** Please note the venue for this event **
Crabs can be used to talk about anything, they can be animals to think with and through. Their weird and spiky exterior, combined with an inherent daftness, allows visitors to the museum to explore unusual interdisciplinary connections. Through crabs, Crab Museum challenges how politics, philosophy, science, and radical history is often understood and taught.
Join its three directors Chase, Bertie and Ned as they discuss what their museum is trying to do, why silliness is a crucial component, and how they attempt to engage audiences often excluded from more traditional museum-based learning.
Starting with the museum’s origin story Ned will run-through how it came to be, its core aims, and expand on some of the thinking behind the museum’s outlandish social media world-building. Following this, Bertie will reflect on humour in a museum setting, and what can be taken and gained from playful approaches to learning. Finally, Chase will look at how neurodivergence exists at Crab Museum, and how a museum riddled with ADHD can embody new methods and non-hierarchical science communication.
Speaker Bios: The Crab Museum is an award-winning, independent science museum in Margate, Kent. Opened in October 2022, its bizarre and slightly baffling approach to museums has led to it being the highest rated tourist attraction in Margate and featured in national and international press. Its directors are Chase Coley, crab enthusiast and experimental sound artist, Bertie Terriliams, crab enthusiast and children’s writer and Ned Suesat-Williams, crab enthusiast, and sometime singing squid.
Further Reading: www.crab.mu.
Pitt Rivers Museum Research Seminar in Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology, Trinity Term 2026
Fridays, 12pm-1.30pm (Weeks 1-4)
In person at the Pitt Rivers Museum Lecture Theatre (entry via Robinson Close) except for Week 3, which will be in the Oxford University Natural History Museum Theatre.
Convened by Dr Ashley Coutu & Dr Brinn Hodgett.
