A selection of August event highlights + prize draws for free tickets
For details of more University events open to all please visit www.ox.ac.uk/events-list
Win tickets to Chapterhouse Theatre Company's performance of Shakespeare’s best-loved romantic comedy this summer at Harcourt Arboretum
Enter the prize draw to win tickets for A Midsummer Night's Dream Open Air Theatre at the Harcourt Arboretum on Saturday 24 August at Harcourt Arboretum, 6.30pm to 9pm Tickets Adult £16 | Child £11 | Family (2 adults and 2 children) £46
To enter the prize draw to win a family ticket (2 adults and 2 children for £46) send your University contact details to blueprint@admin.ox.ac.uk by 5pm on Thursday 15 August (please write Shakespeare in the email subject line).
Wine Festival offer
A reminder that University staff can claim a 20% discount off tickets to the Wine Festival on 6 and 7 September and enter a prize draw for free tickets.
To enter the prize draw send your contact details to blueprint@admin.ox.ac.uk by Friday 9 August (please write Oxford Wine Festival in the email subject line). University staff can also receive a 20% discount on the full ticket price by entering discount code OxStaff19 on the booking page. Please note that this offer is for Oxford University staff only and you will need to use your ox.ac.uk or oup.com email address for verification purposes. For more details and to book your tickets visit www.oxfordwinefestival.org
FAMILY FRIENDLY EVENTS
Follow the Wonder Trail
Looking for inspiration for family-friendly activities over the summer holidays? Pick up a Wonder Trail Pass in the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums and discover a range of mindgrowing wonders. There are 14 to discover, from Egyptian mummies at the Ashmolean Museum to Venus fly traps at the Botanic Garden. Once you discover a wonder and answer a question, you collect a sticker. Then start your own collection of wonders by claiming a prize for every three stickers you collect.
Enlightening the Nanoworld Family Workshop
1pm to 2pm, Saturday 3 August, University Museum of Natural History
(Booking required. You must book a place for each adult and child. Children must be accompanied by at least one adult)
What happens beyond what your eyes can see? It’s the year of the periodic table! Let’s celebrate by diving into the magical properties of the chemical elements that are present in all aspects of everyday life and explore the nanoworld. Join researchers from the Chemistry and Physics Department of Southampton University for interactive and hands-on activities. Children will be able to discover for themselves how materials of different shapes and sizes exist beyond what their eyes can see as well as dive into the exciting world of chemistry. This event aims to inspire children by taking science outside its usual context, such as laboratories and classrooms, and bringing it to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Afternoon Explorers: Tentacle-tastic!
1pm to 4pm, Monday 5 August, University Museum of Natural History
Find out more about these extraordinary appendages and the animals that have them. Join us for an afternoon of crafts and look closely at Museum specimens.
Send a message SOS
2pm to 4pm, Friday 16 August, History of Science Museum
Drop-in, ages 7+.
Learn Morse code, experiment with telegraphic apparatus, and unravel the mystery message.
EXHIBITIONS AND DISPLAYS
Lunar: We Look to the Moon
Until 15 September, Proscholium (Old Bodleian Library)
2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first crewed mission to land on the Moon (20 July 1969). We Look to the Moon is a new display at the Bodleian Library, created by a multidisciplinary team of academics from the Rothermere American Institute, the Department of Earth Sciences, the Department of Physics, and the Oxford Internet Institute’s Cabinet team. The exhibit draws on objects and publications from the Bodleian collections to explore humanity’s study of, and fascination with, all things lunar. www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/whatson/whats-on/upcoming-events/2019/july/we-look-to-the-moon
Ruskin 200 Young Artists
10am to 5pm, 7 August-30 September, University Museum of Natural History
A small display of artworks produced by 5-15 year old artists as part of our Ruskin 200 year of activities.
https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/ruskin200
Last Supper in Pompeii (booking recommended)
10am to 5pm, until 12 January 2020, Ashmolean Museum
This major exhibition will tell the story of this ancient Roman city's love affair with food and wine, showing where the Romans got their culinary inspiration and how they exported sophisticated ingredients and recipes across the empire. Many of the 300 objects, on loan from Pompeii and Naples, have never before left Italy. They range from the spectacular furnishings of the Roman dining room to actual food which was carbonised as the volcano erupted.
https://www.ashmolean.org/pompeii
First Animals
10am to 5pm, until 24 February 2020, University Museum of Natural History
A fascinating new exhibition which will challenge visitors to question ‘What is an animal?’
The visitor journey begins by travelling back in time 600 million years, to when the very origins of all animals – including humans – began to develop in the world’s oceans. In an extraordinary evolutionary event, the Earth then experienced a huge increase in new life forms, many of which laid the foundations for the body plans of all subsequent animal life. The exhibition will tell this story like never before. For the first time ever, over 60 incredibly well-preserved specimens will travel to Oxford from sites across the globe, including a significant loan of 55 fossils from Yunnan University in Chengjiang, China.
https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/first-animals-exhibition
A Nice Cup of Tea?
10am to 5pm, until 22 March 2020, Ashmolean Museum, Gallery 40
Learn about the untold stories and hidden narratives of empire, trade and transatlantic slavery through this contemporary art installation inspired by the Ashmolean’s European Ceramics collection. Crafted over cups of tea, the installation amplifies the stories, lives and resilience of Oxford’s communities, particularly those of Oxford’s Windrush generation and African Caribbean community, many of whom have family links to the transatlantic slave trade.
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/nice-cup-of-tea
LECTURES AND SEMINARS
From Worms to Stars (booking required)
6.30pm to 7.30pm, Tuesday 13 August, University Museum of Natural History
Dr Imran Rahman charts the evolution of echinoderms - starfish, sea urchins and their relatives - from worm-like animals to star shaped ones. Starfish, sea urchins and their relatives belong to a major group of animals called the echinoderms, which possess a very rich fossil record dating back over half a billion years that sheds light on their evolution from worm-like animals to star-shaped ones. oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/from-worms-to-stars
Ai + Climate Change
5.30pm, Wednesday 18 September, Oxford Foundry
Open to all, this event and drinks reception is a unique chance to meet Oxford entrepreneurs working on some incredible ventures to help mitigate the effects of climate change and to be inspired by TED style talks. The speakers include Daryl Rodrigo, co-founder of Metronome who won the Shell Livewire award with Oxford alum Josh Burton.
More details and event signup https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/climate-change-ai-how-oxford-tech-startups-helping-fight-foundry/
