Dinosaurs of China - Part Two

I covered part one of our visit to this exhibition in my Five on Friday post on 7th July - link here.  The main part of this exhibition is at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham but there is a second smaller exhibition at the Djanogly Centre which is part of Lakeside Arts on the University Campus.  We had booked tickets to hear a talk given by Pterosaur expert  Dr Mark Witton of Portsmouth University.  It was a free lunchtime talk called 'Not your Father's Pterosaurs: How Scientists are Reinterpreting Mesozoic Flying Reptiles' although it sounds rather specialist and dry and given that I'm not the Pterosaur expert of the two of us I actually found it quite fascinating and Mark Witton an excellent and engaging speaker.

We set out from home to drive to Beeston where we parked and caught the tram to the University.  The journey only took about ten minutes and I was able to use my bus pass by just registering it at a little swipe machine.  

  

The trams in Nottingham are each dedicated to a famous person from or who has deep connections with the County of Nottinghamshire.  Thus you will spot passing by trams with such names as  Brian Clough, D H Lawrence, Lord Byron, Torvil and Dean, Jesse Boot, William Booth, Alan Sillitoe, Ada Lovelace and many more not forgetting Robin Hood of course.  I didn't notice which tram we travelled down to the University on but we came back on Vicky McClure and spotted Rebecca Adlington going the opposite way at the tram stop.

The exhibition was in the smaller gallery at the Djanogly Centre.  We had a good look around.

Plenty of space to sit and wander around in this part of the exhibition which concentrated on Palaeo-art or bringing Dinosaurs to life.  It looked at the ways artist and scientists have illustrated and depicted the remains they have found.

Alxasaurus a feathered vegetarian descended from meat eaters.  Early Cretaceous it was found in Inner Mongolia, norther China. and could grow up to about 4 metres long.

Dilophosaurus sinensis - has hollow bones like birds.  A carnivore it is from the Early Jurassic and was found in Yunnan Province in China. Size 4 metres long or the size of a mini car.

After looking at this exhibition we moved on to the main Summer exhibition at the centre.  In complete contrast this exhibition was entitled Kaleidoscope: Colour and Sequence in 1960s British Art.   

Photos were not allowed in many areas of this exhibition so I've included a photo from the 'What's On' leaflet I picked up.  It was a fascinating display of bold shapes and bright colours.

After coffee and what was labelled a date and walnut scone but which after slicing in half and buttering appeared to contain only apricots we strolled out to the lake and walked a little way along the lakeside path watching new graduates with their proud families having their photos taken with the lake as a backdrop. 

It was time to take our seats in the small theatre at the back of the Lakeside building pictured below.

The talk started with screen shots of how artists and film directors had depicted Pterosaurs in the past and how different today's thoughts on both appearance and lifestyle had changed.  The talk lasted about 40 minutes and there were lots of questions afterwards.

We emerged from the cool dark theatre into hot, bright sunshine and made our way back to the nearby tram stop to catch a tram back to Beeston where we picked up our very hot car and began what proved to be a very uncomfortable and sticky drive home.