Museum Treasures Take A Cultural Tour

M@
By M@ Last edited 158 months ago
Museum Treasures Take A Cultural Tour

In a curatorial version of Come Dine With Me, five of London's cultural institutions will babysit artifacts from each other's collections over the coming months.

The initiative, known as 'First Time Out' involves the Horniman Museum, Kew Gardens, Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Wellcome Collection.

Each place will select one previously reclusive item from its stores, display it for six weeks, then pass it on to the next institution for the same period. With every move, each artifact will get a new label, offering different interpretations. Just the kind of initiative we were talking about earlier on.

The itinerant eclectica include an Easter Island 'dance paddle' (Horniman), the head parts of a giant lemur (NHM), painted Japanese panels (Kew), selection of toys (Science Museum) and, from the Wellcome,  Livingstone's Medicine Chest (David, we presume; nothing to do with Ken).

The obscure, storeroom items begin their adventure tomorrow, and will be returned to their rightful owners in August. Anyone else reminded of Spitting Image's 'Some of our Puppets are Missing'?

Last Updated 19 January 2011