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 
22 Jul 2021
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Explore how the Georgians’ love of landscape minimalism mirrored the political, intellectual and stylistic advances of the age

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
23 Jul 2021
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Discover how paints and inks can be made using forgotten craftsmens' ideas and techniques

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
02 Sep 2021
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A fun and relaxed course over three morning sessions to help you design or re-think your own garden

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
07 Sep 2021
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This two-day in-person course provides the opportunity to create a beautiful portrait of late summer blooms

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
16 Sep 2021
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Join artist and illustrator Karin Eklund on this five part evening course exploring fun and joyful ways of drawing plants and nature

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
17 Sep 2021
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Spend a morning exploring the lily in paintings, proverbs and poetry, in literature and gardens

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
22 Sep 2021
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Drawing inspiration from landscapes in the Botanic Garden, we will adapt a sketch or photograph and transfer your image for a linocut.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
25 Sep 2021
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Try something new with this perfect sized project, or create a lovely Christmas gift

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
28 Sep 2021
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Explore the history and ecology of Breckland, and learn about its remarkable flora

Museum of Classical Archaeology
18 Jun 2021

An exhibition of contemporary art by James Epps informed by the use of pattern and colour in ancient Greece and Rome

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
23 Jul 2021
Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
10 Jul 2021
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Come & celebrate with us!

Norris Museum
02 Aug 2021
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A bookable workshop where you can design and make your own clay tile.

Norris Museum
16 Aug 2021
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A bookable workshop where you can design and make your own clay tile.

Norris Museum
11 Aug 2021
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A sensory play activity for under fives

Norris Museum
25 Aug 2021
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Join storyteller Marion Leper for stories based on the world around us.

The National Horseracing Museum
24 Jul 2021
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Have you ever wondered how you make and fit a horseshoe? Come and see farrier Gavin Moody's shoeing demonstration at the museum.

Kettle's Yard
20 Jul 2021
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Join us for a special live event to launch our new exhibition UNTITLED: Art on the conditions of our timeCommissioned by Kettle’s Yard, artist Barby Asante’s new performance To Make Love is to Create Ourselves Over and Over Again: A Love Poem for Audre will be live streamed online from the Kettle’s Yard House.

Kettle's Yard
15 Sep 2021
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Join Untitled artist Harold Offeh who will be discussing his new film Down at the Twilight Zone with independent curator, writer and researcher Karen Alexander in this online in conversation. The film is available to watch on our website for the duration of the exhibition.

Kettle's Yard
23 Sep 2021
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Join Untitled artists Barby Asante, Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Phoebe Boswell and Kimathi Donkor for an online panel discussion around the key conditions of our time that the artists are looking at right now. The discussion will be chaired by exhibition curator Paul Goodwin.

Kettle's Yard
04 Jun 2021
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Empathy Objects is a new display of a series of artworks which have been created by our Open House artist in residence 2020/21, Enni-Kukka Tuomala, working with local community groups and residents of North Cambridge. The Empathy Objects will be on display around North Cambridge and the Kettle’s Yard House.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
26 Aug 2021

How to find fossils in flint gravel. Did you know flint has a story to tell of 90 million years from a warm sea to the last ice age?

Centre for Computing History
30 Jul 2021
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Enjoy this 30-minute museum tour and explore the history of video games.

Centre for Computing History
28 Jul 2021
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Join this Scratch workshop to recreate Atari's 1980 arcade game Missile Command.

Centre for Computing History
04 Aug 2021
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Join this workshop to learn some fundamentals of coding before making your own game. 

Centre for Computing History
05 Aug 2021
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Learn how to build and program with the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Centre for Computing History
05 Aug 2021
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Come and find out how a computer can be programmed by a strip of paper, and learn about the history of computers and how they have radically transformed our lives.  

Centre for Computing History
06 Aug 2021
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Come down to the Centre for Computing History to test your mettle on Mario Kart 8.

Centre for Computing History
07 Aug 2021
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Join this Scratch workshop to recreate Atari's 1980 arcade game Missile Command.

Centre for Computing History
11 Aug 2021
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A day-long event of friendly competition with other young game designers.

Centre for Computing History
12 Aug 2021
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Create your own personal fitness gadget at this coding workshop.

Centre for Computing History
14 Aug 2021
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Python is everywhere! Join this workshop to learn the fundamentals of coding before making a game.  

Centre for Computing History
19 Aug 2021
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Discover the extraordinary advances made in technology over 50 years of computing history.

Centre for Computing History
18 Aug 2021
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Learn how to develop your own interactive story using the TWINE scripting tool.

Centre for Computing History
20 Aug 2021
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Centre for Computing History
27 Aug 2021
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Visit the Centre for Computing History and test your mettle on Mario Kart 8 on the WiiU.

Saffron Walden Museum
29 Jul 2021
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Join Saffron Walden Museum in their grounds near the newly opened Walden Castle for some fun crafting activities.

Saffron Walden Museum
05 Aug 2021
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Join Saffron Walden Museum in their grounds near the newly opened Walden Castle for some fun crafting activities. 

Saffron Walden Museum
12 Aug 2021
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Join Saffron Walden Museum in their grounds near the newly opened Walden Castle for some fun crafting activities. 

Saffron Walden Museum
19 Aug 2021
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Join Saffron Walden Museum in their grounds near the newly opened Walden Castle for some fun crafting activities.