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Night at the Museum: Passport to the World!

Calling all Arctic Adventurers, Global Gallivanters and Safari Seekers.  The University of Aberdeen needs savvy survivors and intrepid investigators with a thirst for excitement!  Come and join us for a thrilling and action packed evening of exploration and discovery.  Don’t forget to get your passport stamped!

The annual Night at the Museums event is back and bigger than ever. This year the new Sir Duncan Rice Library Gallery joins the action alongside University of Aberdeen favourites; King’s Museum, the Zoology Museum, the Cruickshank Gardens and the Natural History Centre.

The evening will be packed with crafts, survival and bush craft…

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A volunteer's perspective

University of Aberdeen student volunteer Sacha Strand tells us all about her involvement with the University of Aberdeen Museums.

As a student at the University of Aberdeen being allowed the opportunity to assist with work behind the scene at the museum I jumped at the chance. The skills that I had already gained through archaeology gave me the chance to get my hands on some of the collections and I have assisted in the case cleaning project of the north gallery at Marischal museum. The museum is closed to the public but that does not mean that all the work…

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A Treasure Chest!

Museum Collection staff at Marischal College were left stunned when a cleaning task lead to the discovery of a unique royal object. Managing to go un-noticed for nearly 141 years are a pair of slippers believed to have belonged to Princess Pauline Borghese, the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In a list of the objects donated to the University by Robert Wilson (1787 – 1871) is the description of ‘A pair of slippers – Pauline, Rome Jan 20th 1824’. The same inscription is on the base of the slipper. With a look at the archival material held by the University it…

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King's Museum Evening Lectures

King's Museum are pleased to announce the following speakers for the King's Museum Evening Lecture Series. 

 

15th January - Building Brochs: an architectural and archaeological re-assessment

Dr Tanja Romankiewicz, Simpson and Brown Architechts with Addyman Archaeology.

7.30pm, New King's 10

Admission: Free


22nd January - Feeding the Masses: one hundred years of nutrition research

Professor Peter Morgan, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen.

Celebrating the Rowett's centenary year.

7.30pm, New King's 10

Admission: Free

 

29th January - Images of Aberdeen and Elsewhere: artistic licence and half truths.

Michael Lynch, University of Edinburgh

7.30pm,…

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King's Museum Workshops Featured in TES!

We're pleased as punch to see that our primary school workshop programme has been given a three-page spread in the lastest edition of the Times Educational Supplement. Our Curator for Learning and Access, Anna Shortland, has worked incredibly hard planning and running these workshops, and it's fantastic to see her hard work being recognised.

Starting in the new term, we will be offering our workshops in conjunction with those run by our colleagues at the Special Collections Centre. As well as stand-alone workshops on a variety of topics, we are teaming up to offer special "Experience Days" based around topic themes.…

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Food Stories

 

A new exhibition exploring humanity’s relationship with food is open at King’s Museum in time for the 2012 British Science Festival.

Food Stories, organised by University of Aberdeen Museums and the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, presents a fascinating insight into the way in which cultural differences change what we consider to be edible.

Among the exhibits are a selection of unusual foodstuffs from around the world. Visitors are asked what they might eat from a ‘menu’ which includes scorpion lollipops, sea cucumber, beaver, puffer fish and frogs.

Sue Bird, Communications Manager representing  the Rowett Institute, said…

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The Bennachie Project

The Bennachie Project is a collaborative venture between the Bailies of Bennachie and the University of Aberdeen, focusing on past and present community relationships with land, resources, and society in one of north-east Scotland's most celebrated landscapes: the hill of Bennachie and its environs.

 

University of Aberdeen museum Curator (Learning and Access) Anna Shortland has been working with…

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Visitors to Night at the Museums went wild for Rani the tiger!

The University of Aberdeen’s King’s Museum and Zoology Museum played host to an evening of cultural entertainment on Saturday 19 May.  Night at the Museums, part of Scotland’s Festival of Museums programme, was once again a roaring success.  Over 800 visitors enjoyed getting hands-on and creative in the university museums. With science experiments, competitions, live animals, tours, cupcakes and crafts, children and adults alike left buzzing with excitement.  

 

Among the popular activities in the Zoology Museum was the Name our Tiger competition.  The Bengal tiger has been a treasure of the museum for many years and a firm…

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Night at the Museums 2012

The highly anticipated Night at the Museums is back with a bang for 2012!  The University of Aberdeen’s King’s Museum and Zoology Museum will once again host a special, free evening event packed full of exciting activities, crafts, quizzes and much more.  

Festival of Museums is one of Scotland’s most innovative and exciting programmes designed to ignite imaginations and celebrate Scotland’s wealth of culture. The Festival coincides with other Europe-wide celebrations of the many eclectic cultural experiences offered to visitors by museums and galleries including Museums at Night.

The University of Aberdeen is…

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Collecting Recollecting - the blog

If you have been in to see our exhibition, Collecting|Recollecting: Greenland and the North, you can find more information about it at the dedicated exhibition blog, here. The blog will be updated with photographs and information about the exhibition and the events going on around it.

If you've not been in to see the exhibition yet, it will be running at King's Museum until Saturday 26th May. King's Museum is open 10am-4pm Monday to Friday, with late openings until 7.30pm on Tuesdays, and 11am-4pm on Saturdays.

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Collecting Recollecting

A new exhibition focusing on Greenland will be opening in King’s Museum on the High Street, Old Aberdeen on Saturday 4 February 2012. ‘Collecting | Recollecting: Greenland and the North’ will show items from the University’s diverse ethnographic, geological and botanical collections together with works of contemporary art. The art has been made by a group of Edinburgh-based artists and a University of Aberdeen anthropologist based on their joint field research in Greenland. The resulting exhibition blurs the boundaries between art, anthropology and history to convey the experience of being in the North in…

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Primary School Workshops at King's Museum

 

What would you bury with an Egyptian Queen? Did Romans use toilet paper? How fashionable were the Vikings? How did Victorians amuse themselves? When children learn about the past, they can come up with some interesting questions which are not always easy to answer. However, a trip to a museum can serve to satisfy their curiosity and can spark their interest in history and culture.

With this in mind, the University of Aberdeen Museums are pleased to announce the re-launch of our primary school workshop programme. Aimed at the P2 to P7 class…

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Elements

A new exhibition investigating the elements that make up our world has just gone on show at Aberdeen’s newest museum.

 

King’s Museum in Old Aberdeen is exploring different ideas about elements, from those understood by the Greek philosopher Aristotle - Air, Fire, Earth, Water - to those that modern scientists have found and recorded on the Periodic Table.

 

The elements of everyday appliances as well as those used in ancient times are also featured in the exhibition at the museum which is part of the University of Aberdeen.

 

Glassware made out of radioactive material and a lighting…

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Sounded Bodies

‘Sounded Bodies’ was curated by students taking a new taught postgraduate course on ‘Curating an Exhibition’. The course is a collaborative venture between the departments of Anthropology, Film & Visual Culture and History of Art that gives students the opportunity to become involved in every aspect of producing an exhibition This work included researching the topic, selecting objects from the University’s collections, designing the layout, writing labels and marketing the event.

The student group’s project manager Sarah Ainslie said, “This was a great opportunity to combine academic and practical skills in one course, and to work with a range of…

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Night at the Museum

To celebrate the European Night of Museums and Museums Galleries Scotland's Festival of Museums, the University of Aberdeen Museums are opening late on saturday to allow visitors a twilight tour of the collections.

There are film showings and science workshops (courtesy of Satrosphere) at the Zoology Museum; the Old Town House has an exhibition, "Gray Stuff" by renowned Scottish author, poet and artist, Alasdair Gray, and the Aberdeen branch of the Young Archaeologist Club will be introducing visitors to the art of archaeological drawing; King's College Chapel will be open, allowing you to admire the…
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We are open!

It's been a hectic few weeks, but all of the objects are in the cases, the information booklets and published, the office is set up and running along smoothly, and the museum is now OPEN!

We'd love to meet as many of our neighbours as possible - why not stop in by this Easter weekend and have a look around? We are open on Good Friday from 9.30 am to 4.30pm, on Saturday from 11am to 4pm and on Easter Monday from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Come and have a look at a very special egg we have on display...

Carved…
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King's Museum - Coming Soon...

As the opening date draws ever closer, the museum is resembling a beehive with the sheer amount of activity taking place. Objects are being brought together, assessed for conservation and made ready for transportation. Labels are being written, edited and designed. Furniture is being delivered and installed. The cases are arriving sometime next week, after which the installation of the first ever exhibition will take place! Feeling curious about what's in store? Keep a close eye on the website, the facebook page and the museum itself!

At the same time as planning the move and the first exhibition, the second…

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King's Museum Update

Last Friday, myself and the other members of the museum staff visted our new space for the first time. The walls have been freshly painted and a new carpet has been laid. We examined every nook and cranny, oohing and ahhing over little details like the deep window sills or the tiny kitchenette in the back.

We're just waiting on the new cases to arrive. They're custom-built by ClickNetherfield, who provided the cases we use in the Herbarium, outside the Medical Library in the Polworth Building, and in the foyer of the MacRobert building. They're quite swish and stylish, with…

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