Full Programme of events:
All day
• Trail East: Answer the questions and win a prize. All the answers are in the galleries. Collect your form at the Reception Desk in the Entrance Gallery.
• ‘Heaven on Earth: missionaries and the mathematical arts in 17th-century Beijing’ in the Special Exhibition Gallery. An exhibition built around a remarkable set of 17th-century Chinese prints. Prepared under the direction of the Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest, it is a key witness to early-modern cultural contact between Europe and China.
Talks in the Basement Gallery
2.00 Dr Annie Skinner, ‘East Oxford: Extraordinary, Exotic and Entertaining’.
2.30 Dr Jan-Georg Deutsch, ‘Zanzibar: A Brief History of Sultans, Spices, and Slaves’.
3.00 Fr Stephen Platt, ‘The Eastern Church’.
3.30 David Helliwell, ‘How traditional Chinese books were made’.
4.00 Professor Timothy Brook, ‘If heaven is round, why isn’t the earth flat? (a question for Jesuits in China)’.
4.30 Dr Jim Bennett, ‘When East is West (and other anomalies of orientation in instruments)’.
Other Events
10.30 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
11.00 Introduction to Tai Chi, in the Top Gallery. Tai Chi teacher Anne Mackintosh demonstrates, with an invitation to participate.
12.00 Chinese flute workshop, in the Top Gallery. Isabelle Carré (Pitt Rivers Museum) presents a very short introduction to the Chinese flute (dizi), with a chance to play one.
12.30 Music from the Eastern Churches, in the Top Gallery. A quartet of singers from Oxford
offer music used in the Greek and Russian orthodox faiths.
1.00 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
1.00 - 1.30 Japanese Netsuke close-up in the Top Gallery. A chance to see some of the Museum’s collection of miniature sculptures up close, guided by Elizabeth Bruton.
2.00 - 4.00 Make a Chinese fireclock: Family friendly drop-in, in the Top Gallery. Make your own decorative paper Chinese fireclock. Suitable for children aged 7 upwards.
5.00 Dance East: Egyptian and Classical Indian dance, in the Top Gallery. Science and Art meet in rhythmic dances of Egypt and India. Find out how with Anuradha Chaturvedi (Kathak) and Katrina Robinson (Raqs Sharqi - folk and classical dances of Egypt).
6.00 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
Evening
7.00 Javanese chamber gamelan with Laras-Laris: an evening of music from South-East Asia, in the Top Gallery.
8.00 Film, Beijing Bicycle, by director Wang Xiaoshuai (2002), in the Basement Gallery.
All day
• Trail East: Answer the questions and win a prize. All the answers are in the galleries. Collect your form at the Reception Desk in the Entrance Gallery.
• ‘Heaven on Earth: missionaries and the mathematical arts in 17th-century Beijing’ in the Special Exhibition Gallery. An exhibition built around a remarkable set of 17th-century Chinese prints. Prepared under the direction of the Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest, it is a key witness to early-modern cultural contact between Europe and China.
Talks in the Basement Gallery
2.00 Dr Annie Skinner, ‘East Oxford: Extraordinary, Exotic and Entertaining’.
2.30 Dr Jan-Georg Deutsch, ‘Zanzibar: A Brief History of Sultans, Spices, and Slaves’.
3.00 Fr Stephen Platt, ‘The Eastern Church’.
3.30 David Helliwell, ‘How traditional Chinese books were made’.
4.00 Professor Timothy Brook, ‘If heaven is round, why isn’t the earth flat? (a question for Jesuits in China)’.
4.30 Dr Jim Bennett, ‘When East is West (and other anomalies of orientation in instruments)’.
Other Events
10.30 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
11.00 Introduction to Tai Chi, in the Top Gallery. Tai Chi teacher Anne Mackintosh demonstrates, with an invitation to participate.
12.00 Chinese flute workshop, in the Top Gallery. Isabelle Carré (Pitt Rivers Museum) presents a very short introduction to the Chinese flute (dizi), with a chance to play one.
12.30 Music from the Eastern Churches, in the Top Gallery. A quartet of singers from Oxford
offer music used in the Greek and Russian orthodox faiths.
1.00 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
1.00 - 1.30 Japanese Netsuke close-up in the Top Gallery. A chance to see some of the Museum’s collection of miniature sculptures up close, guided by Elizabeth Bruton.
2.00 - 4.00 Make a Chinese fireclock: Family friendly drop-in, in the Top Gallery. Make your own decorative paper Chinese fireclock. Suitable for children aged 7 upwards.
5.00 Dance East: Egyptian and Classical Indian dance, in the Top Gallery. Science and Art meet in rhythmic dances of Egypt and India. Find out how with Anuradha Chaturvedi (Kathak) and Katrina Robinson (Raqs Sharqi - folk and classical dances of Egypt).
6.00 Guided tour of the ‘Heaven on Earth’ exhibition, led by its curator Dr Stephen Johnston.
Evening
7.00 Javanese chamber gamelan with Laras-Laris: an evening of music from South-East Asia, in the Top Gallery.
8.00 Film, Beijing Bicycle, by director Wang Xiaoshuai (2002), in the Basement Gallery.