KulTour - the series of events organised by museums and educational institutions

The KulTour series of events organised by the museums and educational institutions in Chemnitz will once again offer a wide range of cultural insights from next Thursday, 19 October until mid-February next year - every Thursday from 3.30 to 5 pm.

The "KulTour" is now taking place for the third time as a joint series, this time with the participation of the Museum of Industry, the Chemnitz State Museum of Archaeology, the Schloßberg Museum, the German Games Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Neue Sächsische Galerie and the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre, through which registration is open. The series is aimed at anyone who has time and leisure for culture and cultural education on Thursday afternoons. The programme focuses on exhibitions, exhibits, collections and special topics of the individual museums and institutions. The range of topics includes natural sciences, art, technology, history and archaeology. Guests are given an exciting look behind the scenes that is otherwise not possible.

The range of this year's KulTour includes insights into the world of poisonous plants, interesting facts about Saxony's first farmers, burial cultures and communication through gestures. It looks at the artistic heritage of communism and Saxon art after 1945, vividly illustrates the production of games in the GDR, the foundry industry in Chemnitz and takes a bird's eye view of the city of Chemnitz, but also through the window into the history of the earth. Join us on a journey through the city's museums and educational institutions.

The events cost 4 euros each. Please register via the Chemnitz Adult Education Centre(www.vhs-chemnitz.de, by telephone on 488-4343 or directly on site at the VHS in the TIETZ).

The events in detail:

The dose makes the poison
Do you know the names and effects of the plants in your garden? Did you know that aconite is the deadliest plant in Europe? But it's the dose that makes the poison. In this course, embark on a journey through our local gardens and be fascinated by the two faces of plants!
Thursday, 19.10.17, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Museum of Natural History, Moritzstraße 20

Guided tour: Red October. Communism as fiction and command
The exhibition on the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution explores the connection between the communist project and artists such as the Russian avant-garde or artists from different positions in the GDR. In addition, the handling of the artistic legacy after the end of real existing socialism and the relevance of comparable models of thought and utopias for the future today will be addressed. During a tour of the exhibition, these multi-layered aspects will be explained and works by artists such as Carlfriedrich Claus, Willi Sitte, Olaf Nicolai and Via Lewandowsky will be presented. Thursday, 19.10.17, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Neue Sächsische Galerie, Moritzstraße 20

Guided tour: Saxony's first farmers
Around 7,000 years ago, immigrant farmers from the Middle East brought innovations in technology, lifestyle and economy to present-day Saxony. These innovations made projects such as longhouse construction and ditch works possible on an unprecedented scale. At the same time, they began to have an impact on the environment. This change, which can be recorded archaeologically in various landscapes in Saxony, heralded an era of constant change for the people of the Neolithic period, which is sometimes also documented by interpersonal violence. Thursday, 09.11.17, 3.30 - 5 p.m., State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, Stefan-Heym-Platz 1

Game production in the GDR/SBZ
True to the motto "WiederSPIELEN macht Freude - Die Spiele der SBZ & DDR", many visitors will be able to revisit their own childhood memories. Discover games that were produced in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR and how they differ from today's games. Thursday, 16.11.17, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Deutsches SPIELEmuseum e. V., Neefestraße 78A

Guided tour: Saxon art after 1945 - a look behind the scenes
Around 12,000 works of fine and applied art are stored in the collection depot of the Neue Sächsische Galerie. During a guided tour of the depot, participants can expect to see paintings, graphics and sculptures by Saxon artists as well as design objects from the period between 1945 and 1990, such as the legendary Heli-Radio by Clauss Dietel, various typewriter models or the "Mitropa crockery" that is still familiar to many. Thursday, 14.12.17, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Neue Sächsische Galerie, Moritzstraße 20

GESTEN - yesterday, today, the day after tomorrow
Gestures accompany our speech and are an important part of everyday communication. We use our hands to imitate objects and the way we handle them. This special exhibition explains how gestures are researched, why gestures represent an important store of knowledge about the use of objects and how gestures are becoming increasingly important as an interface for controlling technical devices. Participants explore the exhibition in a dialogue-based tour that invites them to try out the interactive exhibits and reflect on them. Demonstrations of selected craft techniques, gesture-controlled robots and artistic installations round off the event. Thursday, 11.01.18, 15:30 - 17:00, Chemnitz Industrial Museum, Zwickauer Straße 119

Game production in the GDR/SBZ
True to the motto "WiederSPIELEN macht Freude - Die Spiele der SBZ & DDR", many visitors will be able to revisit their own childhood memories. Discover games that were produced in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR and how they differ from today's games. Thursday, 18.01.18, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Deutsches SPIELEmuseum e. V., Neefestraße 78A

Guided tour: Special exhibition Farewell and Remembrance
People have been burying their dead for 60,000 years. In Saxony, the oldest known burials date back to around 7,000 BC. One of the largest Saxon burial grounds was found in Niederkaina near Bautzen. People were buried there from the end of the Neolithic period until the Migration Period. The artefacts and findings from Niederkaina provide an impressive insight into the rituals surrounding death and dying, the concepts of the afterlife and the world of life at that time. The exhibition draws parallels with the burial cultures of the early civilisations, Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. Thursday, 25.01.18, 3.30 - 5 p.m., State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz, Stefan-Heym-Platz 1

From a single mould
"Cast iron is the bread and butter of mechanical engineering", wrote the Sächsisches Gewerbeblatt in 1839. On a tour of the permanent exhibition at the Industrial Museum, participants will learn how the foundry industry became a pacemaker of Saxon industrialisation and how work in foundries has changed to this day. Demonstrations of metalworking machines round off the tour. In the practical part of the event, the participants themselves go through a casting process on a small scale: from the production of a sand mould to the filling of liquid tin and the deburring of the casting. Thursday, 01.02.18, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Chemnitz Industrial Museum, Zwickauer Straße 119

From a bird's eye view
Since the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the "technical marriage" of handy cameras and relatively safe flying machines has also made it possible to satisfy the demand for aerial photographs in Saxony for a wide variety of motifs. These served the need to be able to view one's own sphere of life from a bird's eye view, for example for urban planning, landscape conservation, archaeological or military purposes. The collection of aerial photographs within the photo collection at the Chemnitz Schloßbergmuseum covers one hundred years of aerial photography from 1906 to the beginning of the 21st century and invites you to view the city "from above". In addition to a lecture and slideshow, there will be the opportunity to scrutinise original examples. Thursday, 15.02.18, 3.30 - 5 p.m., Schloßbergmuseum, Schloßberg 12