Learning Programmes with Portraits

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Literary/Scientific Figures

If you have a particular focus on scientific or literary figures in your collection you may want to run a learning programme around a particular figure or group of figures.

It is worth finding out whether any one has written recent biographies of any famous figures that you have. A biographer talking on the portrait of their subject can make a good event for a public programme. If you have a collection of local portraits, local historians and writers can bring them to life.

Another idea is to start a creative writing group or a book club that meets regularly and discusses books linked to the collection in some way. This also creates a means of socialisation within your institution, which is a good way of attracting new audiences.

A good example:

Book Club for the Curious

The Museum of Science in Boston runs a book club on science books, which was created especially for those who are interested in science and technology and how it impacts our society. The book club is free and open to the public and meets monthly.

Titles include:

• Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Louis Galison,
• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall,
• Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi and
• Ten Questions Science Can't Answer (Yet): A Guide to Science's Greatest Mysteries by Michael Hanlon.

http://www.mos.org/events_activities/lyman_library/book_club

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