Work on one of the Ancient Worlds Galleries at Manchester Museum
Work certainly picked up a gear in the last month leading up to the opening of the redeveloped Ancient Worlds galleries on 25th October. Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and the Sudan, and I seem to have been working flat out since the early summer to write the text, check for mistakes and, more recently, to check the layouts of the new displays.
An almost palpable sense of anticipation hung over the galleries right up until the opening. In the last few weeks we put the finishing touches to our invitations list and took delivery of loan objects from other museums, which are kindly contributing to the new displays. These photos show cases in the Egyptology gallery during installation and you can see the subtle shading of the backs of the cases that is meant to evoke the shift from yellow sand to blue sky of the Egyptian landscape.
Work on the second (Egyptology) gallery of the Ancient Worlds displays
I couldn’t access the first (Archaeology) gallery except from a distance but this picture shows one of the large table cases that are such a prominent feature of the gallery.
Peeping through into the first (Archaeology) Gallery. You can just see one of the large table cases behind the workman.
The opening up of the gallery, for so many years the Egyptian daily life gallery, has revealed features like neo-Gothic windows, and already it is true to say the space has its own unique atmosphere.
Work on Ancient Worlds. The interaction between the second floor and the first floor is more noticeable now.
