Museum Moves 16 – 22 January 2026

Appointments

Caroline Hope, a partner at Deloitte and chair of YoungMinds, has been appointed as a Trustee on the Historic Royal Palaces Board for a three-year term starting 9 January 2026. Her expertise in strategic leadership, organisational transformation, and stakeholder engagement, particularly with young people, will be valuable to the Board.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park has appointed a new director and chief executive, a newly combined role ahead of its 50th anniversary.Joe Hill, currently director and chief executive of Towner Eastbourne, will take up the role from 14 April 2026.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park appoints director ahead of 50th anniversary

Richard Doughty, Director of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, will retire in June 2026 after a decade of leadership. Under his guidance, the museum became Cornwall’s most popular, attracting visitors and boosting the local economy. Stuart Slade, head of public programming, will serve as interim director.

Sally Tallant has been appointed director of the Hayward Gallery and Visual Arts at the Southbank Centre, starting in July 2026. She will lead the Hayward Gallery, organise visual arts installations across the Southbank Centre site, and oversee a national programme through Hayward Gallery Touring. Sally previously served as Director of the Queens Museum in New York and Artistic Director and CEO of the Liverpool Biennial.

Wellcome has announced that Melanie Keen, who has been director of Wellcome Collection since 2019, will step down this spring.

Melanie Keen to step down as Wellcome Collection director

Openings & closures

Ipswich Museum’s reopening, initially planned for 2025 and then spring 2026, has been delayed again until the end of 2026. Carole Jones told BBC Radio Suffolk that the museum is “hoping for the end of this year”, in a plan which could include a phased opening as it looks for a contractor to build new display cases for its artefacts.

Exhibitions

The Colonial Brontës
Brontë Parsonage Museum | Haworth
Opening: 4 February 2026 – Closing: 1 January 2027
The exhibition examines the influence of British colonialism on the Brontë siblings and their work, focusing on the period of exploration, conquest and intercultural encounters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It reveals how Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë, who in 1826 invented their own imaginary colonies called the Glass Town Federation inspired by the Asante Empire in West Africa, incorporated colonial military campaigns and British missionary activity into their juvenile writings and later adult works including ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’. Items on display include manuscripts created by the Brontës as children, reading materials with handwritten notes and doodles, matchbox-sized miniature books, and materials relating to race, Heathcliff’s ethnicity and the presence of people of African heritage in 19th century Yorkshire.

Architectural Heritage Fund: 50 Years of Reimagining Heritage
Riddel’s Warehouse | Belfast
Opening: 6 February 2026 – Closing: 18 February 2026

This touring exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the Architectural Heritage Fund, which has supported 2,432 projects and awarded £182,060,862 in grants since 1976. The Belfast presentation showcases six Northern Irish projects including Lissan House, Murphy’s on Main Street in Ederney, Caledon Woolstore, Riddel’s Warehouse, Bangor Courthouse and Hamilton Terrace, alongside nationwide work at sites such as Jubilee Pool in Penzance, Cromford Mills in Derbyshire, Collective Gallery Edinburgh and Penarth Piers. The exhibition is housed in Riddel’s Warehouse, a Grade B+ listed ironmongery warehouse dating from 1867, which features an intact interior of cast iron galleries and light-filled roof structure.

Pets & their People
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford | Oxford
Opening: 11 March 2026 – Closing: 27 September 2026
The exhibition explores the history of human relationships with pets, from the earliest depictions of service animals to contemporary pet culture. Items on display include a rare first edition of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ that was Lewis Carroll’s personal copy with original illustrations by John Tenniel, a 16th-century Turkish manuscript ‘Acaib ül-mahlukat’ (Wonders of Creation) featuring a dog-headed human, and a previously unseen series by Daniel Meadows depicting a Lancashire pet cemetery. Other highlights include a 14th-century Latin Psalter showing one of the earliest depictions of an assistance animal, a papyrus scroll from Ancient Egypt for a camel, an early Blackpool tram ticket for a dog, the original manuscript of Kenneth Grahame’s ‘The Wind in the Willows’, and a Dickin medal created during World War II to honour animals’ service during conflict.

Poster Power!
Victoria Art Gallery | Bath
Opening: 23 January 2025 – Closing: 10 May 2026
The exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath presents 200 years of British poster design, featuring 19th- and 20th-century advertising posters from the collections of the Victoria Art Gallery and Bath Record Office. Posters on display include designs for Theatre Royal productions (including playbills for ‘Richard III’ from 1805 and 1989), the Bath & West Show, Walcot Street community events, and Bath Festivals. The exhibition features works by Bath-based designers Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, known for their 1930s work for London Transport and Shell, alongside vintage railway posters promoting Bath’s Georgian architecture and The Roman Baths.

Gladiators of Britain
Tullie | Carlisle
Opening: 7 February 2026 – Closing: 31 May 2026
A touring British Museum Partnership Exhibition exploring the history of gladiatorial combat in Britain, examining who gladiators were and the importance of spectacle in Roman culture. The exhibition features remarkable objects including the Hawkedon Helmet (the only confirmed piece of gladiatorial armour found in Roman Britain), a murmillo figurine, a marble relief of a beast fighter, and the Colchester Vase thought to depict a real gladiatorial battle. Set against the backdrop of Carlisle’s strategic position on the Roman frontier, the exhibition explores the social position of gladiators, different classes of fighters including venatores (beast-fighters), and brings together objects from the British Museum, Colchester + Ipswich Museums, and Tullie’s collection.

Uncovering Roman Carlisle: Where Worlds Met
Tullie | Carlisle
Opening: 7 February 2026 – Closing: 31 May 2026
An exhibition exploring Carlisle’s role as a vibrant frontier city of the Roman Empire, revealing how people, cultures, goods, ideas and beliefs from across the Roman world met and mixed at this northern outpost. Drawing on recent archaeological discoveries from the excavation at Carlisle Cricket Club, the exhibition features finds from as far away as Syria and explores themes of migration and settlement in Roman Carlisle (then known as Luguvalium). The exhibition repositions Carlisle as a place of global significance in the ancient world nearly two thousand years ago.

Frida: The Making of an Icon
Tate Modern | London
Opening: 25 June 2026 – Closing: 3 January 2027
This exhibition at Tate Modern in London explores how Frida Kahlo became a global icon and her influence on subsequent generations of artists. Over 30 works by Kahlo will be displayed, including rarely seen self-portraits such as ‘Self-Portrait (With Velvet Dress)’ 1926, ‘Self-Portrait with Loose Hair’ 1938, ‘The Frame’ 1938, ‘Memory (The Heart)’ 1937, ‘Girl with a Death Mask’ 1938, and ‘My Dress Hangs There’ 1933-8. The exhibition also features works by Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Kati Horna, Leonor Fini, Kiki Smith, Judy Chicago, Ana Mendieta, Yasumasa Morimura, Martine Gutierrez and Berenice Olmedo, alongside photographs, personal artefacts including Kahlo’s tehuana dresses, and over 200 objects of Frida Kahlo merchandise.

James McNeill Whistler
Tate Britain | London
Opening: 21 May 2026 – Closing: 27 September 2026
Tate Britain presents Europe’s largest retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in three decades, bringing together 150 works spanning painting, drawing, printmaking and design. The exhibition includes the iconic ‘Arrangement in Black and Grey: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother’ (1871), a collection of nocturnes from Valparaiso to Venice, and previously unseen sketchbooks from his teenage years. Works on display range from early self-portraits and etchings of modern life to his atmospheric Thames landscapes, full-length portraits, and experimental late works including ‘Dance House: Nocturne’ (1889).

Amongst the Trees and Terraces: Donald Towner
Burgh House | London
Opening: 5 March 2026 – Closing: 20 December 2026
Burgh House presents the first exhibition in decades celebrating Hampstead-based painter Donald Towner (1903–1985), spanning the interwar and postwar years. The exhibition traces Towner’s landscapes, cityscapes, and Hampstead views, including rubble-strewn streets around St Paul’s Cathedral in the aftermath of WWII and works commissioned by the British Tourist Board depicting landscapes across the country. The exhibition includes works from Burgh House’s collection, loans from private collectors, and rarely seen paintings of Hampstead landmarks including Hampstead Parish Church and Louis’ Café.

Funding

DCMS has announced a £1.5bn package is to be invested in cultural organisations across England over a five-year period.

DCMS reveals £1.5bn package for museums, heritage buildings