Last chance to see: Japanese print exhibition closes this weekend

The Fitzwilliam Museum is launching a new website dedicated to its Friends, where web users can discover more about the Friends activities and find out how to get involved.

Founded one hundred years ago in 1909, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam was the very first museum Friends to be established in Britain, and has an ever-growing membership that ranges across Britain and Europe as far as Australia and the United States. The Friends’ annual subscriptions and donations have provided the Fitzwilliam with an indispensable fund solely for the purchase of works of art, which has enriched the Museum’s collections immeasurably over the past one hundred years. Members also enjoy a close involvement with the life of the Museum, and privileged access to special events.

This new website explores the unique history of the Friends and their connection with their founder Sir Sydney Cockerell, whose Directorship of the Museum was recently celebrated in the exhibition I Turned it Into a Palace.

It also features an Online Exhibition, showing a selection of the diverse treasures that the sustained generosity of the Friends has allowed the Museum to acquire, from their first-ever gift - a 16th-century Damascan tile picture in 1909 - to the Macclesfield Psalter in 2005. Full information on membership and how to join is also available.

13 May 2009