Visitors to select a ‘People’s object’ at NML’s 40th anniversary exhibition

National Museums Liverpool is inviting visitors to select a ‘People’s object’ from its collections as it celebrates four decades of Liverpool’s national museum network.

Part of its 40-year celebrations,last week marked forty years since the Merseyside Museums and Galleries Order was laid before Parliament, on 13 February 1986. It established the Board of Trustees of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside (now known as National Museums Liverpool). 

The exhibition, ‘National Museums Liverpool at 40’ will display objects selected by the public, alongside organisation staff. 

Alongside items selected by museum curators, some of the objects in the exhibition are chosen by those who work in the organisation, including National Museums Liverpool director Laura Pye and the new chair of National Museums Liverpool Andrea Nixon. 

Colleagues who have worked at the museums and galleries for 40 years or more have also been given the opportunity to choose an object to go on display.

The selections mean that for the first time, the group of seven museums and galleries will display items from each venue in the exhibition, which is to open at its World Museum.

‘National Museums Liverpool at 40’ opens to the public from 3 April 2026, displaying 40 objects from its collection, some never before displayed.

Visitors will be given the opportunity to select a ‘People’s object’ over the course of the exhibition.

Joe Brook, head of audiences and media at National Museums Liverpool, said: “Marking 40 years of National Museums Liverpool provides us with an opportunity to look back on highlights of the past four decades, and celebrate our city’s huge impact on UK and international culture.

“It is also an opportunity to look forward to the future. To think about the purpose and role of museums and galleries in not just telling stories of the past but shaping how we continue to change lives in the future.”