The Auzoux Project

The Auzoux Project
with artist Anna Brownsted

Join artist Anna Brownsted and the Whipple Museum for a series of creative workshops inspired by Dr Louis Auzoux’s extraordinary papier-mâché teaching models. Together, we’ll reimagine Auzoux’s craft by creating new paper models that will become part of an evolving installation in the Upper Gallery—transforming the Victorian Parlour.

Funded by UCM/ACE Collections in Action

First Workshop:
Saturday 15 November, 1–4pm

Working collaboratively, participants will create a colony of mushrooms and fungi, forming the roots of a new installation in the Whipple’s Upper Gallery. Using everyday materials—newsprint, glue, and creativity—you will echo Dr Auzoux’s own secret recipe, creating papier-mâché models.

Like a mycelium network, the workshop celebrates the idea of knowledge as a living, shared resource: taking art off the pedestal, making it together, and creating access for all.

Workshop outline:

• Welcome & introduction to the project – 5 mins
• Meet Dr. Auzoux: a brief history – 5 mins
• Visit to the Parlour Room – 10 mins
• Creative warm-up activity – 10 mins
• Making session: materials, methods, and model-making – 2 hrs

Your creations will be left to dry at the Whipple, where Anna will add colour and finish the sculptures in her studio. These mycelium forms will then become part of a larger installation, unveiled during a special Late Opening and Exhibition Launch (March 2026)—an exciting opportunity to see your work displayed in the museum.

Workshop 2: Saturday 21 February, 1–4pm

Participants will collaborate again, this time to build large-scale organic sculptures inspired by Dr Auzoux’s anatomical forms. These new creations will expand the installation, transforming the gallery into a space of collective making and discovery.

Details to be announced in the new year.

Thursday 26 March – Late Opening & Exhibition Launch

A celebratory evening where participants’ papier-mâché works are revealed as a final installation in the Whipple Museum. Artist Anna Brownsted invites audiences to explore the sculptures, reanimating Auzoux’s legacy/ through contemporary creativity.