Renaissance Globe Project
The Renaissance Globe Project was a partnership supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund led by the History of Science Museum with the Ashmolean, the Museum of Oxford, and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, inspired by the 500th anniversary of the cosmographer and map-maker Gerard Mercator. It was linked with the special exhibition The Renaissance in Astronomy: Books, Globes and Instruments of the 16th Century. The project consisted of a programme of events for schools and the general public delivered over the period of the exhibition in 2012 and associated resources.
A team of community volunteers were involved in the co-creation of globe artefacts and a series of public events across the partner museums. This included a programme of workshops for schools and events for families and other audiences celebrating the invention of the printed globe and the original craft of globe-making. Public events included opportunities to take part in creating a series of giant themed-globes located at the partner museums, re-imagined through the experiences of visitors and their responses to the collections.
