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
Guy Baxter has been appointed as the new director of the University of Reading’s Museums and Collections. Baxter originally joined The Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL) in 1997 to work on photographic collections before working as an archivist at the V&A from 1999 to 2008.
University of Reading appoints new museums and collections director
The Horniman Museum and Gardens has appointed Debbie Asbury as its director of finance. Asbury will start in post on Monday 12 October 2026, bringing experience across central government, public bodies and the charity sector. She joins the Horniman from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology where she was the Finance Director for Building Digital UK and has previously held senior roles at DCMS and Cancer Research UK.
Openings & closures
The Shire Hall Museum in Dorset has closed its doors today, just six days after the shock announcement that financial pressures had forced the decision.
Shock closure for Dorset justice museum amid mounting financial pressure
Exhibitions
Tiny Things, Treasured Tales
Preston Park Museum | Stockton-on-Tees
Opening: 14 November 2026 – Closing: 21 February 2027
Preston Park Museum presents ‘Tiny Things, Treasured Tales’, built around the return to public display of J.M.W. Turner’s watercolour ‘Mustering of the Warrior Angels’, not exhibited since 2018 and inspired by John Milton’s ‘Poetical Works’ (1835). Shown as part of the Turner on Tees programme coinciding with the Turner Prize 2026 at MIMA, the exhibition also features 14 objects chosen by the museum’s Young Producers, including a medieval gold ring, a clay pipe from the Stockton & Darlington Railway excavations and ‘1000 mph Club’ cufflinks belonging to Jean Oakes, the first woman in Britain to break the sound barrier.
A Few of Our Favourite Things
The Cromwell Museum | Huntingdon
Opening: 8 October 2026 – Closing: 1 November 2026
The Cromwell Museum presents ‘A Few of Our Favourite Things’, bringing together personal selections by the museum’s volunteers, staff and trustees, including items from the stores not usually on display. Highlights include the Christmas Ban Proclamation of 1647, Cromwell’s ‘Mortuary’ Cavalry Sword (c.1650) bearing the initials OC, his candid letter of 1652, and original copies of the Instrument of Government and the Humble Petition and Advice, alongside a working radio-controlled model of Cromwell’s flagship the Naseby.
Zaha Hadid: Visionary Museum Designs
Sir John Soane’s Museum | London
Opening: 24 March 2027 – Closing: 20 June 2027
Sir John Soane’s Museum presents ‘Zaha Hadid: Visionary Museum Designs’, exploring the work of the Iraqi-British architect (1950–2016) through the museums she designed during her career, with major loans from the Zaha Hadid Foundation. Featured projects include the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati (1997–2003), the Phaeno Science Center in Wolfsburg (2000–05) and MAXXI in Rome (1998–2010), shown through paper reliefs, acrylic paintings and architectural models that reveal how Hadid visualised her dynamic forms and bold volumes.
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography
Tate Modern | London
Opening: 14 October 2026 – Closing: 21 February 2027
Tate Modern presents ‘Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography’, the first major exhibition to explore pictorialism as a global movement and how artists became pioneers of the darkroom. Bringing together over 200 rare prints by more than 80 artists from Seoul to Sydney, New York to Cape Town and Brazil to Singapore, it offers an international look at the history of photography, with never-before-seen works shown alongside pieces from Tate’s collection.
Everyone Involved by Ian Giles
Queer Britain Museum | London
Opening: 23 October 2026 – Closing: 21 November 2026
Queer Britain Museum presents ‘Everyone Involved’ by artist Ian Giles, the museum’s first immersive installation, centred on the reunion of the original musicians behind ‘A Gay Song’, an early song of Britain’s gay liberation movement first recorded in 1972. Combining a four-channel film installation with textiles and sound, the exhibition presents queer history as a living conversation between generations. It premiered at Southampton City Art Gallery before this London presentation.
Funding
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has launched a public appeal to help fund the restoration of its Victorian glasshouse. It hopes to raise £1m from the public appeal, which will help fund the project’s total projected £66m cost. Kew said it has secured approximately half of the funds.
Kew launches public appeal to help £66m Victorian glasshouse project
