 | | By Chris Grady | | |
Chris Grady: Unexpected Museums to delight you on tourDate: 9 March 2013 Yesterday I was meant to be facilitating a discussion with a senior relationship manager of the Arts Council for the MA Arts Management students that I lead in their course. At 1.30 for a 2pm lecture I got a text saying she wouldn’t be making it because of an e-mountain which was engulfing her. Ahhh.
I thought I’d got out of delivering a major lecture on arts funding policy and practice by getting in an expert. No notes. No time to prepare. But a brilliant idea offered to me by another senior lecturer in the Business School… get out of the classroom, go and explore 3 museums in Cambridge with the students, and use the time to focus on the fundraising challenges for museums and cultural organisations. Great. Brilliant.
I decided to be fair to the students - they had a choice - either I’d do a session on the Arts Council (My wife and I are at the very least masters at the art of writing and sometimes getting awards, and I have been involved with ACE and previously ACGB for 30 years), or they could go to the Library, or we could jump to another unit of the module, or we could brave the mist and rain of Cambridge and do the museums. Split vote. Compromise. I did a 1hr lecture on Arts Council policy past, present, and hopefully future. We then donned coats and they grabbed bikes (well it is Cambridge), and off we went.
Now why tell you all this in a theatre blog. Because dear reader/s I have a secret delight that I like to share with anyone who is on the road in a show. When I have had enough of the triangular walk between digs, theatre, pub/food, digs, theatre, pub/food, digs - I break out and find a guide book and look for the museum or attraction that I think will be unusual or a talking point. Amsterdam: Our Lord in the Attic. Tokyo: Owl Museum. Keswick: Pencil Museum. And now we were off through the rain to start at The Whipple Museum of the History of Science. We’d been warned to ask at the front desk, because it was small and there were 15 of us. We were welcomed and it is amazing…
A celebration of sound from phonographs to ipods, of calculation from sliderules to calculators, of harmony from Helmotz Apparatus to computer keyboards. Portable telescopes, a space full of globe designs (or the world), prisms, strange medical instruments and much much more - beautifully stored in openable drawers to allow the maximum sense of discovery and exploration. There are touchable and playable things, and things with dire warning on because of their rarity and fagility.
It delighted me and I will be back very soon. It struck me as a museum in a wonderful state of forward development celebrating new legacy donations allowing more restoration to happen. And its Free like all the museums owned by Cambridge University. With all respect to its owner, keepers, and many existing supporters I add it to my Unexpected Museums list that I will rave about to friends and visitors.
So if you like, and you’d consider adding to my list, email me other places I should visit. I’ve got to do the transatlantic cable museum in Portcurno and the gas mantle museum in Suffolk. Both are summer attractions for me.
We moved on to see one gallery of the Fitzwilliam – the exquisite Caroline Cheng porcelain Kimono. And we also had a look in the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology which has all 3 galleries shut for rewiring at the moment, but still had a man at the front desk who made us feel welcome as we explored the bright and welcoming shop and a tiny exhibition which brought stone carving from Italy to full interactive life.
I finished my day in a meeting with experts from Russia on the forward marketing of another most Unexpected Museum – the Museum of Lost Taste in Kolomno 2hrs outside Moscow. Two amazing entrepreneurs have rediscovered over 40 recipies for the ancient delights of Pastila or apple sweetmeat and they are reaching the market with favourites of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. They were in Greenwich delighting guests with Pastila at the inauguration of the Gagarin statue this week. News of their delicious sweetmeat will spread around the world very fast I feel sure. I look forward to being part of that marketing journey.
Fascinating Day. Let me know your own Unexpected Museums or attractions...
- by Chris Grady
Any opinions expressed above do not represent the view of Whatsonstage.com nor any of its staff or contributors beyond the bylined author.
 | Chris Grady is a freelance arts manager/trainer working with Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, Mountview Academy of Theatre, London and Stage Entertainment Licensed Productions, Holland. An associate of Wonderbird EU and in development for StoryMusic2020. Over 30 years he has run, built, raised money for, programmed and invented for theatres; conceived festivals, produced trade fairs, shows and galas; taught plate-spinning and sold computers. He runs a series of mentor/coaching sessions for emerging creatives who work in theatre, art, film, dance, spirituality, conjuring, astrology and beyond. There are more things in heaven and earth, good reader, than are dreamed of in your philosophy. Look out beyond Zone 2, beyond the establishment, beyond the horizon, over the edge. The future’s bright and entirely unpredictable. |
Related Content
Reader Comments
| Comment | Date | | When at Malvern Theatres why not visit The Elgar Birthplace Museum outside Worcester. An absolute gem of a place and I should know I work there! - Mary Duffy | 11 Mar 13 |
|
|
|
Free Newsletter
|
Subscribe to our free newsletter
|
|
Featured Editor's Picks
 | Infographic: The economic impact of Arts & Culture in the UK
When Culture Secretary Maria Miller called for the arts to make their "economic case" for subsidy, t... |
|  | Plays Cast: Harry Potter star in Southwark Moment, more for Branagh's Macbeth
Bonnie Wright, best known for playing Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter films, will make her stage d... |
|  | Brief Encounter with ... The Kite Runner's Ben Turner
Ben Turner stars in the stage version of the bestselling book The Kite Runner, which runs at Liverpo... |
|  | Titus Andronicus (RSC)
This latest production of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, to borrow from football punditry, is a p... |
|  | Take Five: Britain's outdoor theatres
With half-term approaching, the weather (hopefully) set to improve for the bank holiday weekend and ... |
|  | West End Live returns to Trafalgar Square next month
West End Live, a weekend of free entertainment from top London shows, will return to Trafalgar Squar... |
|  | Robert Sean Leonard: 'I carry the ghost of Gregory Peck on my shoulders'
Actor Robert Sean Leonard is currently playing Atticus Finch in Timothy Sheader's production of To K... |
|  | To Kill A Mockingbird
Twenty years ago, a young Robert Sean Leonard appeared on the London stage with Alan Alda in... |
|  | X Factor musical titled I Can't Sing!, opens Palladium March 2014
The forthcoming X Factor musical will be called I Can't Sing! The Musical and will premiere at the L... |
|  | Donmar stages Nick Payne premiere, Wesker's Roots & Tom Hiddleston in Coriolanus
The Donmar Warehouse has announced its new season, which features the premiere of Nick Payne's new p... |
|
|
