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.
Appointments
Aerospace Bristol has appointed its first chief operating officer (COO), an appointment made as part of a ten-year strategy to double visitor numbers and grow its commercial operations.
Aerospace Bristol makes ‘landmark’ hire in bid to double visitors
The Museum Data Service has appointed Dr Mia Ridge as head of service. Dr Ridge joins on secondment from the British Library, where she is digital curator for Western Heritage Collections.
Openings and closures
The Museum of Youth Culture has pushed back its opening date again. The Camden museum was first set to open to the public in October 2026, but a leak in its basement venue pushed back the reopening to December 2026 and again to May 2026. The 8m deep basement is set to house our youth gallery, main gallery, workshop and archive spaces. Its website now states it plans to open 20 June 2026.
The upcoming Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration also has a new opening date. It has announced that it will now open to the public on Friday 5 June 2026.
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration sets new June opening date
Exhibitions
Field to Fashion
Museum of Making | Derby
Opening: 24 April 2026 – Closing: [Date TBC]
A new exhibition at the Museum of Making exploring the journey of raw British fleece through to contemporary clothing, featuring fine art installations, graduate and student work, and interactive displays. The exhibition brings together farmers, designers, artists and makers to highlight the processes behind wool production, from traditional skills such as shearing, spinning and dyeing to sustainable fashion design. It includes the outcomes of a collaborative uniform design project developed with GCSE Textile students and industry partners including John Smedley and British Wool, and is free to enter.
The Joy of the Frog
The Sherborne | Sherborne
Opening: 27 April 2026 – Closing: 27 June 2026
Sir Quentin Blake (b.1932) has created a new mural, ‘The Joy of the Frog’, installed on the atrium staircase of The Sherborne. The work marks the 300th anniversary of James Thornhill’s (1675/76–1734) baroque mural ‘The Calydonian Boar Hunt’, to which Blake’s piece serves as a contemporary counterpoint. The mural depicts a frog’s journey through scenes of music, performance and play across multiple levels of the staircase.
The Influence of John Constable
Munnings Art Museum | Dedham
Opening: [Date TBC] – Closing: 25 October 2026
A complementary exhibition examining the influence of John Constable (1776–1837) on Sir Alfred Munnings, featuring sky studies and what is believed to be a Constable sketchbook gifted by Violet, Lady Munnings to her husband in the 1950s. The exhibition runs concurrently with ‘Pictures from Private Collections’ at Castle House.
Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff
Petworth House and Park | Petworth
Opening: 23 May 2026 – Closing: 27 September 2026
Ceramicist Felicity Aylieff’s large-scale porcelain sculptures are displayed across the interiors and Capability Brown landscaped grounds of the 17th-century Petworth House. Works include a ‘forest’ of cobalt blue and white pots in the Marble Hall and two obelisks positioned between the house and the lake. Several new pieces are exhibited for the first time, with forms drawn from Petworth’s Grinling Gibbons wood carvings and its collection of 17th-century Chinese porcelain.
Yvonne Rainer: Trio A
Tate Modern | London
Opening: 10 July 2026 – Closing: 11 July 2026
Tate Modern will stage free performances of Yvonne Rainer’s ‘Trio A’ in the Turbine Hall on 10 and 11 July 2026, marking the 60th anniversary of the work’s creation. Originally conceived in 1965 and first performed at the Judson Memorial Church in 1966, the piece consists of a continuous sequence of everyday movements lasting approximately four and a half minutes. Performances will run from 14.00 to 21.00, led by Sara Wookey, one of eight certified transmitters of Rainer’s repertoire, with an accompanying screening of the 1978 film of Rainer dancing ‘Trio A’ in the Tanks Lobby.
