Toby Ash makes an unexpected and bizarre discovery amongst the golf courses and white washed villas of Portugal’s Algarve.... The Algarve is not on most people’s cultural map. Lazing about in the sun, a round of golf, Cliff Richard-spotting perhaps, but it’s not a great place for museums or galleries. Well, that’s ... Read More...
Museums
In which Toby at last discovers the acme of museums... I have finally located the Museum of Everything. It is in London, on Malet Place, and it is called the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Museums, as we know, are compendiums of objects. But the further you travel – physically or conceptually ... Read More...
On a recent tour of the Royal Academy of Music Museum, the violin was described by Peter Sheppard Skaerved as “the epitome of understatement in working with wood.” A lapsed violinist, I’d never really contemplated the design of my instrument – just its sound. Suddenly, thanks to Peter, the skillfully ... Read More...
If you happen to be visiting Paris, there’s a hidden gem of a museum that’s well worth a visit - whether or not you’re an animal lover. With the current fascination for taxidermy, cabinets of curiosity, natural history and animals in art, fashion and interiors, Musee de la Chasse et ... Read More...
Dabbler roving correspondent Toby Ash makes an unexpected and bizarre discovery amongst the golf courses and white washed villas of Portugal’s sunny Algarve. The Algarve is not on most people’s cultural map. Lazing about in the sun, a round of golf, Cliff Richard-spotting perhaps, but it’s not a great place for ... Read More...
Continuing today's double-bill about some hidden London gems... One Thursday I got the willies. These particular willies were given to me by the Life Mask of actress Sarah Siddons adorning the wall outside the Monk’s Parlour in the basement of Sir John Soane’s House Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. You may wonder how ... Read More...
How do you make photos without a camera? Well, at the heart of Shadow Catchers – the V&A’s beautifully-presented show of camera-less photography – is a video in which the five featured artists explain how. They variously call their works ‘photograms’, ‘luminograms’ and ‘chemigrams’, but essentially the idea is to create images ... Read More...
With Hallowe'en imminent, and following the post on the Uncanny Valley, now is the ideal time for a visit to the gloriously bad sculptures in Louis Tussaud's House of Wax, Great Yarmouth. These infamous waxworks are, I suppose, a bit of an internet old chestnut, but I find it's always worth dropping in on the place when one is at ... Read More...
The Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury is one of London's less well known. It's been refurbished in recent years, so when I dropped in I was curious to see if it had improved from the rather uncommunicative building I'd toured 20-odd years ago. Happily it's been a sensitive and quietly effective ... Read More...
