Exhibitions

The next 12 months offer a wide range of events for everyone around the country, from spying on garden snails for science, to seeing a family show about Darwin’s work, to hearing music inspired by Darwin’s theory to marvelling at a two storey-high interactive Darwin curiosity cabinet. Organisations involved in Darwin200 range from museums, science centres and research institutes to theatre and dance companies and knitting groups.

London

Darwin
Until 19 April 2009
Natural History Museum (www.nhm.ac.uk)

Visitors can retrace Darwin’s life-changing journey as a curious and adventurous young man aboard the HMS Beagle on its five-year voyage to the Galapagos Islands. Follow the clues that helped him develop the idea of evolution by natural selection through notebooks, artefacts, rare personal belongings and the fossils and zoological specimens he collected on his travels.

Darwin and the Story of Evolution
22 March 2009
The British Library (www.bl.uk/)

Find out how evolutionary thinking developed by comparing early ideas on evolution and creation with the revolutionary theories of Darwin and his contemporaries and their subsequent legacy in the twentieth century.

Darwin portraits
Until 31 May 2009
National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk/)

A small display of photographs of Darwin from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection of 220,000 original photographic images dating from the 1840s. It will include key portraits such as those by Maull & Polyblank and Julia Margaret Cameron.

After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions
June – September 2009
Natural History Museum (www.nhm.ac.uk)

The Museum’s Jerwood Gallery will be transformed into an observational laboratory exploring the emotional and cultural relationships between humans and other animals and their physical behaviour and emotions.

Unveiling Darwin's Canopy: TREE
2009
Natural History Museum (www.nhm.ac.uk) 

TREE will be a cross-section of an entire 200-year-old oak tree cut lengthways, including the roots, trunk and branches and inserted into the ceiling of the mezzanine gallery. At more than 17 metres long, it will become one of the largest specimens at the Museum. TREE is inspired by Charles Darwin’s iconic sketch of ‘I think’ diagram, representing evolution in his transmutation notebook.

South West

Darwin’s Voyage of Discovery
Until 18 April 2009 (Also May – September 2009 Bristol)
Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

Take a closer look at our living ancestral heritage through museum specimens and follow Darwin’s voyage of discovery across the oceans onboard the HMS Beagle, which left Plymouth on 27 December 1807. Lunchtime talks, family-friendly natural history events and schools activity sessions will support the exhibition.

Mr Darwin’s Fish
12 February 2009
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution

Mr Darwin’s Fish tells the story of the Beagle fish specimens being described for science for the first time. Darwin’s lifelong friend, eminent naturalist and Bath resident, Leonard Jenyns, worked on the fish Darwin brought back from South America, having suggested Darwin go on the Beagle voyage in his place.

Voyages of Discovery
14 February 2009
Falmouth Art Gallery (www.falmouthartgallery.com/)

This exhibition will celebrate Falmouth’s role in Darwin’s work. Displays will include important maritime paintings, historic lithographs and engravings, as well as contemporary scientific drawings, underwater photographs and an installation using ‘found’ specimens.

A Day at the Zoo
4 July – 5 September 2009
Falmouth Art Gallery (www.falmouthartgallery.com/)

This exhibition will show professional photographs of animals from Newquay Zoo. The animals will be selected with a special relevance to Darwin’s own studies.  There will be a wide range of paintings and even holograms on show.

Expressions in Man and Animals
12 September – 7 November 2009
Falmouth Art Gallery (www.falmouthartgallery.com/)

In 1872 Darwin published the best seller The Expression of the Emotions in Man & Animals. This exhibition uses Darwin’s work to examine powerful images of expression.

Exquisite Creatures: evolution of the moving image
September 2009
Royal William Yard, Plymouth

A three-day celebration that will explore ideas of evolution through animation and the moving image and how this affects our understanding and perception of the world.

Darwin Exhibition
May – June 2009
Lyme Regis Museum (www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/)

An exhibition, with associated events and educational activities, on John Gould, who was born in Lyme Regis. His identification of finches from the Galapagos islands was crucial to Darwin’s work on evolution. The exhibition will draw on material in private hands and in other collections.

South East

Down House (www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.14922)
13 February 2009
Downe, near Bromley, Kent

A new, permanent exhibition about Darwin at his former home, Down House opens in February. The house remains much as it was when Darwin lived here, including the surrounding gardens, meadow and

Sex!
March – May 2009
Science Oxford (www.scienceoxford.com/)

Human, animal or plant, sex – and its absence – makes the biological world go round. While Darwin was the first to identify the role of sex in evolution, this exhibition and series of events will explore recent advances in sex research and will show how sex impacts on our lives.

East of England

A voyage around the world
July – December 2009
Cambridge University Library (www.lib.cam.ac.uk/)

An exhibition exploring the Beagle voyage as a pivotal experience in Darwin’s life – it was born out of his studies at Cambridge, and his specimens and notes were sent back to the university and disseminated from there.

Beetles, Barnacles and Finches: The Zoological Collections of Charles Darwin
July 2009
Cambridge University Zoology Museum (www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/museum/)

The exhibition will look at how Darwin’s experiences in Zoology shaped his ideas on evolution and natural selection, using many of the specimens he collected throughout his life (especially during the Beagle Voyage).

Charles Darwin: Becoming a Geologist
6 July 2009
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (www.sedgwickmuseum.org/), Cambridge

A new permanent exhibition opening during the Cambridge Darwin2009 Festival, telling the story of how Charles Darwin came to choose a career in geology after studying medicine in Edinburgh and then a general degree at Cambridge, in preparation for life in the clergy.

Endless Forms
16 June – 4 October 2009
Fitzwilliam Museum (www.visiteastofengland.com/be-inspired/heritage/thedms.aspx?dms=13&venue=0220055), Cambridge

Science meets art in this ground-breaking, cross-disciplinary exhibition exploring the importance of visual imagery in the development of Darwin's ideas and the impact of his theories on artists of his day.

Heart of England

Dreams of Science: the life of Charles Darwin in the Russian Immigration 
Until 17 January 2009
Wolverhampton Art Gallery (www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/wolves)

Dreams of Science, an exhibition on loan from the State Darwin Museum in Moscow, depicts fascinating scenes from the lives of 18th and 19th century science pioneers who contributed to the theory of evolution and influenced Charles Darwin, alongside scenes from Darwin's own life.

Quantum Leap (www.darwinshrewsbury.org/memorial)
12 February 2009
Shrewsbury

Unveiling of the Darwin Memorial and Geo Garden in Mardol Quay Gardens. The memorial, called Quantum Leap, has been designed by Pearce and Lal and is inspired by Darwin's life and ideas.

Darwin’s Leftovers
August 2009
Stroud Knitting Group at Museum in the Park (www.museuminthepark.org.uk), Stroud

An imaginary bric-a-brac stall that imagines Darwin had an ‘office clearout’. This knitted art installation is led by Liz Lancashire and will include work by over 50 knitters plus contributions from schools.

Northwest

Simple Beginnings: the story of evolution
13 June - 7 Nov 2009
Bolton Museum (www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/)

An exhibition looking at Darwin’s theory, its modern form, and the evidence for evolution. The exhibition will also look at the impact the debate had locally.

Manchester Museum (www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/)
3 October 2009

Explore Darwinian ideas and their impact in a temporary exhibition supported by events for adults and families, alongside a learning programme for schools.

North East

Contemporary art show
April – August 2009
Baltic Mill (www.balticmill.com/), Gateshead

A large group art show of contemporary artists using Darwin and Wallace's ideas as a starting point.