The weekly feature rounds up the latest updates in museum appointments, openings, funding and new exhibitions from across the UK.
Museum Moves is supported by DJW Projects Limited: DJW Projects Limited. DJW Projects Limited is recognised as one of the UK’s leading forces in the audio-visual industry, providing creative lighting, Audio Visual and multimedia solutions globally to achieve the ultimate technological experience, using sound, lighting, vision and interaction.
Museum Moves September 2025 – 2 October 2025
Appointments
National Museums Liverpool has appointed Andrea Nixon MBE as the new chair of its board. Prior to establishing her own consultancy in 2018, Nixon was Executive Director of Tate Liverpool, where she led the management and development of the gallery.
The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, has appointed Professor Martin Levermore as its new chair. Professor Levermore will take up the role in October, chairing a board of 15 trustees. He will become the seventh long-term chair since the charitable trust was established 50 years ago in 1975.
The chair of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust is to step down in November 2026 after completing ten years in post, as a search for his successor begins.
Admiral Sir Trevor Soar to step down as chair of Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
Openings & closures
The Science Museum has opened its Space gallery, a new free gallery exploring the history and future of space exploration, featuring UK space sector innovations including prototype propulsion technology and a Moon rover. The exhibition includes a three-billion-year-old lunar fragment, Tim Peake’s Soyuz spacecraft, and Helen Sharman’s newly-conserved space suit, and marks the first time a Soyuz descent module and Apollo 10 command module have been displayed together.
Exhibitions
Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter
Laing Art Gallery | Newcastle
Opening: 18 October 2025 – Closing: 28 February 2026
The exhibition explores small-scale landscapes across three centuries of British art with particular focus on vignette format illustrations. Highlights include seven watercolours by JMW Turner, a drawing by John Martin, and nine watercolours by Beatrix Potter including works for ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ and ‘The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies’. The exhibition features over 130 objects, with 90 on loan from other UK collections including works by Thomas Bewick, William Blake, John Tenniel’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ illustrations, and contemporary pieces by artists including Aaron Angell, Paul Coldwell, and Joanna Whittle.
From HOPE to HEALTH: ideas for greener healthcare
V&A Dundee | Dundee
Opening: 2 October 2025 – Closing: 8 February 2026
The exhibition showcases innovative research from Design HOPES partnership featuring product prototypes, video, games and design tools demonstrating progress in reducing healthcare’s environmental impact. Key displays include reusable theatre caps trialled across 10 NHS Scotland health boards, Medi-Flax exploring locally produced flax for healthcare textiles, and Sustainable Scrubs biodegradable uniforms developed with fashion designer Niki Taylor. The exhibition presents designs developed in Dundee including the Green Ward Toolkit and Flow digital tool using real data from Ninewells Hospital.
Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse
National Gallery | London
Opening: 12 March 2026 – Closing: 31 May 2026
The exhibition features a monumental painting of a rearing horse, ‘Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham’ (about 1762), the only life-size horse portrait by George Stubbs still in private collection. Visitors can compare this work with Stubbs’s masterpiece ‘Whistlejacket’ (about 1762) from the National Gallery’s collection, displayed nearby in Room 34. The exhibition contextualises the commission through Stubbs’s anatomical studies conducted between 1756-58 in Horkstow, Lincolnshire, and ‘The Turf Review’ project from 1790.
Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat
Manchester Museum | Manchester
Opening: 25 October 2025 – Closing: 22 February 2026
A family-friendly exhibition featuring a magnificent 1.9-metre long fossilised Triceratops skull. The display explores how this three-horned dinosaur lived in the Cretaceous period, including its anatomy, diet, and survival strategies against predators like T. rex. Interactive elements include a digital touch replica of the skull and a fossil dig where families can uncover replicas and learn palaeontological techniques.
Fairy Tales
British Library | London
Opening: 27 March 2026 – Closing: 23 August 2026
The exhibition explores fairy tales and their enduring appeal to children worldwide, featuring stories from Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella to Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. Visitors can discover enchanted tales from across the world through interactive activities and exhibits examining magical creatures, mysterious woods, glamorous palaces and ‘happy-ever-after’ endings. The display includes historic manuscripts, contemporary illustrations, pop-up books, costumes, puppets, original manuscripts, colourful illustrations, graphics and theatre costumes, showcasing retellings by Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault as well as stories from India, China, Africa and North America.
No worldly good to worry about: the art of William Ratcliffe
North Herts Museum | Hitchin
Opening: 4 October 2025 – Closing: 30 November 2025
The museum’s first exhibition dedicated to William Ratcliffe (1870-1955), a Garden City artist and founding member of the Camden Town Group. The show features more than fifty works including oils, watercolours, prints and drawings from the museum’s collection, which holds the largest collection of Ratcliffe’s work in the country. The exhibition also includes three rare oils by fellow Camden Town artist Spencer Gore (1878-1914).
Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans
British Museum | London
Opening: 15 January 2026 – Closing: 25 May 2026
This exhibition examines Hawaiʻi’s history and ties with the United Kingdom, commemorating 200 years since Hawaiian King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu visited London. The exhibition features around 150 objects including a ʻahu ʻula feathered cloak sent by Kamehameha I to King George III, displayed for the first time in over 100 years alongside the Hawaiian king’s original letter. Other highlights include a nine-foot kiʻi of the god Kū, a finely carved drum, and the Anglo-Franco proclamation of 1843 recognising Hawaiʻi’s independence.
Funding
Museums Galleries Scotland has awarded the final two Community Catalysts grants, giving £28,333 each to projects in Shetland and Dundee.
MGS awards final grants for community-led museum collaborations
