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
Baroness Minouche Shafik has been appointed as the new Chair of Trustees of the V&A. Shafik is an economist, policymaker, and higher education leader, and was the youngest-ever Vice President of the World Bank at the age of 36. She has also served as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, President of Columbia University and of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She was previously Deputy Chair and a Trustee of the British Museum and currently serves on the Board of the Gates Foundation.
The Natural History Museum has appointed its first director of collections. Jessica Bradford will take up the newly created role in March, guiding the museum’s collections and acquisitions strategy.
Natural History Museum announces first Director of Collections
London’s Design Museum has announced a new deputy director as part of three new appointments. Josephine Chanter will become the museum’s deputy director after seven years as its director of audiences.
Openings & closures
The National Railway Museum has set a date for the reopening of its Station Hall, revealing to visitors for the first time its completed £10.5m renovation project. The York museum turns 50 this year, and will open the doors of the building as part of the celebrations in September.
National Railway Museum schedules reveal of £10.5m Station Hall renovation
Exhibitions
Story Time’ at Abbey House Museum in Leeds explores the evolution of children’s literature and play, featuring a remarkable collection of early children’s books and reading primers from the 1800s alongside classic fairytale books from the 1920s and 1930s. The exhibition showcases vintage Waddingtons games including original 1960s circular jigsaw artwork, Victorian dolls houses, and modern toys based on characters like The Wombles, She-Ra, and The Moomins. The exhibition runs from 25 January 2025 (end date not provided).
Eighteen portraits by John Singer Sargent, including oil paintings and charcoal works depicting American ‘Dollar Princesses’ who married into British aristocracy, will be displayed at Kenwood in London. The exhibition, ‘Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits’, features notable loans including Kenwood’s portrait of Daisy Leiter, Edith, Lady Playfair from the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and Mrs Joseph Chamberlain from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. The exhibition runs from 16 May 2025 – 5 October 2025.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield has announced its 2025 programme. Beginning it, ‘Keepers of Time’, a showcase of intricate digital tree drawings by local artist Tony Wade. The exhibition documents the historic trees of YSP for the Woodland Trust’s Ancient Tree Inventory. The exhibition features detailed renderings of ancient and veteran trees including ash, common sycamores, field maple, and beeches, aged between 300-400 years, created using a tablet and stylus both on-site and in studio. The exhibition runs from 15 February 2025 – 13 July 2025.
The first major European solo exhibition of Aboriginal artist Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern, London, will showcase over 70 works including batik textiles and monumental acrylic paintings that translate her spiritual connection to her ancestral Country, Alhalker. Key pieces include ‘The Alhalker suite 1993’, her earliest batik from 1977, ‘Emu woman 1988’, and the six-panel ‘Untitled (awely) 1994’, originally displayed at the 1997 Venice Biennale. The exhibition runs from 18 May 2024 – 8 September 2024.
Compton Verney is set host ‘River of Black Stone’ by British Iraqi artist Emii Arai (b.1993), featuring large-scale installations inspired by volcanic themes. The exhibition includes reworked and newly commissioned immersive installations alongside sculptural pieces, drawing from Compton Verney’s Naples Collection, such as lava souvenirs and Pierre-Jacques Volaire’s depictions of Vesuvius. The exhibition runs from 15 February 2025 – 15 June 2025.
The Courtauld Gallery in London will present ‘The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea’, the UK’s first exhibition focused on Georges Seurat’s seascapes, opening next February. Around 23 paintings, sketches, and drawings created between 1885 and 1890 during Seurat’s time on the northern French coast will be displayed, with loans from institutions including MoMA and Musée d’Orsay. The exhibition runs from 13 February 2026 – 31 May 2026.
The 2025 Banner Exhibition at People’s History Museum in Manchester showcases 25 banners representing campaigns for democracy, rights, and solidarity. Key displays include the Homelessness Action Campaign banner (1940s), the Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners banner (1984), and the GCHQ banner (1992). Also featured are banners marking milestones in disabled rights, LGBTQIA+ representation, and trade union history, including the ASLEF LGBTQIA+ Members banner (after 2001). The exhibition has just opened and will run until 9 December 2025.
The Handel Hendrix House in London will host an exhibition marking the 300th anniversary of Handel’s opera ‘Rodelinda’. Highlights include a rare 1725 portrait of the castrato Senesino by John Vandenbank, depicting him as Bertarido in ‘Hungarian habit’, alongside an early libretto, cast member portraits, and 18th-century opera memorabilia. The exhibition runs from 13 February 2025 – 6 July 2025.
Funding
Nearly half a million pounds in funding is to be shared between a selection of Scottish museums to support their connections with local communities. Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) has backed nine museum projects with a shared £456,000 from the Scottish Government, via the Museums Development Fund.
Scottish government backs museums to share untold community stories