UCL Museums Oct

Exploring the Group Mind Wed, 30 September - Fri, 2 October at 7.30pm Bloomsbury Studio, 15 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AH                          What is more fundamental: the fact that you are a unique individual, or your relationship to others in your social group, family or society? In a night of science, music and games, audience members will explore this issue in mass participation experiments. Through their phones or tablets, people will connect to a website displayed on a large screen at the front of the theatre. Together everyone will play games, collaborate with musicians in making music, take difficult decisions, and experience whether they perform better as individuals or as a group. We will discuss how their group behaviour can be understood using the latest tools in social science research.         View the Bloomsbury Studio Autumn Season here

Glass Delusions 1 October - 19 December, Mon-Sat, 1pm-5pm Grant Museum, UCL How do minerals become living things?  In this exhibition of prints, drawings, videos and objects, Artist in Residence Eleanor Morganexplores the slippery boundary between living and non-living materials. Her work is inspired by the Grant Museum's collection of intricate glass sponges – animals that naturally build themselves out of glass – they are formed of 90% silica.

Staring at the Sky – Astronomy at the UCL Observatory Fri, 2 October, 11.30am-4.30pm Wilkins North Observatory, The Quad, UCL The University of London Observatory (ULO) has existed since 1929. Due to its Mill Hill location many are not aware it exists, let alone its fascinating work. ULO has a long history of teaching and research, and recently made the headlines when a new supernova was discovered during a teaching session. ULO has an archive of images of the sun, comets, nebulae etc dating from its earliest days to the present, a small selection of which are available online -http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/webimage/. This exhibition aims to show off these fascinating images in a central UCL location.

​Public Open day: Clay & Ceramics Sat, 24 October, 1pm-5pm  Institute of Making, Malet Place, UCL, WC1E 7JE            Join us for an extravaganza of materials and making around the theme of Clay & Ceramics. Have a go at making your own clay pot, building a mini brick wall and watch magnificent throwing demos by a master potter. Learn how ceramic bioactive scaffolding can help rebuild broken bone with Imperial's Biomaterials Research Group. Explore how china clay is used to make our magazine covers glossy. Get making, squidging, playing and extruding clay.     In our wondrous Materials Library we will be joined by Clayground; who have a collected numerous clays, dug from around the world and relayed back to London by volunteers.

The Museum is Where the People Are Fri, 30 October, 6.30pm-9.30pm Timber Lodge cafe, Olympic Park      UCL Museums and Collections house a treasure trove of the awe inspiring and unusual. But we don’t just think of ourselves as being a collection of objects fixed to one space and place, we believe that the Museum is where the people are and we want to take the spirit of our collections off-site for the Museums at Night event. We'll be setting up an imagined museum space in the Timber Lodge cafe on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and celebrating our shared connections with residents and community group members from Stratford East and the surrounding areas.

The Madness Of George III at Apollo Theatre

The Madness of George III is currently on sale 
Wednesday 19th January and is booking until Saturday 31st March 2012.  It is proving to be a popular play and we are adding more stock to our inventory.  41% off -  Was £39.50, NOW £23.50.

David Haig gives the performance of his life as King George III in the West End premiere of Alan Bennett's smash-hit comedy The Madness Of George III.

Originally premiering at the National Theatre in 1991, the play went on to become an international theatrical sensation and was made into an award-winning film. Rarely performed because of its huge cast, this new production took the public and critics by storm when it opened at the Theatre Royal Bath in August 2011 and now transfers to the Apollo Theatre for a strictly limited eleven week season.

In spite of a catalogue of accomplishments - he founded the Royal Academy of Arts, was a passionate advocate of science, literature and music and fathered fifteen children - George III is best remembered today for his bouts of unbridled lunacy. Subjected to the appallingly cruel medical treatment of the day and assailed by power struggles between politicians and his scheming son, George remains throughout an intensely sympathetic character - melancholy, moving, witty...and finally triumphant. 

This epic production features a stellar cast alongside David Haig including Clive Francis, Beatie Edney and Madhav Sharma.