A poem inspired by a visit to the Manchester Museum

Writing a poem seems to be a mystery for many people, and it is indeed an act of creativity by those who are able to observe the world within or around them and to perceive it in a new way. A poem can be about anything, from old love memories to a crawling bug; it is about capturing a feeling that you have experienced. However, it’s hard to know where you should start. Helen Clare, a freelance writer and poet from Manchester, presents a possible approach to how to write a poem on the basis of, say, a visit to the Manchester Museum. If you want to know how to write a poem, this story is for you.

Below you can listen to the poem narrated and presented by Helen Clare. The printed text of the poem can be found here.

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A new exhibition ‘All Other Things Being Equal’ is just opened!

A new photographic exhibition devoted to complex interrelations of humans and neotropical nature has been opened on the 3rd floor of the Manchester Museum. A brief Summary of the exhibition is given below:

The Ecuadorian Amazon is one of the most endangered regions of our planet. Many people want to protect the biodiversity that remains, but the reality on the ground is a complex dilemma. Economic necessity means that trees are valued for their timber more than for their crucial role in the ecosystem. Scientist and photographer Johan Oldekop, who was originally trained as a biologist at the University of Manchester (UK), studied the complex interaction between social and conservation issues in Ecuador during 2006-2011. As a scientist, Johan is interested in the socio-economic factors and land-use in indigenous Kichwa communities and their effect on the biodiversity of Ecuadorian Amazon. This exhibition presents his findings through his own stunning photographs combined with specimens from the Manchester Museum’s entomology and botany collections.

The exhibition will be opened until the beginning of June, 2013. Everyone is welcome!

Here are a few shots taken just after the opening of this exhibition.

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Our visitors – Stuck! An Art Project

Dr Dmitri Logunov of Manchester Museum has been working closely with Tracy Hurst, a Visual Arts student at Salford University. She is creating a piece of artwork focussing on self portraits. However, these are not paintings or drawings.

Tracy invites people, curators, artists, students and complete strangers to chew a piece of bubbly gum. She  takes the chewed gum and creates stone plaster versions. Each piece of sculpture is classified using the three label system employed by entomologists. The pieces are then pinned into a wooden collectors case.

Each specimen has a latin name created for them, in Dr Dmitri Logunov’s case it is, ‘dimitri-vir ingenious de cimex,’ his Accession Lot Number is, F3313, the locality is ‘Manchester Museum’ and the habitat is classed as ‘Naphthalene’.

The specimen taken from Tracy's Tutor at Salford University

The  work is still in progress but will be available to be viewed by the public at Salford University from 3rd June 2010.

Dmitri is unwrapping the gum.

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