Topic description and stories

An over-dressed Victorian man looking at the nude Venus de Milo.

How classical sculpture helped to set impossible standards of beauty

18 Jul 2015

What do we mean when we say that someone has ‘classical’ good looks? Are male nudes in art appropriate viewing for family audiences? In looking at...

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A jet engine turbine blade.

From atoms to jet engines – extreme materials on display at summer exhibition

30 Jun 2015

At any one time over half a million people are flying far above our heads in modern aircraft. Their lives depend on the performance of the special...

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A shaman, shamaness and Achinsk Lama with helpers, June 1912. Right: A young boy with his sister, July/August 1912.

Life in the snow forests: 100-year-old photographs reunited with communities

20 Jun 2015

Indigenous people from the snow forests of Inner Mongolia and Siberia have been reunited with century-old photographs of their family and communities...

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Image from the Boy's book of British battles

Waterloo: the first draft of history

30 Apr 2015

A letter written from the body-strewn battlefield at Waterloo, an invasion map of the UK, and a book from Napoleon’s personal library in exile will...

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Folding ‘Trompe l’oeil’ fan, English, c.1750

How we fell in love with shopping

20 Mar 2015

An exhibition of ‘treasured possessions’ from the 15th to the 18th centuries reveals how we first fell in love with shopping, and takes us back to an...

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José María Sert (1874–1945), Photographic study for The Triumphs of Humanity, 1937 Gelatin silver print, with highlights in black pastel squared up, 240 x 300 mm, Private Collection

Secret lives of the mannequin revealed at the Fitzwilliam Museum

14 Oct 2014

Life-size mannequins, dolls and over 180 remarkable artworks from collections across the world will be going on display in Cambridge today (14...

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Production still from 'Jaywick Escapes', a film by Karen Guthrie and Nina Pope

Curating Cambridge: Kettle's Yard autumn season

17 Sep 2014

This autumn Kettle’s Yard hosts four varied and inspiring exhibitions - Nina Pope & Karen Guthrie take over the main gallery with the first major...

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Image from a 14th century manuscript of the Romance of the rose, one of the best-known texts of the Middle Ages

Conquering a continent: how the French language circulated in Britain and medieval Europe

22 Jan 2014

A 13th-century manuscript of Arthurian legend once owned by the Knights Templar is one of the star attractions of a new exhibition opening today at...

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Artwork by Nondumiso Hlwele

Activist art reflects fight for rights of African AIDS sufferers

22 Jun 2012

A new exhibition launching at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology explores the psychology and politics of living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa...

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Tomb Treasures from Han China

The search for immortality: tomb treasures of Han China

05 May 2012

In the first exhibition of its kind, the Fitzwilliam Museum will relate the story of the quest for immortality and struggle for imperial legitimacy...

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Composite of Wittgenstein's face, along with those of his sisters

Wittgenstein’s camera

05 Jul 2011

To mark the 60th anniversary of his death, an exhibition exploring Wittgenstein’s experiments in photography, and how they relate to his philosophy...

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