Collecting trees

Trees are important to us and the world we live. As forest, woodland or as individual trees they provide homes for many different kinds of animals, as well as for some other kinds of plants. They produce the oxygen we breathe, cool our cities and can help us to relax. We also place great value of trees for timber, and wood is one of the most useful and versatile materials available.

From fossil leaves to wood-boring beetles and from wooden ships to medicinal bark, the Manchester Museum’s collections hold a wealth of objects relating to trees and the uses of wood. The Collecting Trees exhibition explores stories about trees through photographs and displays of objects and invites visitors to join in and to share their stories with us. There will be some newly acquired Museum objects on show including a taxidermy lynx catching a capercaille, a replica of an ancient Egyptian head-rest and a model of two stag-beetles fighting.

There are two special events, a Big Saturday for families on 29 June organised in partnership with the Red Rose Forest and celebrating Urban Trees, and an After Hours event for adults on 25 July with wooden instruments and collaborative art works. There will also be an object trail created by the Museum Youth Board leading from their tree-inspired installation, From Northwest to Northwest, in the Museum Foyer up to the Collecting Trees exhibition in the temporary exhibition space on Floor 3.

The objects we’ve collected are part of our ‘Trees - collecting to connect’ project demonstrating how important trees are.

Funded by the British Ecological Society and part of their Festival of Ecology (15 Jun-4 Aug) taking place across the UK to celebrate 100 years of the British Ecological Society, the UK’s academic learned society supporting the science of ecology.

www.festivalofecology.org

#MMTrees

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/nw000145?id=EVENT427303