FREE, collect a token at the Fitzwilliam Museum information desk (first come first served)
This display highlights some of the outstanding pieces of decorative art on loan to the Museum from the Keatley Trust. John Keatley founded the Trust in 1968 in order to purchase the best-designed and most finely-crafted ceramics, glass, metalwork, woodwork, furniture and book bindings and subsequently lend these to museums around the UK for the benefit and enjoyment of the public. The collection focusses predominantly on the 20th century which, as John says, represents the period of greatest transformation of the lives of most people, in the history of Britain.
The Salisbury family, based locally in Cambridge, have kindly lent part of their studio ceramics collection to the Museum. This collection, formed over many years, includes pieces by some of the finest artists to work in clay from the mid-20th century onwards. These include Austrian and German emigrés Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth, and contemporary artist Jennifer Lee, winner of the Loewe Craft Prize 2018.
Image: © The estate of Hans Coper
Over the past fifty years, Francesca and Massimo Valsecchi have built up a remarkable collection of paintings, furniture, sculpture, glass and ceramics. This includes the renowned nude portrait of Patricia Preece by Stanley Spencer (Gallery 1), a Spanish 17th-century polychrome wood sculpture of the Christ Child (Gallery 6), Art Nouveau Tiffany glass (Gallery 22) and an extremely rare Meissen porcelain vulture (Gallery 27).
This exhibition is the second of two successive selections of works on paper which celebrate the outstanding generosity of benefactors and donors who have helped to enrich the collections. It will also highlight a number of exceptional works bought with funds raised or donated by individuals, charities and other supporters. Each tells a story of disinterested commitment to giving for the benefit of others. Preserved, researched and displayed by the Museum and made globally accessible in digital form they exit the private sphere to be enjoyed by all.
The Museum of Classical Archaeology is pleased to host an exhibition of work by learners undertaking the accredited photography course at Cambridge Community Arts for the third year running.
For artist Loukas Morley, our Cast Gallery is a lovely haven of stillness that offers a beguiling backdrop for an exhibition of his own work. In positioning both newly made and existing works in gaps and spaces within the gallery, he will create a series of installations which give contemplation to the very stillness of time, embodied in the silent classical casts.
The exhibition runs from 6 June to 6 September. The Museum of Classical Archaeology is open Tuesday - Friday (10am - 5pm) and Saturdays (10am - 1pm) during University term time.
Showcasing rare and exquisitely decorated fans from the collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox Boyd, allocated to the Museum by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax in 2015, this display reveals the techniques behind the making, investigation and conservation of fans.
Evolution is constantly producing incredible structures, shapes and patterns – both in the inner workings of animal bodies and in their external appearances.
This exhibition of artworks by Jonathan Kingdon showcases a lifetime of observations in nature, through stunning paintings, sculptures and drawings, displayed amongst specimens of the animals that inspired them.
Beggarstaffs was the pseudonym used by the British artists William Nicholson and James Pryde for their partnership in poster design and other graphic work in the 1890s. Pryde and Nicholson’s Beggarstaff graphics and their later individual works as painters have never before been shown together. This groundbreaking exhibition will explore for the first time the fascinating way in which their reciprocal influence and shared love of striking subject matter worked on their very different temperaments to inspire two remarkable artistic careers.
