You are here:
Home
>
News and Events
>
College News
>
Record Numbers Attend College Open House
Record Numbers Attend College Open House
30 September 2008
The College once again opened its doors to the public on Sunday 21 September as part of London’s annual Open House weekend - a celebration of the Capital’s new and historic buildings. 699 buildings across London participated and a record number of 219 visitors came through the College’s doors.
Guests were drawn mainly from London and the Home Counties, but included visitors from across the UK and as far a field as Russia and Japan. Visitors really appreciated the opportunity to learn about optometry whilst looking around the College’s Georgian building and museum.
Optometrist Elisabeth Lowe, one of five College Members helping to steward the event, said; “The people I talked to really enjoyed looking around College and it was a great opportunity to engage with the public about matters of eye health and heritage”.
Another College Fellow, John Dixon Salt, reported that he fielded a wide range of challenging enquiries from the public including the perennial ‘So what exactly is an optimist?’ He added that “the continuing public confusion over the various professional roles in the world of eye care and lack of understanding on eye health makes an event like Open House all the more important”.
The event included the launch of the museum’s first ever temporary exhibition by a contemporary artist: The Micro Museum of Optography by Derek Ogbourne, which explores the historic belief that the last image seen before death might somehow be retained on the retina.
This temporary exhibition is on display at the museum until March 2009. Viewing by appointment only, although many items of interest from the museum’s collection are available online here.