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 Cambridge
22 Aug 2022
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Museum of Zoology
04 Aug 2022
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Meet our butterfly explorers past and present and find out more about these amazing animals with trails, hands-on activities and makes in the Museum.

Museum of Zoology
12 Aug 2022
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Explore the animals of Africa with stories and play for under 5s.

Museum of Classical Archaeology
03 Jun 2022
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See the classical world through the eyes of the Danish art collective Guirlanden.

28 Jul 2022
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Get inspired by the Museum's Lego exhibition and make your own collage townscape.

04 Aug 2022
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A tie-dye craft session for families.

18 Aug 2022
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Use tools and objects to create texture and shape in the family clay workshop.

25 Aug 2022
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Discover how watercolour pens can be used to create some amazing effects. 

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
03 Aug 2022
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Immerse yourself in the world of colour and create your very own paper stained glass window.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
10 Aug 2022
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Immerse yourself in the world of colour and weave your own paper creation.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
17 Aug 2022
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Join us to uncover the meanings of colour in African cloth.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
24 Aug 2022
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Immerse yourself in the world of colour and create your own spinning colour wheel.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
17 Aug 2022
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Come along and drop-in to this workshop at the Botanic Garden to make your own flower crown.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
24 Aug 2022
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Come along to this activity at the Botanic Garden and make your own lavender bag to take home with you.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
04 Aug 2022
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Hands on demonstrations exploring the mysteries of magnetism and the causes of earthquakes

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
18 Aug 2022
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Hands on demonstrations exploring the mysteries of magnetism and the causes of earthquakes

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
06 Aug 2022
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Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
12 Aug 2022
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Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
12 Aug 2022
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Kettle's Yard
07 Aug 2022
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A Studio Sunday Special for families with a child about to start school. Siblings welcome!

Kettle's Yard
12 Aug 2022
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Join us in the galleries for an informal exhibition tour of Howardena Pindell: A New Language with writer Jamie Danis.

FREE, come along

Kettle's Yard
26 Jul 2022
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Early Years Studio is a fun, creative, immersive experience for children aged 0-4. 

Kettle's Yard
13 Aug 2022
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Join us in the Clore Learning Studio for the launch of CoLAB

FREE, everyone welcome, drop-in

Kettle's Yard
20 Aug 2022
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Artist Kaitlin Ferguson has transformed the Clore Learning Studio into a creative research lab and would love for you to join her. You will learn new art techniques and skills and explore new ways of creative thinking in a safe and supported space.

Kettle's Yard
23 Aug 2022
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Join artist Kaitlin Ferguson in the Clore Learning Studio for a free, interactive workshop about the relationship between art, technology, and waste.

Kettle's Yard
26 Aug 2022
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Artist Kaitlin Ferguson has transformed the Clore Learning Studio into a creative research lab and would love for you to join her. You will learn new art techniques and skills and explore new ways of creative thinking in a safe and supported space.

Kettle's Yard
27 Aug 2022
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Artist Kaitlin Ferguson is mid-way through her CoLAB residency. Drop in and see how things are progressing, what thoughts and reflections other visitors to CoLAB have shared and what has been created so far.

Kettle's Yard
30 Aug 2022
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Join artist Kaitlin Ferguson in the Clore Learning Studio for a free, interactive workshop all about how art and technology work together.

Kettle's Yard
21 Aug 2022
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Join us in our Clore Learning Studio for a free, practical art making workshop exploring ideas about accessibility and academic research in the city.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
19 Oct 2022
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Join curator Richard Kelleher for an exclusive introduction to the exhibition Defaced!, an exploration of the fascinating yet conflictive relationship between money, authority, and protest.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
02 Nov 2022
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Hilary Powell, artist and contributor to the Defaced! exhibition, talks about her artistic practice: making visible visceral hidden stories and structures, combining material and meaning in collective acts of salvage and experimentation. Her work plays with ideas of value - who, what and where society overlooks, and why.

 

The Fitzwilliam Museum
02 Nov 2022
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Join us for an exciting discussion about the relationship between defacement and protest, with a fantastic panel: exhibition curator Richard Kelleher; British Museum curator Tom Hockenhull; collector Tim Millet; and artists Paula Stevens Hoare and artist Hilary Powell. This event is part of the exhibition Defaced!

The Fitzwilliam Museum
10 Nov 2022
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Join curator Richard Kelleher on an exclusive tour of Defaced! Money, Power, Conflict, where you will explore some of the objects and artists that have told stories of political struggles, justice, and protest for the last 200 years.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
09 Nov 2022
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Join us for an in depth look at the illuminated manuscripts on display in the Rothschild Gallery this autumn. All from medieval Britain, they tell the story of 500 years of creativity and innovation, revealed by the scientific and historical research of our MINIARE team.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
30 Nov 2022
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Enjoy the Fitz after hours with drop-in creative workshops, live performances, and drinks.

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

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

Wisbech and Fenland Museum
25 Aug 2022
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Make your own dinosaur habitat in a jar

The Fitzwilliam Museum
16 Nov 2022
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Join curator Richard Kelleher on a tour of Defaced! Money, Power, Conflict, where he will share his exclusive highlights from the exhibition.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
05 Nov 2022
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Join Stu Hanna in this exciting song writing course (4 sessions) inspired by our new exhibition Defaced! Money, Conflict, Protest.