24 Hour Museum - official guide to UK museums, galleries, exhibitions and heritage
Gateway to Over 3,000 UK museums, galleries and heritage attractions
Skip to navigation
Your Ocean To Open At The Beacon's Harbour Gallery
By Georgi Gyton
20/11/2007
Image: The photo features items related to our planet's waste in a display cabinet.
The exhibition includes a number of interactive features such as touch screens and jenga style block games. Picture courtesy The Beacon
The Beacon’s Harbour Gallery in Whitehaven will be the first to host the touring exhibition Your Ocean, which starts on November 24 and runs until January 19 2008. It hopes to encourage visitors to think about how we are connected to the sea and how the ocean can affect our lifestyle and our actions, as well as the importance of sustaining it for the future of our planet.
The exhibition began its life as a permanent gallery within the National Maritime Museum as part of the Museum’s Planet Ocean Initiative, and is now being taken around the country, starting in the beautiful coastal area of Cumbria.
Your Ocean welcomes visitors of all ages and is very child friendly, exploring the themes of: energy, climate, pollution, everyday goods and foodstuffs, through a variety of interactive displays, and incorporates tips on how to be more ‘green’.
A display about our climate featuring items to look at and issues to explore. Picture courtesy The Beacon.
A main interactive feature is a touch screen piece which focuses on oil spills and how we deal with the impact of them and the problems they cause. There is also a giant block game similar to Jenga, which revolves around the idea of climate change. When the blocks containing information on them are removed, the structure becomes more and more unstable, resembling the negative effect of climate change on the world we live in.
The exhibition aims to be thought provoking and fun as well as challenging the public’s current views, and asking how we can help save our ocean and reduce the effects of climate change by taking action in our everyday lives.
“We hope this exhibition will really help people to understand just how reliant we are on our oceans,” explained the Beacon’s Curator, Michelle Kelly. “We need to think more carefully about what we are putting into the sea and how we make use of the products the sea provides.”
Display cabinet at the Gallery made from recycled materials to promote being 'green'. Picture courtesy The Beacon.
Keeping to the theme of being ‘green’, the exhibition itself also tries to be as sustainable as possible, using recycled materials such as yoghurt pots wherever possible.
Your Ocean has been produced by The National Maritime Museum in association with a number of organisations including: Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Southampton Institute, Southampton Oceanography Centre, Surfers Against Sewage, the Maritime Conservation Society and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Purpose built in the shape of a lighthouse in 1996 as part of a redevelopment programme in the area, The Beacon is home to Copeland Borough Council’s museum collection housing a wealth of information including facts about its maritime past. The Beacon’s Harbour Gallery reopened at the beginning of October this year after a £2.2 million redevelopment, and Your Ocean will be its second exhibition.
The exhibition is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am – 4.30pm, and entry to the Gallery is free.
The Beacon, Whitehaven
West Strand, Whitehaven, CA28 7LY, Cumbria, England
Open: Open Tuesday-Sunday and school holiday Mondays, all year, 10am-4pm.
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF, England
T: 020 8858 4422
Open: Daily, 10.00-17.00
Last admission is 30 minutes before closing.
From 3 May–31 August 2008, the Royal Observatory courtyard will remain open until 8pm.
Closed: All three sites close early on 31 December and open late on 1 January and on the occasion of the London Marathon each year.
Related Articles
Two Of Britain's Roman And Maritime Heritage Sites Get Major Funding Boost
National Maritime Museum Displays Francis Frith Postcard Images
The UK's Museums Mark Slavery Remembrance Day - August 23 2008
News In Brief - Week Ending July 2008
MGM 2008 - Top Ten Events For Late May Half Term Holidays
MGM 2008 - A Top Ten Of Museums At Night Events This Weekend
Culture Minister Slaps Export Bar On Portrait Of Chartmaker Alexander Dalrymple
E-news registration
E-mail story to a friend
Tell us what you think
National Portrait Gallery Acquires Tudor Double Portrait
Sheffield Metal Master Wins Museum's Inaugural Design Award
DCMS Launches Consultation Into The Future Of World Heritage Sites
A Selection Of Festive Fairs - Fun Days and Exhibitions
Royal Society Announces Plans For 350th Anniversary
Art Website ArtisanCam Wins Coveted Children's BAFTA
Former Floorboards Of Founding Father Franklin Facilitate Funny Four
Mark Leckey Wins The 2008 Turner Prize And Scoops £25,000
Library Thief Update: Sentencing Adjourned Until January 16, 2009
Fund Aims To Realise Long-Standing Campaign For Cardiff City Museum
Culture Secretary Slaps Export Ban On George I Chandelier
Shakespeare's Globe Costumes Go On Show In Nottingham
Britglyph Art Campaign Uses Web To Make Mass Geoglyph
Inaugural Awards Ceremony Honours UK Arts Philanthropists
Rare Silver Cup Commemorating Coronation Of Charles II Is Saved For The Nation
London Fire Brigade Museum Escapes Closure - For Now
Another Busy Year For Archaeology On Orkney In 2008
Severndroog Castle To Be Restored Thanks To Lottery Grant
Search this site
Home Page
News Page
Exhibition Page
What's On
Trails Page
Website of the Week
Letters Page
Welsh Home
Graphical Version
Copyright © 24 Hour Museum
Information published here was believed to be correct at the time it was prepared. Welsh language pages developed with CYMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.