The refurbished space completes the museum's £12.5m Nature + Love project and adds a ceiling projection and a zone about local wildlife.
The Horniman Museum will open its refurbished Nature Gallery in February 2027. More than 2,300 objects from its collection will go on show, including its famously overstuffed walrus.
The space was previously known as the Natural History Gallery. The south-east London museum said it had been redesigned to celebrate the range of life on earth and to explore where people fit within nature and the effect they have on it.
The collection will sit alongside new artist commissions and multisensory activities. Overhead, a projection on the ceiling will show life on the planet. Pupils from a Deptford school have created a display on plastic pollution, and there will be a discovery area where visitors can get hands-on with local wildlife.
According to the museum, the displays look at how much people depend on nature and tell stories of extinction and climate change. They then move on to ideas about how humans could shape the future of the planet.
Chairman Michael Salter-Church MBE said: “Opening these wonderful new spaces marks the end of the Horniman’s extraordinary 125th anniversary year.” Chief executive Gordon Seabright said the museum was eager to open the spaces and welcome everyone in.
The gallery completes the Horniman’s £12.5m Nature + Love transformation, with money from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Stuart McLeod, from the fund, said it was proud to back a project that would bring people of every age closer to nature and help them understand the pressures it faces.
Arts minister Ruth Mackenzie said she was “delighted” to have put £1.4m of infrastructure funding into the refurbishment. A crowdfunding campaign with a £30,000 target is also helping to pay for the gallery and has raised more than £14,000 so far.
The Wolfson Foundation, the Kusuma Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Foyle Foundation have also contributed, along with other donors.
The refurbished Nature Gallery opens in February 2027.
More than 2,300 objects from the collection, including the overstuffed walrus. There will also be artist commissions, a ceiling projection, a plastic pollution display created by pupils from a Deptford school and a discovery area about local wildlife.
The gallery completes the £12.5m Nature + Love project. Money has come from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, £1.4m of government infrastructure funding, a crowdfunding campaign and several foundations.
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