Special events are listed below, followed by exhibitions, displays then adult courses.
Chinese trail around RAMM
31 January to 1 March, free, drop-in
Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Find Chinese objects in RAMM. A trail for all ages. Pick up from Garden Reception or download. Part of RAMM’s activities celebrating the Chinese New Year: the year of the Goat.
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Harry’s Restaurant, Longbrook Street, Exeter EX4 6AP
Follow in the footsteps of celebrated Exeter-based Victorian sculptor and wood carver with Lesley Strong. The walk includes a visit to Harry Hems’ workshop. Part of the busy programme of events linked to RAMM’s major exhibition Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic.
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
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Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Join a 60-minute tour of RAMM’s permanent collection.
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.All tours of RAMM’s permanent collection and changing art exhibitions are available for private group bookings on mutually agreed dates from E ramm.extra@exeter.gov.uk or T 01392 265984.
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Gallery 20, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
A visit to Faces of Conflict is relevant to the aims of the new national curriculum KS 3 Art & Design programmes of study and it will also be of interest to GCSE students working on ‘medicine through time’ and on the history of the First World War. Advance booking essential.
Linked to the exhibition Faces of Conflict: The impact of the First World War on art and facial reconstructive surgery, 17 January to 5 April 2015.
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Exeter Cathedral and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery Tour parts of Exeter Cathedral including the mason’s yard plus RAMM’s Gothic architecture with Cathedral Archaeologist John Allan and RAMM’s Curator of Art John Madin.
Part of the busy programme of events linked to RAMM’s major exhibition Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic. Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
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Gallery 5, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Based on Dartmoor, Peter Randall-Page is one of Britain’s foremost artists. During the last 30 years his sculpture, drawings and prints inspired by natural forms have been exhibited widely both in the UK and abroad, including a solo show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010.
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
Friends of Exeter Museums & Art Gallery, registered charity no. 306649. The Friends support the museum with financial help towards acquisitions and conservation. W www.exeter.gov.uk/friends, E friends@exeter.gov.uk.
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Exeter Picture House, 51 Bartholomew Street West, Exeter EX4 3AJ
Directed by Jean Cocteau La Belle et la Bete is the second of three famous Gothic films accompanied by introductory talks to answer those questions you always wanted to know about the Gothic but never dared ask.....
Tickets from Exeter Picture House, http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Exeter_Picturehouse.
Organised by the University of Exeter and Exeter Picture House as part of the busy programme of events linked to RAMM’s major exhibition Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic.
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Gallery 20, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
A tour of the exhibition Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic with RAMM curators John Madin (Art) and Tom Cadbury (Antiquities).
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.
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Courtyard, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Students from the University of Exeter perform traditional dances and music in traditional costumes. Part of RAMM’s activities celebrating the Chinese New Year: the year of the Goat.
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Courtyard and Gallery 5, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Dance, music and theatre jostle uncontrollably for your attention. The Hot Tin Roofs will play live. Mae West meets Little Richard in a raucous blend of swing, shake and rhythm and blues. The Lindy Hoppers are on-hand with dance lessons and Nuts and Volts theatre company will be in residence researching the history of romance. As if that wasn’t enough there will be ElectroSwing DJs, Alfie’s Black Cab Photobooth and a vintage dressing up theme.
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.or at www.undergroundtickets.net.
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Exeter Picture House, 51 Bartholomew Street West, Exeter EX4 3AJ
Directed by Jack Clayton The Innocents is the last of three famous Gothic films accompanied by introductory talks to answer those questions you always wanted to know about the Gothic but never dared ask.....
Tickets from Exeter Picture House, http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Exeter_Picturehouse/
Organised by the University of Exeter and Exeter Picture House as part of the busy programme of events linked to RAMM’s major exhibition Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic.
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Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 February, 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1.30 to 3.30pm, drop-in, £2.50 per child adults free
Meeting Room A, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
The ‘Age of Chivalry’ was a hugely popular subject for Victorian artists and writers. This activity complements RAMM’s Art & Soul exhibition and invites everyone to join in and help create an animation of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
Adults are expected to stay with their children while they participate and must remain with them if they are under 8 years of age. Some activities are messy so please wear clothes that can get dirty. Aprons will be provided. Tickets can be purchased from the Garden reception.
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Meeting Room A, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
A chance for under-fives to take a journey of discovery and make collections-inspired creations. Parents, grandparents and carers can enjoy quality time with their little ones in a friendly, social environment. Book in advance through The Creation Station T 0844 824 4534, M 07925 653942, E erinblake@thecreationstation.co.uk.
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Meeting Room A, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
A chance for under-fives to take a journey of discovery and make collections-inspired creations. Parents, grandparents and carers can enjoy quality time with their little ones in a friendly, social environment. Book in advance through The Creation Station T 0844 824 4534, M 07925 653942, E erinblake@thecreationstation.co.uk.
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Through the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Stunning Chinese dragon dancers will snarl and drum their way past the building. This event will be cancelled in the event of bad weather. Part of RAMM’s activities celebrating the Chinese New Year: the year of the Goat.
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Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Join a 60-minute tour of RAMM’s permanent collection.
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm.All tours of RAMM’s permanent collection and changing art exhibitions are available for private group bookings on mutually agreed dates from E ramm.extra@exeter.gov.uk or T 01392 265984.
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In Fine Feather gallery, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Meet local bird experts from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Discover underwater wonders around Devon’s shores, learn how bees are saving the UK millions of pounds a year, which piece of clothing inspired the RSPB’s origins and how everything from tigers to sparrows are being protected by local conservationists.
Wildlife Tours - 11am and 2pm
Join them for a 20 to 30 minute walk around the museum to see the wildlife on display.
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Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
Enjoy a complimentary glass of Prosecco from the bar. Meet new people while exploring the museum after dark. Hear the haunting sound of real soul numbers with live band The Pookas. There’s no need to feel shy – our ice breaker activity will get everyone tweeting and talking. We don’t discriminate – couples are also welcome. Even if you don’t meet the love of your life, you will certainly have a fantastic evening out!
Tickets are available online or from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum reception in person or by phone using a credit or debit card on 01392 265858 during opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm or at www.undergroundtickets.net.
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17 January to 5 April
Gallery 20, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
This exhibition brings together collections of historic surgical instruments, the works of artists such as Otto Dix and Wyndham Lewis and contemporary artworks, some commissioned for this exhibition.
The unprecedented numbers of facial injuries in 1914-18 led to both innovations in surgical practice and to a permanently changed understanding of the face. Just as artistic practice fed into surgical practice (through sculptors working as mask-makers), so the radically new forms of surgery developed at this time changed the context in which artists represented the face. The exhibition looks at the unique historical situation of the facially injured soldiers of the First World War, the complex question of their reintegration into society and the long-term cultural legacy of that situation
The exhibition connects works created during and immediately after the First World War (items from the McAlister collection (Gillies Archives) and works by Henry Tonks and Eduardo Paolozzi) to contemporary work by René Apallec, Eleanor Crook and Paddy Hartley.
Organised in partnership with the University of Exeter, the exhibition arises from the EU INTERREG IV-funded project 1914FACES2014, led by Prof Bernard Devauchelle (Institut Faire Faces) and Prof David Houston Jones (University of Exeter). Paddy Hartley is the 1914FACES2014 artist in residence at the University of Exeter.
Accompanying events
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22 November 2014 to 12 April 2015
Galleries 21 and 22
Some of the most memorable Victorian works of art and architecture were inspired by the middle ages. This major exhibition explores an era when, as the most powerful nation in the modern world, Britain looked back to a pre-industrial age of centuries past.
It presents a rare opportunity to see works by some of the greatest 19th-century artists and designers with important loans from national and regional collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Royal Collection, Tate, Ashmolean and the National Trust.
William Morris and Augustus Pugin are represented together with the leaders of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Walter Crane and William Lethaby, and the pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, John William Waterhouse and John Ruskin.
The rich variety of exhibits – from paintings and tapestries to furniture, stained glass and metalwork – demonstrates a Victorian taste for the Gothic style that encompassed all areas of art and design. The displays also examine how these objects expressed revolutionary ideas that influenced the monarchy, politics, religion, manufacturing and sexual morality.
Some of the most outstanding examples of design commissioned in the South West are on show, including the extraordinary watercolours for Knightshayes by William Burges and an extravagant bronze throne from Tyntesfield made to designs by Viollet-le-Duc. A range of high quality furnishings and fittings from Devon churches feature alongside the work of Harry Hems, an Exeter-based sculptor and wood carver whose distinctive brand of medievalist design may be seen across the region. One section focuses on the building of RAMM itself – certainly one of the most important Gothic revival buildings in the region, designed by John Hayward and inspired by John Ruskin.
The legends of King Arthur and his Knights were never more popular than during the Victorian era. A highlight of the exhibition is the first in the series of great Holy Grail Tapestries – one of the most ambitious projects of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Based on Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, these tell the story of the spiritual quest by the Knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail, the cup from which Jesus and his disciples are said to have drunk at the Last Supper. On loan from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel is rarely on public display and will be shown in the West Country for the first time ever.
King Arthur was also rediscovered by 19th-century authors, most famously Alfred Lord Tennyson, and several of the richly-illustrated Victorian editions of his Idylls of the King are included. However, the Victorian medieval revival extended beyond Arthur. Novels, poems, plays and children’s books about Saxons, Danes and kings abounded, while the rediscovery of ruined abbeys and castles encouraged the taste for Gothic literature.
A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with essays by Joanne Parker and Corinna Wagner, leading scholars in the field. Art & Soul: Victorians and the Gothic is available from RAMM during the exhibition at the special price of £12.95.
Accompanying events
From time to time galleries will be closed for special events; please check before travelling.
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27 September to 18 January 2015
Gallery 5
When the First World War broke out the British Army numbered 45,000, with another 250,000 part time soldiers. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, quickly realised the need to recruit and expand the army. The government set up the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee in August 1914 and began the campaign to increase recruits to fight for their country. Over the five years of the war, over 100 poster designs were commissioned to encourage and persuade people to do their bit. This exhibition shows a selection of them.
From time to time galleries will be closed for special events; please check before travelling.
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6 January to 23 March
Finders Keepers? gallery
From well-known characters and novelty food to souvenirs of places visited, this collection featured in RAMM’s local collectors display case was started over 20 years ago and just keeps on growing. This stationery collection is far from stationary.
Display your collection
Do you have a collection that you would like to exhibit? Email ramm@exeter.gov.uk.
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5 July 2015
World Cultures Display Case, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
In 1899, at the age of 90, unmarried and with no children, Henry Vaughan bequeathed one of the biggest private collections of art to several major British public institutions.
What isn’t common knowledge was that before this bequest was made, Henry Vaughan donated his father‘s small collection of ethnographic artefacts to the Albert Memorial Museum when it opened its doors to the public in 1868. In the last four decades, this collection has received much academic attention because of its connection to the second and third voyages of Captain Cook.
The display tells the story of Henry Vaughan and the journey of those objects from the exotic South Sea Islands to Exeter.
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To May 2015
Courtyard
Over the 2014 to 2018 commemoration period one of the cases in RAMM’s Courtyard gallery will show objects from the museum’s collections that reflect life in Exeter and Devon during the First World War. That time is often regarded as one of momentous change for individual people, families and society.
This display will explore daily life and hobbies, how the museum responded to the war, and how people chose to remember the fallen.
Collections online
In connection with this display you can discover First World War objects in RAMM’s collections on our Collections Explorer website. www.rammcollections.org.uk/ramm-themes/world-war-one.ashx
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to March 2015
More in Store viewpoint
The first of four artists’ responses to RAMM’s collections Polly Morgan’s You Are Here is on display from August. Polly studied with Scottish taxidermist George Jamieson, and over the past ten years she has played with taxidermy traditions, creating unsettling sculptures that question our often sentimentalised view of the natural world. Her art has caught the imagination of collectors, curators and audiences around the world and she has exhibited in Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the UK and US. For more information about Polly visit www.pollymorgan.co.uk.
Artists Reflections is funded by Arts Council England’s Major Partner Museum programme. The list of artists was drawn up by RAMM’s Contemporary Arts Panel, in consultation with Arts Council England and Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre.
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Thursdays 26 February, 5, 12, 19, 26 March and 2 Apr, 2 to 4.30pm, free
RAMM Meeting Room A, Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter EX4 3RX
A course for anyone who wants to become more confident in English reading and writing in an unusual and interesting way. Research some of the fascinating collections at RAMM whilst learning essential, every-day English skills (up to Level 2). A tutor from Exeter College will help you to explore the museum and learn in a whole new way. Plenty of breaks are provided. Bring paper and a pen as well as a willingness to get involved in something different. Opportunities will be available for progression onto further English courses if you choose.
To book your place: T 01392 400920 W www.exe-coll.ac.uk
