Hastings Museum & Art Gallery

A bit of a miserable damp misty mizzly day today, so I visited Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, John's Place, Bohemia Road TN34 1ET (website), hadn't visited for a while. You will guess that the photograph above is one I took a while ago as it is brighter, not to mention the blue sky. Until the end of March, winter opening times are (closed Mondays) Tuesdays to Saturdays 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, and 12.00 noon to 4.00 pm on Sundays. For visiting and access information go to the website.

 Peace Project

In addition to the regular exhibitions and events there are 2 separate exhibitions, the Peace Project, which continues to the 9th of February, so get in quick if you haven't visited recently. The Peace Project marks the centenary of the 'Peace Day' celebrations held in Hastings following the end of the First World War (1914-1918, website - many thanks to Hastings Museum & Art Gallery for the image above).

Also, until the 19th of April is Wunderkammer: Hastings Curiosities, which brings together exhibits from the museum's stores, some of which have not seen the light of days for years, including natural history specimens, archaeological artefacts, works of art, and exhibits concerning local and social history (website).

Grey Owl (1888-1938)

Of course there are the regular exhibitions and collections, including Natural History, Archaeology, Dinosaurs and Fossils, Paintings and Other World Art, Native North Americans, and the Canadian conservationist Grey Owl, who served as a sniper with the 13th (Montreal) Battalion of the Black Watch during the First World War (from 1915, he was wounded in 1916, and was shipped back to Canada in 1917). He visited Hastings on a tour of Britain in the 1930s, promoting books he had written and lecturing about conservation; what was not popular knowledge at the time was that he was born and raised in the Hastings area, and his real name was Archie Belaney! More information can be discovered at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (website), and many thanks to the BBC for the image above.

I did not manage to get into the main gallery as an event for children, the Starlings Museum Group, was in progress (Friday mornings), with many children present, music and noise; indeed, the museum caters for learning activities aplenty, see website.

I'll have to visit on a different day next time, 'tis well worth it!