A sheet of music with handwritten notes.

Messiah to Memorabilia: Exploring the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Music Collection

From February 2026, Royal Holloway PhD student Adrianna Chmielewska had the opportunity to carry out her second year placement at the Fitzwilliam Museum. This blog showcases a couple of highlights which reflect the sheer variety of the Museum’s Music collection. Hosted by Dr Suzanne Reynolds, Senior Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Fitzwilliam Museum, I worked on two… Read full article

An older person holding a shell in one hand and tracing it in the other.

Museum Collections, Occupational Therapy and Stroke Rehabilitation

At the end of last year, we introduced a new student placement in collaboration with Cambridge University Hospitals, exploring how museum objects and artworks can support therapy for stroke rehabilitation patients. The placement was an exciting step forward in our ongoing collaboration with the Occupational Therapists at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, which has developed over the last three years. In… Read full article

A baby sitting on the mosaic floor of the Museum wearing a mosaic hat.

The Family Welcome: A Museum Research Project

To understand how to provide a great family welcome at the Fitzwilliam Museum, we went straight to the experts: babies, young children and their parents. Using a range of creative research tools, both inside the museum and during outreach sessions in the local community, we worked together to explore what it means to feel welcome. The Family Welcome Project The… Read full article