You can find full details of all our forthcoming events and activities in our What’s On and MERL Families guides, which are now available from the Museum or to download from our website You can also see all events on our online calendar
Universities Week 2014
Research in Action: Buckets , baskets and boots: Sensory Objects showcase
Monday 9th June, 12.30-3pm, free, drop-in
Reading Colleage Learners with Learning Difficulties, researchers from the University of Reading and the Rix Centre at the University of East London present their research into interactive sensory objects: creating alternative forms of museum interpretation. Come along and explore MERL though your senses using Interactive Sensory Objects. For full details visit Universities Week events
MERL Seminar series: The Great War & the countryside
Open spaces after the Great War: remembrance, recreation and reafforestation
by Professor Keith Grieves, Professor of History and Education, Kingston University
Tuesday 10th June, 1-2pm
Free. Drop-in / register
Why not take the opportunity to see the Reading University College: WW1 & beyond display at the same time. (See below)
Click here for details of the full seminar programme
Universities Week 2014
Research showcase: the creative industries
Wednesday 11th June, 12.30-7pm, free, drop-in (with some bookable sessions)
This event will showcase how the University of Reading’s world-leading research feeds into the UK’s creative economy, with emphasis on theatre and film. A small exhibition of key items from the University’s collections that support creative industries research – including the iconic manuscript for Samuel Beckett’s first novel, Murphy; and a film showing of a creative response to the University’s Evacuee Archive.
For full details visit Universities Week events
Guided tour
Wednesdays, Saturdays & Sundays, 3-3.45pm
Free, booking advisable
Let our fully trained tour guides tell you the stories behind the objects on display and visit the object store to see MERL’s hidden treasures.
Toddler time
Friday 13th June, 10-11am,
£2 per child, drop-in
Suitable for families with children aged 2-4
Come along to the Museum with your little ones and enjoy rhymes, songs and craft activities.
Whiteknights Studio Trail
Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th June, 11am to 6pm, free, drop-in
MERL is hosting artists in the Museum and garden again this year, featuring ceramics, woodwork and scultpture. Visitors are also welcome to take a break to enjoy tea & cake in our pop-up cafe or to picnic in our garden. For details of the artists we’re hosting, and the rest of the trail, visit www.studiotrail.co.uk
Exhibitions
Reading University College: WW1 and beyond
Tuesday 1st April to 31 August, 2014
Staircase hall, MERL
Free, drop-in, normal museum opening times
Funded by Arts Council England as part of the Reading Connections project, and inspired by the University of Reading Memorial Book and Clock Tower memorial, this exhibition reveals the stories of the men and women with connections to the then Reading University College, who fell during the First World War. The exhibition also looks at the theme of War in a broader sense with interesting items from MERL and the SPecial Collections relating to other conflicts.
Part of our WW1 programme
Collecting the countryside: 20th century rural cultures
Until Autumn 2014
Temporary exhibition space
Free, drop in, normal museum opening times
Since 2008 the Museum of English Rural Life has been adding even more objects to its collection, with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures programme, in order to represent each decade of the last century. (Find out more in Curator, Isabel Hughes’ recent post) This exhibition gives a taste of what has been acquired and challenges visitors to suggest the modern-day objects that the Museum needs to collect for the future. The exhibition will help the Museum to explore how to incorporate more recent histories and representations of the English countryside into its displays as part of the new Our Country Lives project.