By Adam Koszary, Museums and Special Collections Services
The tweet sent from The MERL account that went viral
look at this absolute unit.
Our tweet from the Museum of Rural English Life account was a simple enough command. It accompanied a black and white photo of an Exmoor Horn aged ram found in the archives of the museum, located on the University of Reading’s London Road campus.
But this tweet had a satisfying pay-off. One day on, our Twitter followers had increased by more than 50% – 16,000 and counting – and the tweet itself had surpassed 68,000 likes and 20,000 retweets.
This is not normal for The MERL twitter account, in case you haven’t guessed.
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A series of Brazilian films, showing at the Tate Modern, London from 9-12 November, explores the role of cinema in the Brazilian Tropicália cultural movement, and will bring together a range of key filmmakers and scholars in the field.
Image credit: Arthur Omar, Triste Trópico (Sad Tropics, 1974), film still. Courtesy the artist
The films, curated by Dr Stefan Solomon from the Department of Film, Theatre and Television, University of Reading, will be shown over four days at the Tate Modern’s Starr Cinema as part of Tate Film’s ‘Counter-Histories’ series.
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Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making
A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL
Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.
In this talk, woodsman, bodger and scythesman Mark Allery joins the MERL for a hands-on exploration of some of the scythes in the MERL collection and shares the story of his search for the earliest surviving scythes.
Admission is free, although booking is recommended.
Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making
A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL
Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.
This talk by Jack Thacker, the current poet-in-residence at the MERL, will explore the poetics of agriculture.
Admission is free, although booking is recommended.
Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making
A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL
Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.
In this talk, Greta Bertram, Heritage Crafts Association, will discuss the topic “Heritage Crafts At Risk”.
Admission is free, although booking is recommended.
Tickets are now available for a very special Ladybird event at The Museum of English Rural Life Thursday 23rd February, 7.30-9pm.
Book now to join Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, authors of the ‘Ladybird for Grown-Ups’ series, for a humorous exploration of these best-selling books! You’ll also have to chance to put your burning Ladybird questions to a panel of Ladybird experts – all for just £4.
http://www.reading.ac.uk/themerl/whats-on/themerl_ladybirdeveningforgrownups.aspx
The museum will be open from 5 to 9pm, including the Tales from the Stacks’ book club Ladybird Special with Professor Karin Lesnik-Oberstein at 5.30pm, a free book-signing with Jason and Joel at 6.30pm and chance to visit the galleries, café and shop.
