Pre-closure celebrations at the Museum of Zoology

The Museum was awarded initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the ‘Animals Galore – preserving and safeguarding diversity’ project in January 2013. The project aims to completely refurbish the display spaces of the Museum, to create a Learning Space and School Room and to build new Stores with more space, state-of-the-art preservation conditions and guided public access. The project aims to display and illuminate the history of animal life. New interpretation will tell some of the stories behind the collections and the people associated with them, such as Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, Hugh Edwin Strickland and Hugh Cott. It will also explore the science behind the understanding of animal diversity and the threats to it, and explain how the community of conservation scientists in Cambridge are seeking to preserve biodiversity.

Visit the museum before the transformation begins. Saturday June 1st is the last day the museum will be open to the public until 2016. Visit between 11 and 4 for free hands on activities, behind the scenes tours, story telling and more. Add a butterfly to the swarm of monarch butterflies in the galleries, make your own museum specimen to take home with you, have a go at being a museum curator and hear stories about the amazing Finback Whale skeleton that hangs above the museum.

During the May half term holidays the Museum will be hosting a number of events to celebrate the proposed changes set to happen here. The museum will be open on Bank Holiday Monday 27th May from 11-4. On Tuesday 28th and Thursday 30th May from 11-12 and 2-3 interactive gallery talks will take place in the museum: The Animal Awards. Hear the nominations and vote for the animals you think are the spookiest, most disgusting, most surprising or with the best adaptation. There will also be activity packs available all week with museum trails and other activities, and chances for you to tell us your museum favourites.

“The Museum of Zoology is wonderful space, full of beautiful specimens from mammal skeletons to mollusc shells. We are excited about the proposed changes to the museum, and the opportunity to refresh the displays to showcase the amazing collections held here. The new learning space will give us the capacity to teach groups in the museum and, when not being used for school groups, the space for more interactive displays. These celebrations in May will give people the chance to enjoy the museum before it closes, and to have their say about what they like about and would like to see in the museum.”  (Roz Wade, Education and Outreach Officer)

The museum will have an active outreach programme while it is closed, details of which will be available on the website (www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk) and through its facebook page. There are also projects allowing digital access to the collections, including the Animal Bytes blog telling stories behind the collections (www.animalbytescambridge.wordpress.com).