Michael Houlihan, the departing Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, reflected on his time as head of the organization by delivering a lecture at National Museum Cardiff on Wednesday 14 July 2010.

After seven years in this key role, Mr Houlihan will be leaving in the coming weeks to take up his new post as Chief Executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales announced earlier this week that David Anderson, Director of Learning and Interpretation at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has been appointed as his replacement.

Investigation Results 2006-2010

The ‘Spring Bulbs for Schools’ project allows 1000s of schools scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change.

Since October 2005, school scientists across Wales have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.

See Professor Plant's reports attached or download the spreadsheet to study the trends for yourself!

Many Thanks

Professor Plant

Thanks to everyone who came to our brand new art club. We were looking at nature and printmaking and made some beautiful pictures with potato prints, leaf prints and leaf rubbings.

Our next art club is on saturday 4th September from 2pm until 3.15pm, places must be booked in advance so please phone our education department on 029 2057 3424 as soon as possible.

Art Club allows families to spend more time exploring different art and craft techniques, the September art club will continue to look at nature, but i haven't decided exactly what we'll be doing yet!

Meanwhile, our regular drop-in summer art cart sessions will be running throughout August... more information to come.

Ben Rowson reports on a recent Bioblitz day:

On 22 May, "Bioblitz" species recording events were taking place nationwide. I led a snail and slug search as part of Swansea City Council’s Bioblitz at Bishop’s Wood Local Nature Reserve (Caswell Bay, Gower). We found several species, a few of which I’m now checking the identity of at the Museum, although there must be many others present in this old woodland. I suspect the dry weather is to blame for the slim pickings, showing the importance of timing and return visits. Always nice to see the "land winkle" Pomatias elegans though, and several people were surprised to discover just how tiny the adult "dwarf snail" Punctum pygmaeum is. At 1.5 millimetres, more than 10,000 would fit in a matchbox!