National Museums Liverpool Blog - Plantastic! ready to go!

As part of our celebration of World Museum's 150th anniversary, this week we are looking at a story that is bang up to date! Seeing as we've had quite a few stories from the archives, we thought it would be good to tell you about what you can see at the museum right now.

Here is our Head of Museum Exhibitions, Annie Lord to tell us about the finishing touches for the amazing Plantastic! exhibition opening tomorrow...

Annie watching a winter scene from the Plantastic! film

This week we've been putting the finishing touches in place and we're now ready for the opening of Plantastic! It's a brand new exhibition for all the family that looks at the amazing world of plants. The exhibition has gradually been put together and the software for games and interactives were installed earlier this week. The exhibition is the culmination of two year’s work with museums and science centres in Holland, Belgium and France and it is great to finally see it all coming together.

The exhibition is designed by the National Museums Liverpool design team, building on the success of the award winning Eye for Colour exhibition that has toured in the UK and Europe. We have been working with our co-producers Bruns, from Holland, who built everything you will see there. We have had a team of Dutch colleagues over to install the exhibition in the gallery.

Plantastic! examines the secret worlds of plants and how they move, feed, reproduce and survive and why they are essential for our survival. It is  bright and colourful and I think it's just what you need on a cold February day. You can join in with a topical debate, design your own fantasy plant, set photosynthesis in motion or indulge in a game of pinball to see how much food you can forage in the woods! 

Since the exhibition is a European venture all the text is in English, French and Spanish – so you can even practice your foreign language skills while you learn about plants. One curious visitor looking through the door this week said that it looks ‘awesome’ so that’s good enough for us!

Our joiners have put together a garden shed where our gallery staff will keep props for a great programme of events that will run alongside the exhibition’s six month showing. Over half term you will be able to drop in and hear fascinating stories by our resident storyteller - Colly Flower!

Today we have been checking out the new exhibits, asking some local school children to test the games and generally cleaning up ready for opening. We hope that the exhibition will get all plant lovers and enthusiasts inspired and bring the outdoors indoors!