Category Archives for Projects

Seeing With Their Eyes A Poetic Reflection on the 2025 ‘From Collections to Connections’ NatSCA Conference Presentation

Written by Pauline Rutter – Independent Archival Artist, Community and Organisation Poet.

These words look out from the page with eyes I have borrowed. Eyes not shaped for vision through the specific disciplinary scientific lens. Eyes that strain to see beyond past centuries of debate on what, of all origins, is knowable and what is not. With these original eyes, would ways of seeing allow the light to travel outwards resisting funnelled perspectives and interpretations descended from imperialistic systems of Enlightenment science, colonial ideologies and narratives? In this context my eyes had opened up unevolved or re-evolved with lepidopteran vision, though not removed from all that had been taught to be seen. New eyes with sight of intensified colour that amplified nature’s interconnecting patterns, only visible outside the spectrum of the everyday, the expected, the predetermined. 

What use is butterfly sight that transforms configured objects and living matter with or without full binominal species names, into fragments like those of the intertwined and metamorphosed elements in ritualistic rapture spreading out across a Wangechi Mutu collage? 

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Crispy, Brown and Far Too Delicate – Are Herbarium Specimens Just Too Difficult to Use?

Written by Clare Brown, Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Taking a walk through a forest, running through fields of wheat or even just gazing at trees, all a far-cry from dealing with the sheets of pressed, long-dead dried plants you come across in museum collections. Good taxidermy at least looks like the original animal.

Other problems with plant specimens include their need for low light, extremely careful handling and, occasionally, mercuric chloride. Despite being phenomenally important to researchers, for everything from tracking climate change to curing cancer, plant collections are not at the top of many people’s lists when it comes to exhibitions, events and workshops.

So, what public-facing engagement can you do with herbarium specimens? Here I’ve looked at a few great case studies where creative collections are delivering brilliant botany… Continue reading →

Moving a ‘Monster’ – the Ups and Downs of Exhibiting a Japanese Spider Crab

Written by Hannah Clarke – Assistant Curator (Collections Access), University of Aberdeen.

In May this year, I was given the slightly terrifying task of overseeing the removal and transportation of Aberdeen University’s much-loved Japanese Spider Crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) specimen. The crab, who is usually proudly displayed in the foyer of the University’s Zoology Building, had been requested for loan by Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, for their exciting new exhibition ‘Monsters of the Deep.’

The crab had previously been removed during renovation work in 2019, without hiccup, so recalling how ‘straightforward’ this had been last time, I was confident that we could get the crab removed, cleaned, packed, and ready for transport in just under three days.

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How to Foster Empathy with Endangered Animals: Developing a Creative Writing and Drawing Workshop Toolkit

Written by Dr Christina Thatcher, Lecturer in Creative Writing & Dr Lisa El Refaie, Reader in Language and Communication, Cardiff University.

With biodiversity declining at an alarming rate, we need to find ways of encouraging people to care about all endangered animal species, not just the ones with the most obvious appeal, such as pandas and polar bears, for example. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s ‘Red List of Threatened Species’, 27% of mammals are threatened with extinction, but so are 44% of reef corals, 41% of amphibians, 37% of sharks and rays, 21% of reptiles, and 12% of birds.

In 2023, we—Dr Christina Thatcher and Dr Lisa El Refaie from Cardiff University—met and discovered our shared interest in the expressive arts, metaphor, empathy and nature. We then designed a project which aimed to use the power of creativity to increase public awareness of, and empathy for, endangered animals, focusing on species that have few or no obvious human-like features. The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account and ran from November 2023 until the autumn 2024, in collaboration with Natural History curators at the National Museum Cardiff. Continue reading →

A Refresher Course on Fluid Specimen Conservation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark

Written by Anastasia van Gaver (Conservator) & Bethany Palumbo (Head of Conservation) Natural History Museum Denmark).

Workshop participants and Julian Carter

As conservators, it’s essential we keep up to date with developments in the techniques used in specimen treatments. With hundreds of fluid-preserved specimens to make and conserve for the new exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, we sought the best in the field to give us a refresher course. Esteemed expert Julian Carter arrived fresh off the plane from Cardiff and over 3 days we explored different techniques for preserving and mounting specimens and well as discussing the unique challenges we face when conserving these invaluable scientific resources.

Example of three fluid specimens prepared by the conservation team for the new Natural History Museum of Denmark

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