We offer a range of public activities throughout the year. Our temporary exhibitions include displays of current research, work by artists, and our community cabinet displays co-curated by visitors, students and community groups.
Events and Activities
Lithic Entanglements: Lunchtime Conversation
1-2pm on Thursday 12 September
Free, drop-in
Drop in and meet artist Rona Lee and curator Kath Wood of Kath and Company for a relaxed lunchtime conversation about Lithic Entanglements, Lee’s video and photo collage artwork. Made with reference to the Museum’s archives, Lee's powerful intervention within our mineral displays disrupts the ways in which the specimens are normally viewed, situating them within a social and environmental context.
Staff Favourites Tours
Mondays (2nd - 30th September), 1pm - 1.30pm
Free, drop-in
Come and be inspired by the displays and objects that our staff love.
Giant deer, fossil fish teeth, the rocks that built Cambridge... just some of the specimens on display that our staff can't wait to discuss with you. Beware, their enthusiasm is infectious!
Drop into our shop to book your free place on the tour.
We also have regular fossil handling activities on Saturdays and in school holidays, please do phone (01223 333456) to check what's on when you plan to visit.
Exhibitions
Breaking New Ground: Celebrating Past, Present and Future Women Earth Scientists at the University of Cambridge
Join us in celebrating women Earth scientists in this temporary display, co-curated by two Earth Sciences students.
24th August 2024 - 5th September 2025
Free, drop-in
How many women Earth scientists can you name? With a focus on the University of Cambridge, Breaking New Ground is a celebration of women in Earth Sciences.
The display includes trailblazing, but historically overlooked early Earth scientists, perspectives from women who are currently researching, teaching, working or studying in the university's Department of Earth Sciences, and two local young people who share their passion for Geology.
This exhibition was co-curated by two Earth Sciences students at the university.
Rona Lee: Lithic Entanglements
Artist Dr Rona Lee has created two new works, informed by research in the Sedgwick Museum’s archives. These installations challenge the conventional way minerals are displayed in the Museum.
14th June 2024 - 6th July 2024
Now extended until 14th September 2024
Free, drop-in
'Recent understandings of the impact of human activity on the systems of the planet have highlighted the ways in which nature and humans are deeply entangled, calling the often extractive character of our relationship to the Earth into question'.
Taking these ideas as her starting point, artist Dr Rona Lee has created two new works, informed by research in the Sedgwick Museum’s archives and installed in the Whewell Mineral Gallery, that challenge the ways in which we normally view the items displayed there.
A Modern Lapidary a video work, back projected through one of the free-standing cases, animates mid-century scientific photographs of minerals, altering our perception of the samples within as ‘dead' matter. Elsewhere, in An Extractive Index, digitally collaged photographs of geological field trips are laminated on to the glass, inviting reflection on the social and environmental relationships which these reveal.
Current exhibitions
All current exhibitions at the Sedgwick Museum, please click on each image for more information.
Online Exhibitions
Our online exhibitions are currently undergoing maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience.
