Nestled in the heart of the museum, the ‘notice nature feel joy’ gallery profiles nearly 2,000 amazing specimens from our natural history collection. This co-produced gallery as created with visitors and volunteers, is designed to elicit the curiosity to ‘find out more’. Immerse yourself in the surprising details around the gallery and enjoy the fascinating range of mammals, rocks, fossils, birds, shells, insects and skeletons. Every day at 11:00am and 15:30pm, join us to listen to a musical piece by Richard Birkin, along with chirrups and snippets throughout the day, that fills the gallery with magical sounds.

What can I see?

There are some wonderful surprises to discover in the gallery. Look out for Kathryn Parsons’ exquisite porcelain lichen, Justin Gilday’s tiny silver Hornet and a pair of gorgeous Thrushes by ethical taxidermist, Jazmine Miles Long.
Meet our gallery mascot, the pangolin, the tremendous Allenton Hippo and see if you can spot the glowing scorpion. Everywhere you look is something of interest.

What can I do?

There are lots of playful, hand crafted tools to help you explore the gallery and notice something new. Try on a fierce ‘tooth mask’ and tweet a photograph to appear on screen, listen to a map of nature sounds collected by visitors or leave a nature drawing on our giant pin board. There are tiny hand-crafted torches and magnifiers to help you discover a new perspective, and a friendly fox who is more than happy to receive a stroke or tickle.

What can I learn?

There are 12 different gallery guides full to burst with interesting facts about the specimens. These fascinating facts were all researched with a team of Super Nature Volunteers and specialist partners. Why not settle into one of the comfortable gallery chairs to read and reflect or treat yourself to one from the shop on your way out.