Hi all
Wellcome Collection are the latest institution to realise how awesome and popular natural history is - their latest big exhibition: Making Nature: How we see animals<https://wellcomecollection.org/MakingNature> opens today. It explores the human relationship with other animals through four themes: ordering, displaying, observing and making nature. The display section takes an honest look at natural history museums - motivations, biases and practices among them. I think it's pretty darn good (but I'm rather biased as I was the NH consultant on the project), and I think it's a good thing that Wellcome have covered this topic.
It looks critically at practices and drivers behind natural history systems in a way that I don't think we could have done from "inside" the sector. I thoroughly recommend it.
On the back of the exhibition, I was asked to write an article for The Conversation, in it I explain how natural history is inherently unnatural. Do take a look: https://theconversation.com/the-absurdity-of-natural-history-or-why-humans-are-fish-69384
All the best
Jack
Manager
Grant Museum of Zoology
UCL Culture
Rockefeller Building
University College London
21 University Street
London WC1E 6DE
ucl.ac.uk/culture<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture>
ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/zoology>
020 3108 2052 (or 52052 from within UCL)
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twitter.com/JackDAshby <http://twitter.com/JackDAshby>
twitter.com/GrantMuseum <http://twitter.com/GrantMuseum>
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