DRINKS RECEPTION TO FEATURE OPENING OF ART EXHIBITION

Delegates at this year's ProGEO Symposium will be treated to an exciting artistic celebration of palaeontological geoheritage. The drinks reception, taking place in the Victoria Room at 18:30 on Monday 9th October, will feature the opening of First Imprints: The Rise of Animal Life, Told By The Oxford Printmakers Co-operative.

Attendees will be encouraged to take their drinks through to the Balcony Gallery and explore the 15 works by members of the Oxford Printmakers Co-operative, that tell the story of the rise of animal life through studies of fossils from sites such as Charnwood Forest (UK), Mistaken Point (Canada), the Burgess Shale (Canada), and Chengjiang (China). The exhibition is the product of a collaboration between the artists of the Oxford Printmakers’ Co-operative, and research scientists from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. In 2019 the museum opened a major new exhibition, First Animals, bringing together fossil specimens from around the world that told the story of the rise of animal life. In advance of the opening, Oxford Printmakers were given access to the fossils, with the aim of bringing them to life. Many of the early animals are preserved as impressions in the rock, so it was appropriate that the artistic reflections on these fossils should be made through the “pressed” processes of printmaking. Following the end of the First Animals exhibition, we are now pleased to welcome a selection of the works from the associated First Imprints collection to Loughborough Town Hall.