Weather at RAMM: Art & Science

A new exhibition at Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) will appeal to visitors with an interest in art, science and both.

Starting on Saturday 21 November, Whatever the Weather exposes humanity’s relationship to the elements.

Constantly changeable, occasionally extreme and always unpredictable, the weather has always affected our lives. Our desire to understand, predict and control the weather has led us to invoke the gods and harness science and Whatever the Weather brings together a lively mix of historical paintings and prints, artefacts, archives and the work of contemporary artists exploring this changing relationship.

Drawing on the collections of the Met Office, National Trust and Royal Meteorological Society and RAMM’s own collections, the show includes rain gods from the Americas, paintings by William Blake and Samuel Palmer, stormy seascapes and ships in distress, private weather diaries, weathervanes, barometers, thermometers and all manner of recording instruments. Admiral Fitzroy’s first ever weather forecast, issued by the Met Office in 1861, is displayed along with Beaufort’s original table of wind strength (the Beaufort Scale) dating to 1810.

In response to the historical material, RAMM has commissioned new work by one of the UK’s leading artists working with digital media as a centrepiece for the exhibition. Susan Collins, currently Slade Professor and Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, is creating works based on the Devon coast. The exhibition also includes Joanna Brown’s latest works exploring floods and their aftermath, Simon Faithfull's video piece created with the help of a weather balloon and new artwork by Julian Grater.

The exhibition runs until 10 Apr 2016 accompanied by a busy programme of events. Developed with the Met Office and the National Trust, talks, coastal walks, debates and family activities expand upon the exhibition themes. Visitor photos of Devon weather will be available to browse on an iPad in the exhibition. Photos can be shared by uploading them to Instagram with #devonweather in the caption or directly through Tumblr.

The first event is an evening talk on Tuesday 1 December by Helen Chivers, Head of News and Social Media at the Met Office. She will give a personal view of the Met Office, from working in the forecasting centres around the UK to the challenging role of heading up the press office. Tickets are available online.

2015 marks the 50th anniversary the National Trust’s Neptune Campaign to protect Britain’s coasts.