Category Archives: Museums and Galleries

How Not to Go to the Venice Biennale

Posted on 13/09/2015 by carolinemmurray

Unless you really go for the sort of art for which you need an A4-sized explanatory label containing phrases such as ‘multiple discourses’, ‘time and transience’, ‘viscerally visual’, ‘expressive dynamism’, ‘atemporal incongruence’ or ‘axis of displacements’, ‘sonorous light of introspective … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

We Close in Venice (Part 2: Mantua me genuit)

Posted on 10/09/2015 by carolinemmurray

I would assert that there is unlikely to be any greater, more playful or more evocative epitaph in any language than the one (dubiously) ascribed to Virgil: Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Gardens, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

We Close in Venice (Part 1)

Posted on 08/09/2015 by carolinemmurray

Unlike Cole Porter’s troupe of strolling players, we did not open in Venice: we go there last, having spent two very hot days in Ferrara, and having arrived in Mantua, to the twin delights of wifi and a terrific thunderstorm … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Object of the Month: August

Posted on 24/08/2015 by carolinemmurray

This month’s object is a painting from the Museum of Cambridge: it depicts the famous carrier Thomas Hobson, whose method of business brought the expression ‘Hobson’s Choice’ into the language, and who was a great benefactor of the town of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge, History, Literature, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Twelve Things I Didn’t Know About Regensburg

Posted on 10/08/2015 by carolinemmurray

We have just spent a long weekend in Regensburg, about which I thought I knew one Big Thing: the Diet of Ratisbon, 1541 (how A-level history still lingers, 50 years on…). But with the aid of some determined mooching about … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Paper Flowers Revisited

Posted on 02/08/2015 by carolinemmurray

The British Museum has on display one of the copper plates which Sir Joseph Banks commissioned to be engraved for his planned ‘Natural History’ of the Endeavour voyage. I’m grateful to Sarah McDonald (@Artboretum), Heritage Collections Manager at the RHS … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Botany, History, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

The Garden Museum

Posted on 27/07/2015 by carolinemmurray

What do the following museums have in common: Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, The Queen’s House in Greenwich, and the Garden Museum in Lambeth? The answer is a good news/bad news one: all three are about to undergo refurbishment, extension or … Continue reading →

Posted in Botany, Gardens, History, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

The Professor of Basket-Making

Posted on 21/07/2015 by carolinemmurray

In the Museum of Cambridge (formerly the Folk Museum) not far from Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall) but somewhat north of John Lewis (formerly Robert Sayle) there is a bizarre object donated in 1925 by Thomas Okey (1852–1935), first … Continue reading →

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Retirement: Four Months In

Posted on 20/07/2015 by carolinemmurray

First thought: who would have thought it? I should have marked the first three months, or quarter-year, in June, but it passed by almost unnoticed. I see from my diary that on 20 June I was recovering from (and writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cambridge, Gardens, London, Museums and Galleries | Tagged , , | 6 Comments