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
Professor Rosalind Polly Blakesley has been reappointed by the Prime Minister as a Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum for a four-year term, commencing on 5 September 2026 and running until 4 September 2030. The Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Professor of Russian and European Art, Blakesley chairs the V&A Research Committee and currently serves as a Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust.
Openings and closures
The Museum of Youth Culture has revealed new details about its first exhibitions ahead of its opening this weekend. Three exhibitions include Youth Collective-curated show on teenage experiences, and Camden club culture 1988-2000 using Phatmedia archive.
Museum of Youth Culture opens with rave flyers and teenage truths
Exhibitions
How We Lost America
Benjamin Franklin House | London
Opening: 3 July 2025 – Closing: 31 July 2025
Presented throughout the only surviving residence of founding father Benjamin Franklin, ‘How We Lost America’ examines the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence through a British lens. The exhibition uncovers lesser-known histories of female revolutionaries, enslaved soldiers, and the arson attack on Portsmouth Harbour. Displays draw on satire, contemporary newspapers, and little-known letters to explore how ideas of liberty and equality shaped democratic precedent.
A Call to Art: William Morris & the Pre-Raphaelites
Fitzwilliam Museum | Cambridge
Opening: 23 October 2026 – Closing: 3 May 2027
This exhibition re-examines William Morris and his circle, including artists and designers Kate Faulkner, May Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal. Drawn from the Fitzwilliam’s collection alongside loans from major institutions including Tate, the V&A and the National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition explores Morris’s radical quest to transform ideas of beauty and society through a wide selection of paintings, designs and art objects. New research highlights the contributions of women artists and designers, including the first exhibition to celebrate the work of Kate Faulkner, a key designer and workshop supervisor for Morris & Co.
View museum announcement →
Aesthetica Art Prize
York Art Gallery | York
Opening: 17 July 2026 – Closing: 15 November 2026
The Aesthetica Art Prize returns to York Art Gallery for its twentieth anniversary, showcasing shortlisted contemporary artists from over 60 countries working across photography, film, digital media and installation. This year’s exhibition addresses themes of the environment, global identities, cultural memory and health and wellbeing. The exhibition is included in general admission.
