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
The Weald & Downland Living Museum in Chichester has announced Tilly Blyth as its new Director. Blyth’s experience includes 20 years at the Science Museum, where she was Head of Collections and Principal Curator.
Openings & closures
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has announced that two of its historic buildings in Stratford-upon-Avon are to temporarily close for conservation. A series of works is to take place at Shakespeare’s Birthplace from Monday 6 January to Friday 17 January and Anne Hathaway’s Cottage from Monday 20 January to Friday 31 January 2025.
The V&A East’s working store and free visitor attraction, V&A East Storehouse, is set to open to the public on 31 May 2025.
A new heritage centre in Staffordshire will open its doors next month, concluding an £8.7m project for its creation.
The Staffordshire History Centre will open on Wednesday 6 November, combining three collections from the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service, the County Museum, and the William Salt Library.
Staffordshire’s £8.7m new history centre announces opening date
Exhibitions
‘Electric Dreams’ at Tate Modern showcases pioneering works of optical, kinetic, programmed and digital art from the 1950s through early 1990s, featuring artists who merged mathematics, mechanics and early computing to create immersive installations. It is supported by AI giant Anthropic. The exhibition runs from 28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025.
A new touring exhibition at the British Museum will explore the ancient Kingdom of Kush, one of the largest empires in the ancient world which ruled from the Blue Nile to the Levant. The exhibition, titled ‘Ancient Sudan: enduring heritage’, will showcase nine artefacts including a bronze figurehead of a goddess, a sandstone offering table inscribed in Meroitic, and a clay jar decorated with Nile crocodiles. The exhibition, developed in collaboration with local community groups. The exhibition will be on display at Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery (1 February – 19 April 2025), Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (3 May – 27 July 2025) and Stirling Smith Art Gallery & Museum (9 August – 9 November 2025).
The National Gallery will showcase two monumental Carracci cartoons, measuring nearly four metres wide and two metres tall, which were preparatory drawings for the famed Farnese Gallery ceiling in Rome. The cartoons depict two scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and entered the Gallery’s collection in 1837 as part of Lord Francis Egerton’s gift. The exhibition will be displayed in Room 1 from 10 April – 6 July 2025.
A showcase of 20 beaded evening wear outfits spanning from the 1920s will be displayed at Lady Lever Art Gallery, in an exhibition which explores the evolution of beadwork techniques. ‘Bedazzled’ will display garments with Bohemian glass ‘bugle’ beads and French tambour embroidery, whilst examining how societal changes and technology have influenced beaded fashion over the past century. Runs from 26 October 2024 to 26 January 2025.
The ‘Think Human’ exhibition at Derby’s Museum of Making, developed with Loughborough University and the Chartered Institute for Ergonomics & Human Factors, explores how ergonomics impacts daily life through interactive installations, mannequins and products spanning healthcare, transport, sport and safety systems. Visitors can engage with Loughborough University’s research and innovations whilst exploring displays from industry, universities and the Museum’s own collection. The free exhibition runs from now until 22 December 2024
Funding
£117,835 has been awarded to twelve organisations across Scotland through the Scottish Government’s Small Grants Fund. They include Islay Museum Trust who will use the funding to extend their mezzanine level to create a dedicated research and education space, allowing easy public access to the museum’s collection. Aberdeen University is installing a ramp to the Upper Gallery of the University Zoology Museum. Fife Cultural Trust will use its funding to develop engagement work with LGBT+ communities in Kirkcaldy. As part of its plans to mark the centenary of Kirkcaldy Galleries and War Memorial in 2025, Fife Cultural Trust will work with The Hive, a local LGBT+ organisation to reinterpret the museum’s collections and share stories from the perspective of individuals who have historically been underrepresented in the museum.
