Vote for the Petrie in Museums at Night competition

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has been nominated in the Museums at Night Connect10 competition, an initiative designed to find the inspiring after hours cultural events in museums, galleries and heritage sites around the UK. Supported by the National Lottery and Arts Council England, the winner will work at this year's Museums at Night event with rAndom International, the artists behind the award-winning Rain Room at The Barbican.  "This presents us with a very exciting opportunity to bring new audiences to our collection of almost 80,000 everyday objects of Egyptian daily life in a new, daring and playful way working with innovative art practitioners rAndom International," said museum manager Tonya Nelson. The Petrie Museum houses UCL's Egyptian and Sudanese collections. Its importance was officially recognised in 1998 when it was designated by the UK government as being of 'outstanding importance'. Despite its small facility, it ranks with the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum in New York and Neues Museum in Berlin as one of the top specialist collections of objects from the Nile Valley region. The collection is comprised of artefacts excavated by Sir William Flinders Petrie, commonly known as the 'Father of Modern Egyptology' and a pioneer of modern archaeological methods. The collection is unique because it is one of the few that comes from properly documented excavations.