Total Polar Immersion
25th January 2013 | 0 Comment(s) | The Polar Museum
What do you do with a collection of creative writers who have ventured into the wilds of Cambridge? Totally immerse them in Polar science and culture of course!
On Wednesday 23rd January, Jo Shapcott brought a group of her creative writing students and colleagues from Royal Holloway up to the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge for a day of intensive polar studies. They were joined by museum staff, academics and researchers attached to the Polar Museum as well as some of our wonderful volunteers.
Starting with an introduction from the Director, Julian Dowdeswell, we were whisked through a suitably icy schedule of research talks on glaciology, reindeer herding, Arctic phantoms, colours of ice, pony shoes, polar sea beds and hand drawn maps.
Pausing briefly for refreshments, they were bombarded by a series of practical experiments involving a lot of ice and some slime!
A tour behind the scenes at the Institute, its library, archives and museum stores followed.
Naturally, the day would not have been complete without at least one writer donning the full polar gear!
It is hoped that the writers and staff will respond to the day with some suitably chilly prose and poetry…
