Space in our Clore Learning Studio is limited so you may wish to return later. This event is suitable for families. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Join us for a special Saturday workshop on 15 March led by artist James Tunnard, where we'll dive into the magic of colour and light.
As you may have heard, we’re creating a new art installation for the Learning Gallery ceiling and the activities in this workshop will inspire and contribute to this exciting piece!
Get creative with these hands-on activities:
Legumes like peas and beans have developed a clever way to overcome the lack of nitrogen in the soil. They form special structures on their roots, called nodules, which act as tiny homes for nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These bacteria help convert nitrogen from the air into a form the plant can use to grow. The process begins when the plant’s root hairs recognise the bacteria and allow them to infect the root. The nodules then form below this site, deep within the root tissues.
You may have heard talk of plants flowering earlier as a result of our warming climate. Phenology, the study of seasonal cycles, can help us to understand the effects of climate change on plants. We would like to know how seasonal weather changes are affecting the trees at CUBG, and if they can adapt, survive and even thrive.
A small number of plants attract pollinators not by providing a food reward, but by mimicking females of the pollinating animal species. Male animals are attracted to these mimics and may attempt to mate with them. In the process, pollen is transferred to and from the animal’s body and can be carried to other flowers. The plant gets pollinated and has not had to provide any nectar in exchange! We will discuss how these sexually deceptive flowers work and how plants are able to construct these brilliant models of female insects.
The humanities and the sciences supposedly belong to separate cultures, but some of the world’s most celebrated images stem from scientific roots. Just as every picture tells a story, so too there are many different stories to tell about a picture. Who created it? And why? What places, objects and people does the picture show? Has its meaning changed over time?
Dr Victoria Avery, curator of our Rise Up exhibition, shares her fascinating new research alongside violin performances by Nicole Cherry, the Assistant Professor of Violin from University of Texas at San Antonio and founder of the ForgewithGeorge project which commissions new violin compositions inspired by Bridgetower.
Curated by historian of abolitionist ideas, Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, this unique programme of short films showcases highlights from the University of Birmingham’s groundbreaking conference, last year, Undoing 2007; Preparing for 2038.
Challenging familiar, but misleading, narratives of 'abolition’, the rigorous presentations and surprising conversations archived in these fifteen short films consider how communities can commemorate freedom-fighting, resistance, and abolition by harnessing reparative histories
Bishop’s sculptural work celebrates the countless unrecorded Jamaican market women of West African heritage whose skills, knowledge and empowerment ‘exemplify resilience and agency’ and helped ‘shape the legacy of Caribbean and African heritage’.
Today, natural history museums are starting to research the full histories of how their collections were built, and this can bring to light some surprising and troubling stories. Thylacines, or Tasmanian tigers, are icons of extinction, and some of the world’s best-preserved specimens are in Cambridge’s University Museum of Zoology. New research there has uncovered an uncomfortable truth about how the history of the extinction of the thylacine had strong parallels with the violent events that took place in Tasmania in the nineteenth century.
