Events at The Manchester Museum
24 Apr 2012
Minibeasts & us Big Saturday (28 April) * Wild food walk and Love Food Festival (28 April) * Showcase Lecture at the Museum (2 May).
Big Saturday: Minibeasts & us
Saturday 28 April (11am-4pm)
Most activities are free and drop-in. Some activities may need to be booked on the day and may cost up to £1.50. All ages
Come along to the Minibeasts & Us Big Saturday and find out more about these fascinating creatures. See giant models of minibeasts such as a Ladybird, Forest Ant and Woodlouse. See a selection of showy insects from the Museum’s Entomology store, various live stick-insects which can be handled and some live aquatic insects. There will be lots of family friendly activities from storytelling, making your own minibeasts to take home and a Bugs & Insects family friendly film. Volunteers from the Amateur Entomologist Society will be on hand to answer your questions about insects. All this and lots more.
Love Food Festival
Saturday 28 April, 11-3pm
Drop-in, free, all ages
The Love Food Festival aims to encourage people in Manchester to eat more sustainable and fresher foods by supporting local growers, learning how to grow your own food, and learning how to cook delicious healthy recipes that won't break the bank. Activities will be run by the Sustainable Consumption Institute Centre for Doctoral Training, the Student Union, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority, Cracking Good Food, Fareshare, The Manchester Museum and many more. Come and get free food and plants for your garden whilst learning about how to eat well, grow your own veg, waste less and much, much more.
Museum Meets: Urban Naturalist
Saturday 28 April (2-4pm)
Book on 0161 275 2648, £3, adults
Spring wild food walk with Jesper Launder, in association with Cracking Good Food.
By the end of April the early edible springtime shoots are at their very best for harvest. Large enough but still tender to eat. This foraging walk will introduce some of our most familiar and tasty spring wild foods, offering insight into the many ways they can be eaten, and how to go about safely identifying them.
Urban Naturalist is a programme of friendly, practical workshops for adults run by leading naturalists. From wild food-foraging and composting to bird song and insect identification, explore biodiversity on our doorstep.
Showcase lecture: Hacking the Museum
Wednesday 2 May (3-4.30pm)
Drop-in, free, adults
With Chris Speed, The University of Edinburgh.
This talk will reflect upon the temporal characteristics of the emerging phenomenon known as the Internet of Things. As objects become individually tagged with unique identities through the addition of small electronic chips or bar codes, their history is recorded and made available to others across a network. The advent of this ever-growing catalogue of histories and connections means that every object will require a firewall around it to stop people placing stories and information upon it. This means that objects in museums are likely to be ‘hacked’ by the public, and curators will lose control of what a particular artefact means in a collection.
Chris Speed will reflect on the work that he and his team have developed in their relationship with the National Museum of Scotland, who kindly let them tag items in the Scotland: A Changing Nation exhibition, and allowed the public to write personal stories on to them.
Chris has sustained a critical enquiry into how digital technology can engage with the fields of architecture and human geography through art work and funded research projects.
Tours of the Vivarium (live animals)
Every Tuesday & Thursday (except school holidays) (12-1pm)
Book on 0161 275 2648, free, 13+
Meet the Museum's live animals and learn about the education and conservation work taking place beyond the displays.
Tours of the stores
Every Wednesday (1.30-2.15pm & 2.15-3pm)
Book on 0161 275 2648 or at the Information Desk, free, ages 10+, 10 places per tour
Go behind the scenes and explore our Palaeontology and Botany stores (one store per week).
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- Visit The Manchester Museum's website
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