museum
Gifts from Neptune
For several years we have taken the students on the Mallorca field-course to the strand-line along the Bay of Pollensa and the dune system near C’an Picafort. Both of these stretches of beach tend to collect odd, fuzzy balls of Neptune’s grass (Posidonia oceanica). Wave action breaks down the dead leaves and rhizomes of Neptune’s grass creating fibres which then become matted into dense spheres. I’ve written a previous blog post about Neptune’s grass on these shores of Mallorca.
Instead, this year we visited a different part of the coast where the material accumulates in sculpted waves along the beach edge. Previously I’ve seen this from the window of the coast, so it was interesting to experience it first hand. It is very soft, prone to collapsing and makes the shore edge difficult to walk on. There must be something different about the coastline here which makes the formation of the fibre balls less likely. Whether in balls or loose, the dried Neptune’s grass adds organic matter to the sand and helps to stabilise the dunes further up the beach.
This bit of beach was at the Finca de Son Real, an example of a traditional land-holding now managed by the Balearic Government as a nature reserve and archaeological site. There is a museum here which gives an insight into the lives of the rural people of Mallorca. Through displays of objects, room reconstructions, audio and projections, the museum explores the site from and from neolithic times into the 20th century including an explanation of how local farmers would have collected dry Neptune’s grass to use as animal bedding.
Upcoming Exhibition: Object Lessons
For the past few months I’ve been working on a really exciting exhibition opening on the 20th of May: Object Lessons #MMObjectLessons Object Lessons celebrates the scientific model and illustration collection of George Loudon. Each of these finely crafted objects was created for the purpose of understanding the natural world through education, demonstration and display. […]
via Object Lessons exhibition: coming soon — Palaeo Manchester
All Staff Day
The Museum staff – all a bit giddy in the garden after an intensive afternoon discussing our courtyard project.
And so we begin….to kick off four years of redevelopment, we had an all staff half day on Monday 6th June. It was a jam-packed afternoon of activities, led by our Director Nick Merriman, setting the scene for the Courtyard Project and getting everyone up to speed on where we are now and what we are planning for the future.
Susie from Modern Designers then took over for a great session on branding, which helped us to think about what makes a successful brand and how we currently communicate about the Museum.
Henry (our Head of Collections) and I then led an activity – based on some excellent work done by Common Cause Foundation – that explored what our personal values are and also the values we think our visitors associate with the Museum. It was a really insightful piece of work that helped us to capture the variety of…
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