Since 2012, we’ve undertaken projects of all shapes and sizes. To deliver this program, we’ve collaborated with a huge variety of organisations – from the University, local area and further afield. Find out more about our past ventures here: 

Annual Reviews
Giving an overview of our work in each year, you can read our annual reviews online.
2021-2022 Year in Numbers
2020-2021 A year like no other
2018-2019 Highlights

Operation Survival and Cambridge Codebreakers: The Last Secret
We partnered with Fire Hazard Games to deliver two high-octane digital adventure games across a number of our museums. Imagine head-scratching puzzles and a madcap rush between venues (not in the galleries!). Find out more on our Collections in Action blog:
Operation Survival
Cambridge Codebreakers: turning museum visitors into players
Cambridge Codebreakers: developing a codebreaking adventure across four museums
2017-2019

India Unboxed
To mark the UK-India Year of Culture 2017, we celebrated a shared season on the theme of India - a programme of exhibitions, events, digital encounters, discussions, installations and more within the museums and the city of Cambridge.
Rooted in our collections, the programme explored themes of identity and connectivity for audiences in both the UK and India, with support from Arts Council England. Read the India Unboxed Evaluation Report
2017-18

The Museum as Method
This conference, run in collaboration with the University's Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), brought together scholars from disciplines interested in material culture and curators from across the arts and sciences, to reflect on both questions of methodology and public policy.
2016 

Curating Cambridge
Curating Cambridge: our city, our stories, our stuff was a collaborative arts and cultural season which took place over October and November 2014. Read the Curating Cambridge Evaluation Report
2014

Artist in Residence, North West Cambridge Development
The Artist in Residence programme at the North West Cambridge Development ran throughout the development of the site, with three artists being appointed each year. 
2014-2016

Discoveries: Art, Science and Exploration
In 2014, Discoveries, the first major show to bring together the fascinating collections from all eight University of Cambridge Museums, took place at London's Two Temple Place and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
2014

House Guests
From March to July 2013 specimens, objects and artworks from the University of Cambridge Museums and collections took up residence at Kettle's Yard. The 'guests', from butterflies to Inuit carving, invited visitors to see Kettle's Yard in a new light and to discover more about the University of Cambridge Museums.
2013

Thresholds
In 2012 Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy invited ten of the best UK poets writing today to take part in a series of residencies at the University of Cambridge Museums. Each poet spent time in their host museum or collection, exploring the collection and working with young people, helping them to develop their critical thinking skills as well as their writing.
2012-13

What's On

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
16 Feb 2022
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Join award-winning TV presenters Maddie Moate & Greg Foot (Maddie’s Do You Know?, Blue Peter, Let’s Go Live) for a twilight adventure!

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
18 Feb 2022
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Learn more about the sky at night. Experiment with moving models, and create your own orrery or map of a planet.

 

Museum of Cambridge
15 Feb 2022
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Join the Museum of Cambridge after hours, and explore the Museum in a different light...

Museum of Cambridge
17 Feb 2022
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Join the Museum of Cambridge after hours, and explore the Museum in a different light...

The Fitzwilliam Museum
15 Mar 2022
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One of the most influential artists of our time, David Hockney (b.1937) takes over Cambridge this spring and summer with an exhibition across The Fitzwilliam Museum and The Heong Gallery, Downing College.

The Polar Museum
07 Mar 2022
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Join the Polar Museum team for a Touch Tour and explore a range of objects from polar history.

15 Mar 2022
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Join exhibition curators Martin Gayford, Martin Kemp and Jane Munro for an introduction to Hockney's Eye, an exhibition exploring David Hockney’s interactions with artists of the past and with technologies of viewing, both past and present.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
16 Mar 2022
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Join art historian Dr Donal Cooper and exhibition curator Martin Kemp for an in-person talk in the Fitzwilliam Musm’s Italian renaissance gallery exploring Hockney's art in relation to Renaissance perspective, 3D modeling and the art of Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
18 Mar 2022
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MUSE, our series of practical art workshops for adults, is returning to the Museum in person! Take inspiration from portraits displayed as part of Hockney’s Eye.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
15 Mar 2022
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Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
13 Mar 2022
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Pasties and pigmies: the plant galls and leaf-miners of Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Webinar Booking: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kOHssm6QRy2OEJohx2LURQ

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
08 May 2022
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Plant memory: form and function in a decentralised ‘brain’

 

Webinar Booking: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rPdeNlfQRZOOPsia5-a8uw

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
10 Jul 2022
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Capturing lost wheat genetic diversity

 

Webinar Booking: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_psr1SRmgRhOkEQIK5vU9zw

The Fitzwilliam Museum
09 Mar 2022
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This online talk will position Peter Apian and his book production within its early modern scientific milieu, the long intellectual history from which it emerged, as well as more recent innovations in printing and the production of paper tools.

Kettle's Yard
29 Mar 2022
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Join Cambridge-based architect Rolfe Kentish for this online talk which explores the restoration of the historic North-lit Anchor Studio in Newlyn, Cornwall.

Museum of Zoology
08 Mar 2022
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Join us as we chat to a panel of female scientists to celebrate International Women's Day 2022. Have your questions ready!

Museum of Zoology
15 Mar 2022

Exhibition - 'Butterflies Through Time' from 15 March to 18 Sept 2022

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
11 Feb 2022

This exhibition presents artist John Kelly’s field explorations on two very contrasting islands

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
14 Feb 2022

Introducing the newly discovered fossil of Arthropleura, the largest arthropod to have ever lived.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
23 Mar 2022
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Join the exhibition curators for a unique in-person introductory tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum portion of Hockney's Eye, an exhibition exploring David Hockney’s interactions with artists of the past and with technologies of viewing, both past and present.

Museum of Classical Archaeology
01 Mar 2022

1-7 March is Facial Palsy Awareness Week

Museum of Classical Archaeology
06 Apr 2022
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Bring the whole family to the museum for an afternoon of fun with our casts, trails and plasticine. 

The Polar Museum
18 Mar 2022
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Visit this special display as part of your free entry to the Polar Museum.

The Polar Museum
04 Apr 2022
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Join us at the Polar Museum with artist Alice White, to explore where science and art collide and discover how the spirit of exploration is shared by artists and scientists alike.

Museum of Zoology
03 Apr 2022
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Join our volunteer guides as they share their personal selection of fascinating stories about gender and sex in the animal world at the Museum of Zoology.

Tours start on April 3rd and run across the summer. 

Museum of Zoology
07 Apr 2022
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Join us for an evening of board games in the Museum! Grab a drink and try and beat your opponents playing a series of animal themed games amongst the Museum's skeletons. 

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
08 Apr 2022
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It's millipede madness at the Sedgwick Museum this Easter.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
14 Apr 2022
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It's millipede madness at the Sedgwick Museum this Easter

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
10 Apr 2022
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Botanical poetry readings in the Botanic Garden

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
10 Apr 2022
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In the Garden classroom or online (book onto webinar via CUBG website)

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
23 Apr 2022
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Come and visit the Earth Clinic on Saturday 23rd April at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. 

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
31 Mar 2022
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An opportunity to hear artist John Kelly discuss his Two Islands exhibition, currently showing at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, in conversation with Museum Director Liz Hide

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
02 Apr 2022
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Join Dr Daniel Field for a talk on the avian fossil record and the origin of modern bird diversity.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
02 Apr 2022
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Discover more about the records that scientists leave behind, what they tell us about their work and life, and how they can be used for historical research.

The Polar Museum
23 May 2022
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Join us for our new wellbeing and making workshops for adults at the Polar Museum! Meet and Make at the Museum sessions are all about giving you a supportive and social space to be creative.

04 May 2022
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Join us online as expert Matt Hayes talks about butterflies past and present. 

The Polar Museum
30 Aug 2022
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Join us for our new wellbeing and making workshops for adults at the Polar Museum! Meet and Make at the Museum sessions are all about giving you a supportive and social space to be creative.

Museum of Zoology
13 May 2022
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From Darwin to Dodos: Join us for a guided tour of the Museum

Museum of Zoology
10 Jun 2022
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From Darwin to Dodos: Join us for a guided tour of the Museum