Become a Friend of MAA
The Friends organisation makes a vital contribution to the success of MAA as a thriving, accessible and relevant museum. Members of the Friends play a vital role in supporting fundraising activities and sponsoring a range of events and activities, including the prestigious annual Von Hu̎gel Lecture.
Visitors to the Museum look at displays in the COLOUR: Art, Science and Power exhibition during the Late: COLOUR - Art, Science & Power event. 2 November 2022.
A good time to join…
The Friends of MAA have an exciting programme of events, activities and opportunities – for individuals and students alike.
Benefits of Membership
- For you…
- The exclusive MAA Friends Newsletter
- Invitations to special events and exhibition previews
- A discount at the Museum shop - For the Museum…
- The backing and enthusiasm of committed Members
- Financial support – from your subscription – for care of our collections,
ongoing research, acquisitions, scholarships, exhibitions
- Your personal input, in the form of opinions, individual expertise and – if
possible – your time (perhaps with help at some of our events or as a
member of the Friends Committee)
To find out more, please email Paul at friends@maa.cam.ac.uk.
How to join the MAA Friends, or renew your existing membership
You can join online or by post. Membership options are:
- Individual Friend - £28.00
- Joint Friends (for two members living at the same address) - £40.00
- Under 25s - £15.00
- Student (University of Cambridge) - £5.00
- Life Friend - £400.00
- Joint Life Friends - £600.00
Join or renew online today!
To join by post, please complete the below form:
You may send the form to:
Membership Secretary, The Friends of MAA
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3DZ
Events
Details of future Friends events will be published soon.
Von Hügel Lecture
In 2010, the Museum launched its annual lecture series, named after the founding Curator Baron Anatole von Hügel, with the generous support of Peter Chapman, founding Chair of the MAA Friends. In 2019, the tenth annual lecture was delivered.
The inaugural Von Hügel lecture by Director Nicholas Thomas, 'Von Hügel's curiosiry: Encounter and experiment in the new museum', can be found printed as delivered in the HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 1(1).
Von Hügel Lecture 2025-2026: Pasifika Styles and other Pacific Museum Stories
The Queen's Lecture Theatre, Emmanuel College
5 March 2026, 5:00pm
Ngati Ranana (members of the London Maori club) performing at Pasifika Styles, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006-2008
When the exhibition Pasifika Styles opened in 2006, Professor Wonu Veys was a staff member of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. For Wonu Veys it was the first time she collaborated with contemporary artists who worked with the museum’s ethnographic collections. Looking back at this foundational exhibition – in terms of curatorial, museological practices and thematic explorations – Wonu Veys will discuss the diversification of Pacific stories that ensued in European museums and propose pathways for the future.
Download the 2026 Von Hügel Lecture programme:
About the speaker
Fanny Wonu Veys is curator Oceania at the Wereldmuseum and professor by special appointment ‘Arts and Material Culture of Oceania’ at Leiden University. Veys has curated the Mana Maori exhibition (2010–2011), Things that Matter (2017-), Australian Art (2019-2026), What a Genderful World (2019-2020; 2021-2022), A Sea of Islands (2020-2021), Treasures from the depot: Easter Island (2022-) and Time for Papua (2026).
Booking for this event is essential; however, this is a Friends only event and members should email friends@maa.cam.ac.uk to book their place. Information on how to become a Friend can be found in the How to join the MAA Friends section.
Watch recordings of the most recent lectures:
Von Hügel Lecture 2019:
The V&A: Imperial pasts and the post-colonial present - Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Recorded at the Howard Theatre, Downing College, University of Cambridge, 14 March 2019
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Von Hügel Lecture 2018:
Narrating and Curating the 'ritual object' - John Mack, Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia
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MAA Friends Executive Committee
Chair: Vacant
Member: Jane Woods
Member: Carol Bell
Member: Rosie Littlehales
Member: Les Andrews
Member: Charles Reese
Membership Secretary: Wendy Brown
Director of the Museum: Nicholas Thomas
Museum Manager: Lucy Hockley
New Committee Members
There is plenty of further scope to arrange additional special events and talks at MAA, and to organise tours to similar museums and galleries. Many other Friends’ organisations have Committee members who take charge of events and outings programmes, and MAA Friends would like to emulate them within our special areas of interest.
We are keen to recruit new Committee members for this specific purpose as well as to participate in our existing partnership work with MAA. Would you like to get involved in this rewarding activity? For an informal discussion please send us an email.
For information on how we use Friends’ personal data please see our Friends’ Data Protection Statement: