World Gallery
Now Open

The World Gallery is a new permanent gallery which celebrates human creativity, imagination and adaptability, displaying over 3,000 extraordinary objects from the Horniman’s internationally important anthropology collection.

Presented as a series of encounters with cultures from across the continents, the gallery gives visitors a glimpse into other ways of understanding the world.

The displays include a beautiful camel saddle from North Africa, Chinese paper offerings, the prow of a Libyan refugee boat, a Native American tomahawk and a sword made of sharks’ teeth from Kiribati in the Central Pacific. These are complemented by new acquisitions and commissions, as well as sections on different ways of categorising objects and on the history of the Museum.

The opening of the World Gallery is the culmination of a five-year project that has also involved the transformation of the gallery space to re-introduce daylight and capture the spirit of the original museum building.

Shared World Summer Season
8 July – 2 September 2018 

This summer we celebrate the opening of our new World Gallery with a season of vibrant cultural activities that bring people together. Join in and enjoy fun festival days, music, dance, food and art activities that all share the human qualities of creativity, curiosity and collaboration. Please see www.horniman.ac.uk for details

Sunset Sessions
2 August, 9 August, 6.30-8pm

Chill out to global sounds on our Bandstand Terrace with styles ranging from New Orleans brass and Celtic reels to Brazilian samba and Afro-Punk. The Horniman Café will be open on the Terrace for light snacks and drinks.

26 July: Kabantu

2 August: KOG & The Zongo Brigade

9 August: The Brass Funkeys

Free

Bandstand Concerts
Sundays, 5, 19 and 26 August, 3-5pm

Put on your dancing shoes for upbeat concerts guaranteed to make you move! Enjoy an eclectic mix of Afro-Latin styles, reggae, Afrobeat and funky Ethojazz from nine-piece bands and soulful artists.

5 August: Dende

19 August: Native Sun

26 August: Matuki

Free 

Big Wednesdays: Shared World
Wednesdays, 8, 15, 22, 29 August, 10.30am-3.30pm

Join us for performances, storytelling, art and craft and films as we celebrate what makes us human and connects us with nature. Look out for special activities inspired by our exciting new arts space, The Studio, which opens in October.

Free

Hear it Live! Kora
Tuesday 28 August, 3.30-4pm

Jali Bakary Konteh from Gambia performs music for the sweet-sounding kora, a West African harp-lute.

Free

Special Events 

Bach to Baby Family Concert: All Around the World in 60 Minutes
Monday 6 August, 11am-12pm

Enjoy a magical musical adventure with Bach to Baby, the critically acclaimed classical concert series for the whole family. Little ones can roam about and revel in the wonder of live music, and no concert is complete without crying, feeding and dancing! Suitable for children of all ages.

Tickets: Children free, Adult £15 includes entry to our prize draw.

This is a special fundraising event for the Horniman’s World Gallery in collaboration with Bach to Baby.

Adult Bat Walk
Friday 10 August, 7.30-9.30pm

Learn more about bats in this specially guided walk for adults. Discover what bats live in the Horniman Gardens using real bat detectors.

Tickets: Adults £5

Family Bat Walk
Friday 17 August, 7.30-9.30pm

Learn more about bats in this fun family session. Handle some taxidermy specimens before going into the Gardens to search for bats using real bat detectors. Suitable for children aged 8+.

Tickets: Child £3, Adults £5

Displays

Yamal: The Stream of Life
Now open

Photographer Bryan Alexander has spent the last 25 years documenting the lives and culture of people living in the Yamal region of Northwest Siberia. This display of his work in the World Gallery reveals aspects of traditional life, and how it has been affected by social, cultural and environmental changes taking place.

Free

Grasslands Garden
Now Open

Wander through wild landscapes in the new Grasslands Garden, featuring spectacular plants from North American prairie and South African grasslands. Celebrating critically threatened wild landscapes, the garden has species flowering across the summer months, from pasqueflower to prairie dock and goldenrods to wild gladiolus.

The naturalistic planting scheme was devised by Olympic Park designer James Hitchmough, and the Grasslands Garden is linked to the Horniman’s new World Gallery of anthropology, opening on 29 June 2018.

Free

Summer Holiday Listings
Please see www.horniman.ac.uk for information on our summer holiday events and activities.

This article first appeared in the August 2018 issue of SE22 magazine.