Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery: Wild Wonders

This exhibition runs until the 28th March 2026

This is a smaller display consisting of a number of boards, each one telling something of the story of a group or person working for change.  It's worth reading about these things here.  It's always good to focus on how we can make the world better, how people are making the world better.  Positivity is a strong force.  When we believe.

Some of the stories where ones I had heard of, such as the project to reintroduce beavers to Cornwall in a controlled way with the Cornwall Beaver Project.  Farmer Chris Jones introduced the first beavers to Cornwall following flooding to Ladock and this has been so successful that this project is seeking to find other places that would benefit from the reintroduction of beavers.

Others were stories I expected to see, but had not heard of specifically, such as the beach cleans of the Three Bays Wildlife Group.  Covering St Austell, Mevagissey and Veryan Bays, they have a reactive beach clean team and recently removed a fridge, which must have taken a lot of effort.  Beyond this though, they are involved in monitoring local wildlife and things such as tree planting and education.

Some things were surprising in that I was semi aware of the issues but not what had taken place behind the scenes.  In recent years there has been increasing awareness on the issues around plastic straws as they are incredibly wasteful, not easy to recycle and often end up in the environment.  Action was eventually taken and they have now been banned with paper straws being used.  I had no idea however that a large part  was played in this by Action Nan Pat Smith and her campaign, the Last Straw.

The biggest surprise however was something I really should have heard about and been appalled by, but somehow completely missed.  In 2022, a company called Planetary Technologies began adding magnesium hydroxide to the see at Hayle in an attempt to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce the acidity of the ocean.  The problem was, nobody really had any idea what the effect would be on the local ecosystem and local people began demanding greater scientific scrutiny.  Following this opposition, it was decided not to run further trials in Cornwall.

It was interesting to read about all these different things but I didn't find the room easy to navigate!  It was also being used as children's activity space with a lego table and bean bags.  I always feel a bit self conscious and intrusive as an adult alone in a child centred space.  It wasn't easy to read some of the boards as you had to battle past the bean bags to get to them.  I imagine this is often not such an issue though.  It was half term when I visited and I suspect that more visitors enjoyed the children's activities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Box: Journey's with Mai

This exhibition runs until the 14th June 2026 Sir Joshua Reynolds is one of the greats of British painting and will be a name familiar to many.  I had no idea he was born in Plympton, just outside Plymouth though.  He is a major 18th century European painter and the leading portrait artist of the time.  He was one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Art and its first president. Portrait of Omai is considered his best work and a timeless masterpiece that is one of the best pieces of British art.  In 2022 the portrait was up for sale and in danger of leaving the UK with a hefty expected value of £50 million.  It was place under a 12 month exportation bar.  The National Portrait Gallery started a fund to raise money to buy the portrait and the Getty Museum asked to jointly purchase the painting so that it could be shared between both.  In March 2023, the exportation bar expired with only half of the required amount raised and it was announced that pro...
Read more

KARST: Discord and Harmony, Beryl Cook and Others

This exhibition runs until the 18th April This was my first visit to this lovely little gallery but it will not be my last.  The exhibition was inspired by the work of Beryl Cook and included several of her works.  Other artists had been selected for inclusion based on some sympathetic aspect of their work to Beryl's.  Some of these were obvious but others needed a little more digging I think.  This made for a diverse and thoughtful exhibition with plenty of fun pieces. It's always interesting, visiting a show put together with various artists.  So many artists have a body of work that speaks as a whole as they develop a style, their own language and explore a theme.  Individual pieces do not always make as much sense by themselves, unless you have a knowledge of that artist and their work.  Putting pieces of work together from different artists changes what they have to say and understanding their relevance is an interesting thing to work out. This ex...
Read more

RAMM: Exeter's Fine Arts Gallery, Highlights from the Collection

This exhibition runs until the 9th August 2026. This one room changes regularly to give an insight in to the fine art collection.  This is a pretty impossible task as the collection contains over 7000 pieces including paintings, prints, drawings, watercolours, miniatures and sculptures.  The current display includes only around 30 pieces, so highlights is definitely a good term for this display. Looking around the room, the pieces are split in to a few different categories, beginning with portraits.  One portrait is called a Man in a Red Suit and shows a man of colour wearing a red suit.  The artist is unknown and it dates from around 1740 to 1780.  A huge amount of research has been conducted on this painting and yet there are still no clear answers.  It has been credited to Sir Joshua Reynolds and I can see why but it may also be by Allan Ramsay.  Nobody knows who the sitter is either, even though attempts have been made to link to two different free...
Read more