Rye’s Arts Festival had a historic launch last Saturday, September 15, at the East Street Museum with a coffee morning to mark an exhibition that took three years to negotiate.
The museum normally opens at weekends during the holiday season, but it will be open every day (10:30am to 4:30pm) during the Festival to show off the Rosetta Stone (shown above) – and then just at weekends until October 28.
The Stone, which helps us understand more about different languages and forms of communication, is the British Museum’s most popular exhibit (hence the reluctance to let anybody else show it) and it took more than three years of negotiation to bring this modern cast to Rye.
Museum chairman Jo Kirkham (top left, above) welcomed visitors to the coffee morning which also celebrated the Rye Castle Museum’s 90th birthday which has now been marked with an exclusive and numbered commemorative tile (for sale for £15) showing the castle from Rye Pottery.
Pottery has been one of Rye’s many activities over the years and features prominently in this small but very lively museum.
The museum’s monthly Thursday night talks start next month (October) and there will be children’s craft afternoons at half term (October 22) and Christmas (December 8).
As ever displays at the larger Castle Museum (open most of the year) are constantly changing and being added to – and Rye’s talent for smuggling is currently prominent.
Image Credits: Rye Museum .