Go on an after dark adventure at Cambridge University museums in May
Madonnas and Miracles has already proved a big draw at The Fitzwilliam Museum and from 6pm till 9pm that evening there’s a free sensory viewing, giving you the chance to immerse your senses and be transported to the holy home in Renaissance Italy.
With added sights, smells, sounds and handling objects to touch, make sure you don’t miss a ten-minute introduction to your experience at 6pm, 7pm and 8pm from Dr Irene Galandra Cooper.
As part of the event, Sarah Dunant, the renowned writer of historical fiction, broadcaster and critic, will be giving an illustrated talk about how she uses art and objects to conjure up the past, at 7pm.
Other areas of the museum will be open late and there will be a bar serving drinks and Mediterranean nibbles until 8.30pm.
There is a £7 charge for the talk and entrance to the museum from 6pm to 9pm will be via the courtyard entrance. Tickets for Sarah Dunant’s talk can be pre-booked online at cambridgelivetickets.co.uk.
Lost is a very different offering at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, providing a poignant opportunity for reflection on one of the tragedies in the news over recent times.
Syrian-born artist Issam Kourbaj has collected items of clothing belonging to refugees who were lost at sea attempting to make the perilous journey to Lesbos.
Within the museum’s permanent display are 450 casts of plaster-dipped items, creating a thought- provoking and moving exhibition that provides a different take on the destruction of his homeland.
“Lost becomes a statement of absence,” says Kourbaj. “The rigid surface of each item of clothing holds the ghost of its past, and acts as evidence of, and a gravestone for, its recent past carrier; the person who never made it to the end of their journey and was drowned and lost in dark water.”
Lost, an evening with Issam Kourbaj and poet Ruth Padel, runs from 6.30pm to 8pm on the 17th. You can hear the stories behind the exhibition and hear Padel read her new poem Lesbos 2015. The event is free, but online booking is essential, at lost-event.eventbrite.co.uk.
