There may be reduced access to the upper floors of the museum on Sunday 17th July. We will also be opening late on Monday 18th July – instead of being open from 10am we will open at 12 noon.
This is so that we can set up some scaffolding outside the museum as part of an exciting and much needed maintenance project to completely replace our rusty old gutters. These essential improvements have been headed up by our fantastic John Muir Birthplace Trust.
The JMBT is a charitable incorporated organisation who work towards securing the future of John Muir’s birthplace in Dunbar and developing it as an interpretative centre focused on Muir’s work. If you would like to further support the work of the Trust, you can donate to their cause via our website.
Please feel free to get in touch with us on 01368 865 899 if you have any questions regarding museum access on those days. We will also be extending the opening hours of our sister museum and gallery, Dunbar Town House on Monday, so do feel free to pop in there from 10.00am.
We are so pleased to be hosting Emily Tough’s exhibition ‘Slowly Growing’ in our temporary exhibition space. The exhibition will be open from 24th June – 27th July 2022, 10am-5pm Monday – Saturday and 1pm-5pm on Sundays. As always, admission is free.
Emily began work at East Coast Organics early last year and has since learnt a lot about our food systems and their impact on the environment. As an artist, it is her natural inclination to share her learning through story telling. This exhibition combines the artwork generated since working on the farm:
I wanted to become part of the movement realising marginalised farm workers, which includes women working the land. They have historically been a very underrepresented margin of society, which in some cases has meant gross unfair payment and extorting labour. I’ve been very lucky to work with such wonderful women on the farm, they have really proven that farm work never could be a genderised occupation. Their knowledge and attitude towards this sometimes quite difficult process reaps huge rewards for farm and our work environment.
The work commissioned by PROPAGATE, a Scottish food collective, was the result of attending their fork to farm conversations. I recorded the outcomes of these dialogues and designed an illustration to portray the results.
I have been making recycled paper-making for some time now. The invention of paper has realised lots of impactful moments on the worlds history. It’s been curious learning and feeling closure to this process whilst experimenting with story telling through recycled paper. As an obvious use of communication, I have been using recycled paper making as a way of communicating and collecting food stories. I have been on a mission to find some of people’s top-tips in growing, farming and gardening, and have started to catalogue our relationship to our food systems through recycled paper. I would love it if you could add your contribution in the notebook provided.
Find Emily on Instagram at @weagreeoneggs.
We are excited to announce that The Nature Library‘s stay at the Birthplace has been extended for another month!
You can now browse the books on display until Sunday 19th June.
www.instagram.com/thenaturelib
thenaturelib@gmail.com
We are excited to be hosting meet the artist drop in sessions with The Nature Library this Saturday (30th April) from 10am – 1pm and 2pm – 4pm.
Pop in to this free drop in session to browse the library, chat about books and have a go at creating your own handmade zine inspired by what you find on the shelves and in the surrounding landscape.
John Muir was born in Dunbar on April 21st 1838. We celebrate his birthday every year, using the day as an opportunity to share our love of wild places and to promote their protection.
For more information on John Muir Day, take a look at this page from the John Muir Trust.
One of the ways John Muir spread his message about this importance of preserving wild places was in his writing. We’re lucky that he published lots of volumes of work during his life, along with leaving behind more writings that were published posthumously. Some of these are available to read in The Nature Library, our current temporary exhibition. Over Easter we’ve had lots of people coming in to share their own love of nature by making their own mini-books for the library. We thought today would be the perfect day to showcase a few of these! There’s still plenty of time to pop by and make your own addition to leave or take home with you.
We will be open during the following hours over Easter. Please note that we will have reduced opening hours on Monday 18th April:
Friday 15th April: 10am – 5pm (last entry 4.15pm)
Saturday 16th April: 10am – 5pm (last entry 4.15pm)
Sunday 17th April: 1pm – 5pm (last entry 4.15pm)
Monday 18th April: 1pm – 5pm (last entry 4.15pm)
Why not drop in and have a go at making your own book for The Nature Library? We’ve had great fun setting everything up for you to assemble and illustrate your own mini book.
Here are some questions to get you thinking:
Or take a look at some of the other books, mini-books, and zines in the library for inspiration.
Let us know how you get on and do share any photos of your creations with us on social media.
Maybe you’ll be the next John Muir!
We are sorry to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances we will have to close John Muir’s Birthplace on Monday 11th April and Tuesday 12th April.
We are sincerely sorry for any disappointment or inconvenience this might cause.
We will still be open over the weekend (9th and 10th of April). While we are closed please feel free to have a look at our at home activities and online education resources.
Stay safe everyone!
