A dead good Halloween and some aping around at London’s quirky museums

The Curse Of Frankenstein (Dir: Terence Fisher, 1957)

When: 24th & 31st October 2018

Where: The Grant Museum and the Petrie Museum, London

£: Grant Museum events are free.  Petrie Museum event costs £5 per person (includes a glass of wine)

What is it?

Animal lovers are encouraged to swing by London’s Grant Museum on Wednesday 24th October, for a selection of special events on International Gibbon Day.  A week later, on Wednesday 31st October, celebrate Halloween with a one-off talk at the Petrie Museum, exploring how Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has shaped our hopes and dreads around death.

On International Gibbon Day, the Grant Museum will be hosting animal yoga and animal movement sessions, as well as a storytelling workshop. Yoga teacher Sarah Perry will guide participants through a special yoga session inspired by the movements of animals.  This will be followed by an open movement workshop that teaches participants to ape a gibbon.

Perry will share the basics of gibbon movement, from locomotion to postural shapes, gestures and sounds. Attendees will learn the benefits of letting out their inner anthropoid!

To wrap up the day, artist, writer and storyteller Richard Frost will look at ape aficionados in art. From primates in poetry to gibbons across genres, Frost will examine how the hauntingly beautiful singing voices and balletic, arm-swinging form of locomotion used by gibbons have inspired art and literature.

The following week, UCL will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein with a Halloween discussion about how Mary Shelley’s seminal novel has influenced our attitudes to death. This event at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology will be led by Egyptologist and cultural historian John J Johnston and UCL curator Subhadra Das.  They will be looking at pop culture over the past two hundred years to reveal our hopes and dreads.

There’ll be a free glass of wine and dressing up is strongly encouraged!

From art to zoology, Egyptology to performance, pathology and beyond; UCL is home to the Grant Museum of Zoology, Octagon Gallery, Pathology Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptology and UCL Art Museum, as well as the Bloomsbury Theatre and art in the public realm. These world-class spaces and collections are cared for by UCL Culture.  Nearly all venues and opportunities are free to enjoy and open to all.

More info: www.ucl.ac.uk/culture