The University of Cambridge Museums was founded in 2012, when we received Arts Council England funding to allow our Museums and Garden to work collaboratively as a group. Since then, we’ve undertaken projects of all shapes and sizes, and collaborated with a huge variety of organisations. Find out more about our past ventures. 

Power and Memory (2022-24)
As part of an ongoing shared inquiry into the Legacies of Empire and Enslavement, we hosted a programme of events, displays, workshops, and community-led discussions confronting Cambridge’s colonial story. Who has the power to choose which stories we remember and tell? What can museum collections reveal about the histories of empire? This programme was complimented by internal discussions and training with our staff and volunteers. 
Read more on the Power & Memory web page. 

Museum Remix (2018-20)
In this experiment in museum storytelling, we worked with our communities through online and in-person two-day intensive creative workshops to explore how museums can tell different stories about our collections. 
Read more on the Museum Remix web page.

Operation Survival and Cambridge Codebreakers: The Last Secret (2017-19)
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:

Cam Lates (2016-19) 
Cam Lates was our series of events for young people and adults, offering a chance to experience our Museums and Garden in a different way after-hours. Events ranged from escape rooms, and live comedy at the Polar Museum and live music at the Museum of Zoology to partnering with Cambridge School of Visual Arts (CSVPA) on a Fashion Late at the Fitzwilliam to saucy tours at the Museum of Classical Archaeology. Read more on our Collections in Action blog:

India Unboxed (2017-2018)
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 more about India Unboxed.

The Museum as Method (2016)
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. 
Read more on the CRASSH website.

Artist in Residence, North West Cambridge Development (2014-16) 
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.

Curating Cambridge (2014)
Curating Cambridge: our city, our stories, our stuff was a collaborative arts and cultural season which took place over October and November 2014.

Discoveries: Art, Science and Exploration (2014)
Discoveries was the first major show to bring together the fascinating collections from all eight University of Cambridge Museums. The exhibition took place at London's Two Temple Place and the Fitzwilliam Museum. 
Read more on the Two Temple Place website.

House Guests (2013)
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.

Thresholds (2012-13)
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.