14 February to 31 August 2008

Explore love and attraction, tender romance and the call of the wild, as Brighton Museum goes on the pull. Come along with your friends and lovers to discover the hidden love stories of objects in the museum.

Six Brightonians looked at the love lives of our objects. What they discovered will beguile and astonish you – from coming of age to the thrill of the chase, when love goes wrong and the happy-ever-after.

Through music, film, paintings, pottery and postcards, explore love, lust, adultery, intrigue and revenge across the ages.

On the Pull takes over Brighton Museum from14 February to 31 August 2008. Drop in for a ten minute taster, or linger at your leisure. Admission is free.

Visit our myspace here
myspace.com/brightononthepull
New events and activities will be announced on myspace, where anyone can join up as friends of On the Pull, enjoy video and audio clips, add comments and follow the blogs

Displays include:

On the Pull – the secret stories
14 February to 31 August 2008
Main gallery, Brighton Museum
Drawing from Brighton & Hove Museums collections of World Art, Decorative Art, Local History, Toys and Natural Science, these interventions explore the quest to find a perfect lover.

A Love of Oils
14 February 2008 to 1 February 2009
Fine Art galleries, Brighton Museum
Are you on the hunt for a lover? Do you enjoy gossiping about celebrity love affairs? Have you ever consulted a fortune teller about your future partner or are you settled with your soul mate in domestic bliss? From Victorian fortune telling to Brighton Pride, explore the themes of love and courtship through a selection of paintings from the Fine Art collection.

May happiness knock you over
14 February to 31 August 2008
Fine Art galleries, Brighton Museum
A new film commission by international artist Melanie Manchot created in the Botanical Gardens of Bogotá, Colombia, with a specially recorded soundtrack by Colombian musicians who fuse Latin rhythms with contemporary pop. Personal, political, poignant, the film explores stories of love lost and found. Manchot says ‘Most of my recent work looks at specific, often intimate, gestures such as the kiss, and questions how such a gesture becomes a metaphor for relating desires, fantasies and needs’.

The Course of True Love
5 February 2008 to 1 February 2009
Mr Willett’s Popular Pottery, Brighton Museum
Plot the rules of attraction and the etiquette of courtship from the 18th to the 20th century through a new display of pottery and porcelain drawn from Brighton Museum’s extensive collections.

Related event

Brief Encounter
Thursday 21 August 2008 2-4pm
The Old Courtroom, Church Street, Brighton
Enjoy a free screening of one of the greatest British romantic films ever made, with a short introduction by James Clarke, writer and lecturer in Film Studies.
Free admission

On the Pull is supported by the Designation Challenge Fund, Renaissance in the Regions and Brighton & Hove City Council.