Cornwall Museum Launches 1980s Exhibition This Summer

Cassette tapes, shell suits and Pac-Man take over Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery from 12th July

Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery in Truro is getting a retro glow-up this summer with a new exhibition that celebrates all things 1980s. From Friday 12th July, the museum will host I Grew Up 80s, a vibrant collection of over 200 nostalgic items capturing the bold, bright and booming decade.

Visitors can expect a colourful mix of memorabilia covering 80s fashion, toys, collectables, technology, music and movies. The exhibition explores a time when the digital world was just starting to take shape, but hairstyles were already out of control.

“A deep dive into a decade of larger-than-life pop culture”

Bryony Robins, Co-Director of the museum, said:
“This exhibition is a deep dive into a decade of larger-than-life pop culture, distinctive music and fashion trends – not to mention amazing hairstyles. It was a golden age of movies, with an aesthetic now being recreated in hit shows like Stranger Things, Snowfall and Glow.”

The exhibition runs until 12th October and is included in the price of an annual pass, which costs £10 for adults. Under 18s go free.

80s Launch Night Party

A themed launch party, Now That’s What I Call… A Night at the Museum, will take place on Wednesday 17th July, promising music and fashion from the decade that brought us shoulder pads, yuppies and white jeans.

Family activities all summer long

The museum is also running free family activities each week through the school holidays. Kids (and their grown-ups) will get the chance to:

• Make a brick-like Nokia 3120

• Neon print a skinny tie

• Create an 80s pop collage

• Design Lego protest boards

Bryony said:
“We’re immersing families in a time when teens didn’t have to worry about their leg warmers or deeley boppers being on social media, and mullets and perms were reserved for the family photo album. There was a lot of economic and social upheaval in the 80s and life certainly wasn’t a bed of roses, but culturally looking back now you could see it as a last frivolous flourishing of the pre-analogue, digital world.”

A glimpse of a world before the web

The exhibition reflects a turning point in technology too. While the roots of digital life stretch back to the 1950s, it was in 1989 that Tim Berners-Lee proposed what would become the World Wide Web. Just two years later, the internet began spreading across the globe, changing life forever.

Bryony added:
“As a summer show aimed at families, I Grew Up 80s is designed to be fun above all else, but it’s also intended to provoke conversations. The show explores how the way we play and communicate has changed.”

Tickets and more info

Adult annual passes are £10, and under 18s go free. Families can also pick up an 80s-themed ‘summer passport’ to record the activities they take part in during the exhibition.

For more details or to book tickets for the launch party on 17th July, visit:
https://cornwallmuseum.digitickets.co.uk/category/61158?navItem=925293
Or head to: www.cornwallmuseum.org