365.jpg)
UK farming relies on seasonal migrant workers to plant, harvest and pack fruit and vegetables. Over 90% of seasonal workers in the UK are migrants. Yet, they tend to be a hidden community across rural spaces. In previous exhibitions—on raspberries and strawberries—illustrations by Sarah Hannis showed the work of migrants and their role in food […]
Our Green Stories in the Galleries
![The logo for Our Green Stories](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/our-green-stories-feed-300x365.png)
Welcome to Our Green Stories, a Museums Partnership Reading campaign exploring climate change, sustainability, and biodiversity loss through collections. This online journey is designed to help us think about what we can do to care for the planet, both individually and collectively. The histories, practices, technologies, challenges, and solutions revealed as part of Our Green […]
In Conversation with Bill Hooks
![Detail showing domestic pruning knives inspired by billhooks sitting on a table top surface.](https://merl.reading.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/Set_5_01-823x365.jpg)