Upcoming Events

The Thackray Museum welcomes you to the museum to view an exhibition of the works of Roma embroidery artist; Marketa Sestakova.

The exhibition is part of Gypsy Roma Traveller History month 2010 in Leeds, and is on public display at the museum from 1st July - 9th August 2010.

All of Sestakova's works are original and she draws all the patterns herself. The embroidered pictures depict Romani life as a humane and pastoral idyll. She also collects old Romani fairy tales and stories which she uses in her art and literary works.

* Please note; as the exhibition is located in one of the museums educational teaching rooms, the exhibition is currently only open to members of the public from 2.30pm daily, until the 26th July 2010, where the exhibition will be accessible to the public during usual museum opening times (10am - 5pm) until the exhibition ends on 9th August 2010.

Our new exhibition, “Hair Splitting Images; How William Astbury’s X-Ray Vision Changed the World” is now on public display at the museum. 

If your want to find out more about this exhibition, Jim Garretts, the museum’s Senior Curator, will be giving a talk about the exhibition, highlighting some of the interesting facts about William Astbury and his work that didn’t make it into the ‘final exhibition cut’, forming a lively, engaging and interesting supplement to the information already on view.

The first gallery talk will take place on Friday 9th July from 2pm in the William Astbury exhibition area. There’s no additional charge for the talk, which will last 30 – 45 minutes. Jim will do his best to answer any questions any one might have about William Astbury and his work.

There will be six gallery talks in total, scheduled to take place on the second Friday of each month (9th July, 13th August, 10th September, 8th October, 12th November and 10th December) from 2pm.
 

Every Tuesday - 27th July, 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th of August, from 1pm - 3pm.

For all budding professors and scientist’s out there, join in with our Summer Science Clubs, taking place every Tuesday for five weeks from 27th July to 24th August. (Booking is required for the summer science clubs, participants should ideally attend all five sessions on a Tuesday).

The workshops are run in conjunction with our new exhibition about William Astbury, who took the first X-ray fibre diffraction pictures of DNA. There will be different activities every week for children aged 7 to 11, including photo paper experiments and DNA extraction.

The workshops are free with usual museum admission. Please call 0113 244 4343 to book.

Summer holiday activities - Wednesday 28th July and 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th of August.

Florence Nightingale passed away one hundred years ago. come and find out how this remarkable woman changed the history of medicine and war.

The Fearsome Florence workshops will be running every Wednesday ( from  28th July - 25th August) of the school holidays, 10am - 12pm and 1pm - 3pm.

There will be a different activity to participate in every wednesdsay; 

Week 1; Lovely lamps. Decorate your own lamp with glass paints, just like the lamp Florence Nightingale would have had.

Week 2;  make your own catapult. The Criemean war is raging and you need to protect your army. With some material at hand, and a limited supply of shillings to buy more, can you make the best catapult to protect yourself from the enemy?

Week 3; Flapping Owls. Make yourself a pet owl with flapping wings- just like Florence Nightingale had.

Week 4; Rats and Mice. Rats and mice spread diseases and infections during the Crimean War. Come along and have a go at making fun finger puppet rats and mice.

Week 5; Marvelous Medals. Medals are given out when people fight and help in wars. If you were fighting in the crimean war, what would your medal look like? Design your own medal to take home with you.

Workshops are free wth usual museum admission.

Every Thursday - 29th July, 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th of August, 1pm - 3pm.

For all budding professors and scientist’s out there, join in with our Summer Science Clubs, taking place every Thursday for five weeks from 29th July to the 16th August. (Booking is required for the summer science clubs, participants should ideally attend all five sessions on a Thursday).

The workshops are run in conjunction with our new exhibition about William Astbury, who took the first X-ray fibre diffraction pictures of DNA. There will be different activities every week for children aged 7 to 11, including photo paper experiments and DNA extraction.

The workshops are free with usual museum admission. Please call 0113 244 4343 to book.

Saturday 4th September. 10am - 12.30pm.

The Friends of the Thackray Museum would like to invite you to the museum on Saturday 4th September 2010 for a summer lecture.

 Dr Kersten Hall, Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds will be giving a lecture entitled 'The Astbury Legacy'.

The talk explores the work of William Astbury, and his discovery of DNA. The double helix mechanism proved to be the key to understanding genetics and also cancer formation or carcinogenesis. It can be used to explain how radiotherapy works on cancer and is the key to future development of anti-cancer drugs.

Dr Robert Newton, Reader in Clinical Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine, Hull York Medical School will be giving a talk on 'Infections and Cancer - a brief History'.

The talk looks at causative agents of human cancers, such as viral, bacterial and parasitic worm infestation and also explores the potential for cancer prevention.The first human tumour virus was isolated in 1964 and since then many new infections have been identified and their control or elimination (by vaccination for example) hold great promise for cancer prevention.

The cost is £11 per person (£10 concession for Friends of Thackray Museum, pensioners and students). Refreshments will be served during the break, and those attending the lectures are welcome to visit the museum free of charge on the day of the lecture.

If you require any further information, or for details on how to book, please call Rachel on; (0113) 205 6526 or (0113) 244 4343.