Article by Maria Iredale, PESGB Executive Director

On the 20^th April I followed up on an invitation to visit the Lapworth Museum which forms part of the Birmingham University Campus.  Firstly for those who don’t know the Birmingham Campus, it is gorgeous and well worth a visit.  It’s a historic campus full of auspicious buildings and learned people and on a beautiful spring day it was a real tonic for the soul.

The Lapworth Museum has housed the Lapworth geology collection for many years and has transformed into a public-facing museum based on an academic collection.

Originally the collection was purely educational but when the museum reopens in early June there will be something to see for both the most ardent geologist and their school-age children. There are education rooms as well as an enormous archive for academic research, a truly beautiful collection. There will be a double height rock wall, an illuminated mineral collection, an area devoted to the tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes as well as a large dinosaur fossil due to dangle from the ceiling.

The thing I found most inspiring about the museum and the project to redesign and relaunch it, was the passion with which it had been designed.  Often with these projects the design is handed over to design agency and the design is done based on a learning objective or similar.  This museum has been designed with the geologists involved all the way through and has been informed by a public consultation which explored how and why the public went to the museum.  The museum will showcase an incredible collection, seek to inspire new geologists and teach something new to those who have already discovered the wonderful world of rocks!

See more at http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/museum-redevelopment/index.aspx

It is all due to open to the public for the first time since its refurbishment on the 10^th June and we will have a feature on it in the magazine for you. Watch this space.

If you live within travelling distance of the museum and would like us to hold an evening event there with a private tour and networking please let us know and we would be thrilled to arrange an opportunity for you to see this fabulous resource yourselves.