Vintage skiffle, cocktails and Cycle of Songs for Museums at Night

On Friday 16 May the Fitzwilliam Museum will be coming to life from 17.00 to 21.00 with music, events and cocktails for Museums at Night, an annual celebration of late openings for historic collections and galleries across the UK. Live performances from Anna Sin and her pop-up band will be bringing the swing inspired rhythms of the vintage skiffle scene to the Museum’s Courtyard. Alongside, the Courtyard shop and café will be open. A special nibbles and cocktail menu will be on sale with classic drinks such as the Bloody Mary, Dark & Stormy, Kir Royal and glasses of champagne.

Song poems from a cycle of new music inspired by Cambridge's unique history of places and people will be performed in Gallery 3. The Cycle of Songs project commissioned by Arts Council England celebrates the start of the third stage of Le Tour de France from Cambridge on 7 July. The Cycle of Songs Producer Helen Weinsten and Artistic Director Marcus Romer will be available from 17.00 to 20.30 to tell people more about the project.

Talks about methods of conservation will be happening in the Seminar Room and there will be opportunities to take unique ‘Exploring Boundaries’ Museum tours led by Philip Stephenson (Senior Lecturer, Homerton College) and Julia Tozer (former Head of Education at the Fitzwilliam). Throughout the night special trails of the galleries and drawing activities will be available from the welcome desk.

Other events across the University of Cambridge Museums will include pop up talks and music at Kettles Yard, Chilean Arts and Crafts at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, experiments and science buskers at the Polar Museum, wine and talks at the Museum of Classical Archaeology, and an ask the expert young researchers evening at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science.

14 May 2014