'Endless Forms': Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts' (360G-Wellcome-086844_Z_08_Z)

The project aims to: - Investigate Darwin's influence on 19th century art, which had been little examined until now. - Illuminate the interplay of natural science and forms of visual expression in the 19th century. - Participate in a highly innovative way in the international celebrations of Darwin's birth, including Darwin 200 and the Cambridge Darwin 2009 Festival, and mark his links with Cambridge, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in particular. - Project the originality of the approach so as to intrigue, excite and provoke debate among people of all ages and walks of life. - Ensure that Darwin's achievement and the impact of his ideas are better understood by a wide audience. - Challenge the notion of Darwin (to an extent propagated by Darwin himself) as inartistic, and devoid of a sense of beauty. - Highlight the social, cultural and ethical issues arising from popular understanding/reception (or, often, misunderstanding) of Darwin's ideas and how this was projected by the artistic imagination. - Using the exhibition as a catalyst, make clear the continuing relevance of the legacies of Darwin's scientific theories to a wide contemporary audience, through public programmes (workshops, talks, debates, and outreach activities outside the museum, and talks by specialists in other museums and research centres) and in audioguide and website/IT resources. - Emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of the project by inviting a range of authoritative voices from different disciplines to comment on ideas, themes and works of art represented in the exhibition, in particular scientists and historians. - Invite those with an existing interest in the arts to engage more actively with the scientific and biomedical questions arising from the project and those with a primary interest in the sciences to attain a fresh perspective on the wider social, cultural and artistic impact of scientific discovery. - Establish a unique working partnership with the rich seam of Darwinists, scientists, historians of science and those with responsibility for Darwin resources working in the local academic and other research communities. - Recognise and monitor the ambitious nature of the project by conducting focus group studies as part of on-going formative evaluation. - Attract in the region of 75,000 local, national and international visitors. - Build long-term partnerships with scientific and other scholarly communities already involved in the project at local and national level, from specialist academics to journalists. - Ensure widespread media coverage, through the implementation of a Marketing and Communications strategy already in place and on-going