Weekly What's On: 12th to 18th May

You can find full details of all our forthcoming events and activities in our What’s On and MERL Families guides, which are now available from the Museum or to download from our website You can also see all events on our online calendar

Pop-up lunchtime concert: Albert Ball’s Flying Aces
Tuesday 13th May, 1.10-1.50pm
Free. Drop-in
Refreshments available.
This term the University of Reading’s Lunchtime Concerts are on the move and ‘popping up’ at venues across all of the campuses. MERL is delighted to be hosting ‘Albert Ball’s Flying Aces’ who will be performing music and songs from the WWI era on, variously, guitar, banjo, mandolin, percussion and accordion. Find out more about them at www.albertballsflyingaces.co.uk

Talks by visitors from Nanjing Agricultural University
Tuesday 13th May, 2-4.30pm
A series of talks by visiting Professors from the Museum and Institute of Chinese Agricultural Civilisation.
All welcome. Contact us for details. Email merlevents@reading.ac.uk or call 0118 378 8660.

Guided tour
Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 3-3.45pm
Free, booking advisable
Let our fully trained tour guides tell you the stories behind the objects on display and visit the object store to see MERL’s hidden treasures.

Toddler time
Friday 16th May, 10-11am,
£2 per child, drop-in
Suitable for families with children aged 2-4
Come along to the Museum with your little ones and enjoy rhymes, songs and craft activities. 

Museums at Night: 1951 Vintage Night
Saturday 17th May, 8pm ’til late
£5/£3 concs (in advance Available online – How to buy) £6/£4 on the door
Join us for a night of live music, jive, cocktails, makeovers, craft and more…
For details visit our website

Reading University College: WW1 and beyond
Tuesday 1st April to 31 August, 2014
Staircase hall, MERL
Free, drop-in, normal museum opening times
Funded by Arts Council England as part of the Reading Connections project, and inspired by the University of Reading Memorial Book and Clock Tower memorial, this exhibition reveals the stories of the men and women with connections to the then Reading University College, who fell during the First World War. The exhibition also looks at the theme of War in a broader sense with interesting items from MERL and the SPecial Collections relating to other conflicts.
Part of our WW1 programme

Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until Autumn 2014
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ recent post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired and challenges visitors to suggest the modern-day objects that the Museum needs to collect for the future. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the new Our Country Lives project.