The weekly feature rounds up the latest updates in museum appointments, openings, funding and new exhibitions from across the UK.
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Appointments
The Holburne Museum in Bath has appointed a new assistant curator in Ben Sharp. The curator and researcher specialising in Modern British Art and contemporary photography brings experience from galleries and museums including Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, and The Charleston Trust in Lewes.
Openings & closures
More than 30 historic seasonal sites across the country have reopened to visitors across Scotland this week, as Historic Scotland marks the start of its spring/summer season. Castles, chapels, abbeys and mills will open alongside sites such as St Vigeans Stones & Museum, and Whithorn Priory and Museum.
Tullie in Cumbria is set to unveil its new spaces at the end of April, including a new welcome area and entrance, a new shop, and a newly developed gallery. The museum has partnered with De Matos Ryan Architects, the design team behind the recent redevelopment of the Young V&A on the redevelopment. The redesigned Carlisle Gallery will showcase the history of the border city.
Exhibitions
A major exhibition at The King’s Gallery in London will explore the glamorous Edwardian era, showcasing over 300 items including fashion, jewellery, paintings, and decorative arts. Highlights include works by notable artists such as John Singer Sargent, Fabergé, and Oscar Wilde, offering insights into the royal couples’ lives and cultural tastes. The exhibition ‘The Edwardians: Age of Elegance’ will run from 11 April 2025 – 23 November 2025.
Alison Lambert’s first solo exhibition since 2017, ‘Human Exploration: Heads and Myths’ features large-scale charcoal drawings and monotypes exploring human emotion and mythology at Derby Museums. The collection showcases works created over the past five years including several earlier pieces, with striking portraits in one gallery and mythological figures in another. The exhibition is open now an runs until 4 May 2025.
One of Kurt Cobain’s guitars and the iconic olive-green mohair cardigan will be reunited for the first time at the ‘Kurt Cobain Unplugged’ exhibition at Royal College of Music Museum in London. The exhibition explores Nirvana’s groundbreaking MTV Unplugged performance and features rare memorabilia including gig posters, collectable vinyl, and guitar parts, showcasing the band’s enduring musical legacy. The exhibition runs from 3 June 2025 – 18 November 2025.
Santiago Yahuarcani’s first international solo exhibition will be presented at The Whitworth as part of the 2025 Manchester International Festival. Approximately 30 paintings created from 2010 to the present day will showcase the artist’s narrative-rich practice, using natural pigments on llanchama bark cloth to depict Uitoto culture, from origin myths to colonial violence. The exhibition runs from 4 July 2025 – 4 January 2026.
The ‘Secrets of the Thames: Mudlarking London’s lost treasures’ exhibition at London Museum Docklands displays over 350 objects discovered on the Thames foreshore, including a Tudor headdress, Medieval gold ring, Viking dagger and 18th-century false teeth. This first major exhibition on mudlarking explores the internationally important archaeological site and how mudlarks have helped uncover thousands of years of London’s history. The exhibition runs from 4 April 2025 – 1 March 2026.
A new exhibition at Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery reveals the lost works of Terry Shaul, a marginalised artist who lived in Barripper near Camborne between 1969 and 1991. The collection showcases Shaul’s ‘naïve’ style paintings characterised by bright colours and simplified forms, including personal vignettes, murals, wall drawings, and notable paintings of his cat Tibby. ‘The Lost Works of Terry Shaul’ is open now and runs until 21 June 2025.
Funding
A £5m programme to help communities rescue and repurpose historic buildings has been announced by The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF). The government-backed registered charity, which promotes the conservation and sustainable reuse of historic buildings is delivering the ‘Heritage Revival Fund’ in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Historic England.
£5m Heritage Revival Fund opens to ‘breathe new life’ into historic buildings
