The Natural History Museum will provide the dramatic backdrop next week for the launch of the national Darwin200 celebrations and Shropshire will be represented.
Over thirty organisations are involved in the Darwin200 group including Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council. The media event in Kensington on Tuesday night (3rd June) has attracted journalists from national and international agencies who will have an opportunity to talk to event organisers from across the UK.
Museums, scientific associations, the media and central government have been meeting to plan the campaign for the last two years under the leadership of The Natural History Museum. Darwin Co-ordinator for the Borough, Jon King who will be in London for the event commented:
“It’s been a privilege to represent SABC at Darwin200 and its clear that Shrewsbury’s role in the Darwin story is taken very seriously. International media interest in the town is already growing and will certainly accelerate after the media launch next week. Plans are well advanced for Shrewsbury’s events and we’re aiming to entertain residents as well as visitors.”
The 1st of July 08 marks the anniversary of the first reading of Darwin’s paper on Natural Selection to the Linnean Society in 1858. A few months earlier, Alfred Russell Wallace had written to Darwin outlining a similar evolutionary theory and the decision was taken to read both papers at the same meeting.
Shrewsbury’s celebrations begin on the 11th of June with an exhibition at the Unitarian Church on High Street by the artist Dorothy Cross inspired by a recent visit to The Galapagos. The exhibition will run until the 26th July.
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