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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Safn – Icelandic for museum (and collection)
With a group of curators away on a trip together one thing is guaranteed – we’ll find some museums to visit!

So one Icelandic word I’ve learnt is ‘safn’ meaning museum or collection. We’ve visited a whole host of wonderful museum large and small since arriving in Iceland.
There was Arbaer open air museum with it’s beautiful architecture and really stylish displays of Icelandic life and commodities.


Then there was Eldheimar (Pompeii of the North) telling the story of the eruption on Heimaey with it’s evocative excavated house and clever use of audioguides. David has an interesting interview with the Director of this new museum here.


The Aquarium and Natural History Museum in Heimay celebrating it’s 50th anniversary with decorated stones and the chance to meet it’s VIP resident:

The eclectic shark fishing museum on the north of the Snaefellsness peninsula with artifacts, drying shark and the opportunity to buy the real thing. Visit Dmitri’s blog for a full write-up of this one!

The charming natural history museum in Ólafsfjördur with an extensive collection of birds, a polar bear and something which I particularly enjoyed…..a little browseable herbarium.

At the Museum of Akureyri the current exhibition was an interesting display of images of Iceland today taken using the wet plate technique. We have some plates like this in our collection and even though ours are about 100 years old and these were modern, all the smudges and drips around the edges look identical. ALongside this chenging temporary exhibition they also had two more permanent displays about mapping Iceland and life in Akureyri in ages past.


Arbaer Turf Houses

We visited the wonderful Arbaer open air museum in Reykjavik. Historic houses in need of love have been rescued and moved to the site of the Arbaer farm. Here they receive specialist treatment to restore them so that they can be preserved for people to enjoy.


One highlight particular highlight was the opportunity to see the turf roof houses, including the Arbaer farmhouse (the only building not to have arrived from a previous home).

This turf would help to insulate the house, trapping warmth inside for the residents; including the livestock. The stone walls of the barn also had turfs between the courses, stopping any potential draughts.

It made me think of the Norwegian fairy tale in ‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’ about the husband who has to mind the house and decides to graze his cow on the roof.

