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

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

Museum of Zoology
13 May 2022
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Calling all 2-5 year olds! Discover the amazing world of birds with stories and play!

The Fitzwilliam Museum
08 Jun 2022
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This talk offers a reconsideration of Modernism and Japanism: traditionally associated with male homosociality, expertise, intellectual authority and cultural power, this counternarrative shows how women artists, in particular queer identified women artists, formulated their own subjective, amateur, affective response to Japanese work, seeing it as a charged site through which to explore desire, embodiment, subjectivity, difference, intimacy, creativity and freedom.

Museum of Zoology
21 Jun 2022
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Join us online LIVE for an evening of talks & activities from the Museum

Museum of Zoology
22 Jun 2022
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Join us LIVE from the Cambridge University Botanic Garden 

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
24 Jun 2022

It's BioBlitz 2022! Book onto one of many wildlife or craft activities at the Botanic Garden!

Museum of Zoology
31 May 2022
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Animal Faces in Wild Spaces! Join us as we explore the wildlife of town and countryside with this craft event.

Museum of Zoology
21 May 2022

Join our volunteer guides as they share their personal selection of fascinating stories around gender & sex in the animal world

Museum of Zoology
10 Jun 2022
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Calling all 2-5 year olds! Join us at the Museum for stories & play.

Museum of Zoology
08 Jul 2022
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Calling all 2-5 year olds! Join us at the Museum for stories & play!

The Polar Museum
23 Jul 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
30 Jul 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
06 Aug 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
13 Aug 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
20 Aug 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
27 Aug 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Polar Museum
03 Sep 2022
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Try out our pop-up activity station bursting with different activities, games and books to discover.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
29 Jun 2022
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Clive Oppenheimer, Professor of Volcanology and contributor to True to Nature, will share his exploration of volcanoes around the world and give us insights into how far volcanologists have come in understanding how volcanoes work, and how their eruptions have acted to change history.

Cambridge Museum of Technology
29 Jul 2022
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Join this fun craft session and turn old food packaging into art

Kettle's Yard
04 Jul 2022
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Join us to celebrate the opening of our next exhibition Howardena Pindell: A New Language at Kettle's Yard.

Saffron Walden Museum
03 Aug 2022
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Join in a range of seaside-themed crafts at Saffron Walden Museum.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
12 Aug 2022
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Make yourself a Mary Anning inspired ammonite sun catcher

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
19 Aug 2022
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Come along to the Sedgwick Museum and make your very own Mary Anning inspired paper skeletons.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
26 Aug 2022
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Join Geologise Theatre as they take you on a musical journey back in time to meet Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter Extraordinaire.

Saffron Walden Museum
10 Aug 2022
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Join in a range of seaside-themed crafts at Saffron Walden Museum

Saffron Walden Museum
17 Aug 2022
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Join in a range of nature-themed crafts and other activities at Saffron Walden Museum.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
05 Aug 2022
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Join artist Kaitlin Ferguson and make your own geology zine inspired by Mary Anning's fossils.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
08 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings. 

Saffron Walden Museum
24 Aug 2022
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Join in a range of town-themed crafts at Saffron Walden Museum.

Saffron Walden Museum
31 Aug 2022
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Join in a range of harvest-themed crafts at Saffron Walden Museum

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
02 Jul 2022

Come and see a scale model of the statue of 19th Century palaeontologist Mary Anning, which was recently unveiled in her hometown of Lyme Regis

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
01 Jun 2022

Dutch Heritage student Alannah Ligthart shares her experiences during her Erasmus placement at the Sedgwick Museum in this co-created temporary display.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
10 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings. 

Stained Glass Museum
27 Jul 2022
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Join this session and make your own stained glass inspired animal suncatcher.

Stained Glass Museum
27 Jul 2022
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Join this session and make your own stained glass inspired animal suncatcher.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
11 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings. 

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
12 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings. 

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
15 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings. 

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
16 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
17 Aug 2022
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Find out about botanical artists Carolina and Arnold Dodel-Port and their correspondence with Darwin. Use microscopes to explore plants and create your own botanical drawings.