Royal Albert Memorial Museum

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) is a beloved Victorian treasure in Exeter. Polly worked closely with the client team to deliver the interpretation for nine new galleries.

These included: The Case Histories gallery- showcasing the diversity of RAMM’s collections including the largest painting, the smallest carving and, of course, Gerald the giraffe; Finders Keepers — introducing the people behind Exeter’s world-class collections; Down to Earth — telling the story of the geological formation and history of Devon and Exeter; In Fine Feather — a dazzling array of birds; Fly on the Wall — an insect gallery; Behind the Scenes — a conservation gallery; and the Courtyard — a double height display that represents just 0.01% of the Museum’s collections. Following its re-opening, in December 2011, RAMM was awarded the title Museum of the Year by the prestigious Art Fund in 2012.

The aim was to present these collections in an active, stimulating way to engage the Museum’s diverse twenty-first-century audiences and to make more of RAMM’s collections accessible to a larger audience. Instead of employing typological display techniques, presentation of RAMM’s collections connected across multiple sciences. The visitor is encouraged to piece artefacts’ significance together across geological, social, and natural sciences as well as across arts- and humanities-related disciplines. Therefore, the objects at RAMM are not only celebrated in their own right but are also springboards for wider thought and discourse.