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 Foundling Museum has appointed Stuart Boxall as its new Director of Development & Communications, a newly created role, effective 2 March 2026. Boxall brings over 25 years’ experience in the arts and non-profit sectors, having held senior development positions at the British Library, Barbican, and charities supporting young people. A Clore Leadership Programme alumnus, he is known for his strategic approach to fundraising, partnerships, and communications.
Helen Hartstein has been appointed museum manager at Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM). Hartstein was previously co-leader and head of audience development at RAMM, and is a Trustee of Exeter Northcott Theatre. Announcing the appointment on LinkedIn, Hartstein said: “I strongly believe that museums can change lives. I see every day how museums like RAMM can help us connect with each other, understand where we’ve come from, find our place in the world and imagine our future.”
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has appointed its first creative director, Dr Dominique Bouchard, who will take up the new post in June 2026.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust appoints first creative director
Openings & closures
The People’s Palace, which was originally scheduled to reopen in 2027, has now been delayed indefinitely. A museum spokesperson, citing the complications of large scale projects, told the BBC that “timelines, options and cost estimates continue to evolve as more detailed technical information becomes available and as funding discussions progress.”
Exhibitions
Ai Weiwei: Button Up!
Aviva Studios | Manchester
Opening: 2 July 2026 – Closing: 6 September 2026
A major site-specific exhibition by internationally renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei, presented by Factory International. The exhibition features two new monumental commissions created for the Warehouse space: ‘Eight-Nation Alliance Flags’, made from nearly half a million buttons, and ‘History of Bombs’, a 25-metre wide toy brick mural featuring over a million bricks. The exhibition explores the legacies of British imperialism, Chinese and British relations, and the rise of globalisation, incorporating materials associated with craft and industry including antique timber, porcelain, cotton, glass and bronze.
Setting the Stage: 70 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest
National Science and Media Museum | Bradford
Opening: 8 May 2026 – Closing: 28 February 2027
This exhibition explores the technological history and innovation behind the Eurovision Song Contest, marking its 70th anniversary. It tracks advances from early broadcast technology to modern staging, lighting and production techniques that have shaped the competition. Interactive displays include a ‘Nil Points Jukebox’ for understanding voting technology, a performance space for visitors, and objects such as a Marconi Mk III camera head and Shure Duraplex headset.
Renoir and Love
National Gallery | London
Opening: 3 October 2026 – Closing: 31 January 2027
A major exhibition featuring 45 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the most significant showing of the French Impressionist’s work in the UK for 20 years. The exhibition focuses on crucial years of Renoir’s career from the mid-1860s to mid-1880s, tracing the evolution of imagery depicting love, desire, affection, flirtation, friendship and family bonds. Highlights include ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ (1876, Musée d’Orsay, Paris), exhibited in the UK for the first time, and ‘The Great Bathers’ (1884–7, Philadelphia Museum of Art).
The Six Seasons
Upton House and Gardens | Warwickshire
Opening: 8 March 2026 – Closing: 5 July 2026
Emily Allchurch’s digital photographic collages reimagine Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s six seasonal paintings from 460 years ago, using thousands of photographs of English landscapes. The series includes a re-imagined version of Bruegel’s lost ‘Late Spring’ panel and explores contemporary relationships with nature and the land. The exhibition is presented alongside 16th-19th-century landscape paintings from Upton House’s permanent collection in ‘The Lie of the Land’, curated by Allchurch and James Freeman.
Pets & their People
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford | Oxford
Opening: 11 March 2026 – Closing: 27 September 2026
The exhibition explores why humans keep animals close and what evolving relationships with pets reveal about human nature. It charts the history of animal domestication from the earliest depiction of a service animal to contemporary pet culture, featuring rare items including a first edition of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, a 14th century Latin Psalter showing an early assistance animal, and previously unseen photographs by Daniel Meadows of a Lancashire pet cemetery. The exhibition is curated by Professor Charles Foster and includes historical manuscripts, photographs, letters, and new poetry celebrating the human-pet bond.
Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff
Petworth House and Park | West Sussex
Opening: 23 May 2026 – Closing: 27 September 2026
Towering porcelain sculptures by ceramicist Felicity Aylieff are exhibited throughout Petworth House and its Capability Brown landscaped park. The exhibition includes new works inspired by Grinling Gibbons’ wood carvings and Petworth’s 17th-century Chinese porcelain collection, featuring monumental blue and white vessels painted with cobalt blue glazes. Works are displayed in the Marble Hall, Grand Staircase, exhibition gallery, and outdoor spaces, with accompanying film and photographs revealing the making process.
Discover Juliasaurus’ Lost World
Hollytrees Museum | Colchester
Opening: 3 April 2026 – Closing: 1 November 2027
The exhibition features ‘Juliasaurus’, a remarkably complete (70-75%) carnivorous theropod dinosaur skeleton discovered in Wyoming’s Morrison Formation in 2020, displayed publicly for the first time. The 6-metre-long specimen, potentially representing a new species, is accompanied by approximately 100 objects including local fossils, replica dinosaur bones from contemporaries such as Stegosaurus, and pterosaur material. The displays also showcase marine reptile fossils and Cretaceous period specimens from Essex, illustrating prehistoric life in Britain 150 million years ago.
Funding
The Peace Museum in Bradford is to receive £400,000 as one of two Bradford venues to receive a share of £1m in government funding after Bradford City of Culture 2025. The investment will allow the museum to open year-round, having previously closed for a winter break each year.
Peace Museum to open year-round after £1m City of Culture boost
