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
British curator Jessica Morgan has been appointed Director of Tate, taking up the role from 2027.
Openings & closures
The Peace Museum in Bradford will temporarily close from 31 August until mid-November 2026 to install a new heating system and upgrade its gallery space, funded by a Department for Culture, Media and Sport capital investment award. The works will allow the museum to stay open year-round for the first time and will be followed by a new exhibition, ‘Pressing Matters’, exploring printmaking and posters in peace histories.
Trent Park House of Secrets in Enfield has officially opened to the public, Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, following a 12-year campaign to restore the house and tell its stories. Visitors can explore Sir Philip Sassoon’s restored 1930s state rooms and the concealed basement where captured German generals were secretly recorded during a WWII intelligence operation likened to Bletchley Park.
Ripon Workhouse Museum has reopened to the public this week, following a £2.8 million redevelopment.
Exhibitions
The Idea of Italy
Fitzwilliam Museum | Cambridge
Opening: 1 July 2026
Located in Gallery 7, ‘The Idea of Italy’ redisplays works from the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Italian collections, spanning the early Renaissance to the 18th century, to examine how artistic production in Italy was shaped by global exchange with Northern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. The display features paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glass and metalwork by artists including Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Canaletto and Salvator Rosa, alongside rare applied arts such as Italian Maiolica and bronzes. The redisplay is informed by a collaborative research project between the University of Cambridge and the University of St Andrews, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Turner, Wedgwood & Beyond: Inspired by Flaxman
York Art Gallery | York
Opening: 18 September 2026 – Closing: 17 January 2027
This exhibition marks the 200th anniversary of the death of York-born artist and designer John Flaxman (1755–1826), bringing together over 70 loans from leading museums and galleries across the UK alongside works from York Art Gallery’s own collection. Highlights include J.M.W. Turner’s ‘Ulysses deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey’ from the National Gallery, William Blake’s ‘Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Car’ on loan from Tate, and iconic Wedgwood jasperware designed by Flaxman. The exhibition has been produced and curated in partnership with the University of York’s Department of History of Art and is included in general admission to York Art Gallery.
Michael Landy: Future Ruins
Sir John Soane’s Museum | London
Opening: 14 October 2026 – Closing: 17 January 2027
This exhibition brings together a selection of Michael Landy’s drawings imagining iconic buildings in ruins, including new works depicting Sir John Soane’s Museum and Mar-a-Lago. The works are shown alongside Joseph Michael Gandy’s 1798 watercolour ‘Architectural Ruins: A Vision’, the piece from the museum’s own collection that first inspired Landy’s series. Subjects include the New York Stock Exchange, Chatsworth House, and the Palazzo della Civiltà in Rome.
70 Years of The Cavern Club
Museum of Liverpool | Liverpool
Opening: 16 January 2027 – Closing: 31 October 2027
This exhibition charts seven decades of The Cavern Club, from its opening as a jazz venue on 16 January 1957 to its present-day status as part of a UNESCO City of Music. Developed in collaboration with The Cavern Club, the exhibition traces the venue’s closures, redevelopment and revival, with personal accounts from those who have been part of its history. It explores The Cavern Club’s role in shaping Liverpool’s music culture, including its association with The Beatles and the broader Merseybeat scene.
View museum announcement →
The Manifold of Memory
The Whitworth | Manchester
Opening: 19 November 2026 – Closing: 27 May 2027
Kazakh artist Gulnur Mukazhanova presents a monumental textile installation made from felt, silk and vintage fabrics, stretching approximately 16 metres across the gallery wall and rising five metres high. Developed through research into the Whitworth’s textile collection, the work explores how symbols lose their meaning and traditions become detached from their origins. A selection of historic textiles from the Whitworth’s collection will also be displayed, revealing the sources that inspired the project.
