One of the great things about living in Cambridge is having free and easy access to the Fitzwilliam Museum: an enormous building with a great collection of art, sculptures, ceramics... even the building itself is worth seeing, both inside and out.  It's far more than most towns of our fairly modest size could hope for, and we visit it regularly.

I also like to take visitors down the narrow Fitzwilliam St opposite to see a discreet plaque on the wall of no. 22: "Charles Darwin lived here, 1836-7". He came to Cambridge after he returned from his voyage on the Beagle, and I like to think that he was writing up his notes here and might have stayed for longer, if he hadn't been disturbed by the building work just starting across the street for the museum.

Anyway, we enjoyed our latest visit with friends on Saturday, but I'm afraid the Fitz has gone a bit 'woke'... and I'm not someone who often uses that pejorative word.  

The little descriptive cards alongside all the paintings have been replaced recently, and now they are keen not so much to tell you about the brush technique, the unusual use of light, and the influence of other artists, as to make socio-political points.  You know the kind of thing: everything men do is bad and everything women do is good.  When rich people are portrayed, they are ostentatiously displaying their wealth.  When they create anything beautiful, we must remember that lots of poor people suffered in order for them to do so.  When poor people are shown, if they are sad, we can see the oppressive circumstances under which they lived, and if they appear to be happy or content, that is because it's an unrealistic idyll showing how divorced the painter was from the harsh realities of the time.  

Some of which, of course, may be true, but is it really the role of an art gallery to display all these wonderful creations and then tell you how bad you should feel about them?  Perhaps they're concerned about the threats from narrow-minded protesters with a taste for vandalism, and hope to deflect their ire by mentioning slavery and oppression and misogyny quite a lot.  Anyway, it has clearly been a recent policy decision of the current management, and I think it's a pity.

But do go and visit anyway, and enjoy the exhibits!  It's worth it, and you'll have a good time if you don't read too many of the descriptions.  And the cafe is nice too.