The weekly feature rounds up the latest updates in museum appointments, openings, funding and new exhibitions from across the UK.
Museum Moves is supported by DJW Projects Limited: DJW Projects Limited. DJW Projects Limited is recognised as one of the UK’s leading forces in the audio-visual industry, providing creative lighting, Audio Visual and multimedia solutions globally to achieve the ultimate technological experience, using sound, lighting, vision and interaction.
Appointments
Historic Royal Palaces has appointed Melissa Hamnett as director of palaces & collections, where she will oversee the care and long-term stewardship of the charity’s six UK historic sites. Hamnett brings over 20 years’ experience in the cultural heritage sector, most recently as Director of Heritage Collections at UK Parliament, and succeeds Adrian Phillips who held the role from 2017 to 2025.
Maggie Russell has been reappointed as Chair of the Arts Council of Wales for a second three-year term until 30 March 2029. Since her initial appointment in April 2023, Russell has led the organisation through the administration of the £8m Arts Sector Strategic Capital fund in 2025-26, supporting 40 organisations across Wales, and secured an additional £2.2m in capital funding announced in December 2025.
Sally MacGregor has been appointed to the board of the Natural History Museum for a four-year term from 14 January 2026 to 13 January 2030. MacGregor brings over 35 years of experience in real estate and legal industries, most recently as a senior real estate professional at Landsec leading development, leasing and investment teams, and previously as an equity partner at Clifford Chance.
Openings & closures
The National Maritime Museum is to open “Astronomers Take Over,” a new temporary gallery on 27 March 2026 until 2028, featuring a planetarium with live astronomer-led shows, interactive science demonstrations including Mars landing simulations and spectroscopy exhibits, plus expert interviews with Sir Brian May and Professor Sanjeev Gupta. The family-friendly gallery is supported by Bloomberg, CGI and Michael Edwards OBE, with additional “Unboxing the Universe” science theatre programming launching 3 April 2026.
Exhibitions
Poster Power!
Victoria Art Gallery | Bath
Opening: 23 January 2025 – Closing: 10 May 2026
The exhibition presents 200 years of British poster design, bringing together 19th- and 20th-century advertising posters from the Victoria Art Gallery and Bath Record Office collections. It features posters promoting entertainment, theatre, travel and transport, political campaigns, and World War One recruitment, with many designs connected to Bath including Theatre Royal productions, the Bath & West Show, and Bath Festivals. Highlights include works by Bath-based designers Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, known for their 1930s work for London Transport and Shell, alongside vintage railway posters depicting Bath’s Georgian architecture and The Roman Baths.
Local/Connection
Stockroom | Stockport
Opening: 29 January 2026 – Closing: 19 April 2026
The exhibition brings together photographers from the Amoeba Photography Network across Greater Manchester, exploring place, collaboration and shared practice. It offers a collective portrait of the connections that shape creative life in the region during Stockport’s town centre regeneration. The exhibition includes a new zine archive collecting untold stories from local voices, and is accompanied by a programme of workshops including darkroom printing, zine-making, and photography walks.
Through Our Eyes: Little People Beyond the Circus
Showtown | Blackpool
Opening: 12 February 2025 – Closing: 12 April 2026
The exhibition explores the history of little people in Blackpool, developed through co-production with people of short stature and their families. It draws on Showtown’s Blackpool Tower Circus Collection, national archive loans from Sheffield’s National Fairground and Circus Archive, and unseen film footage from North West Film Archive and British Pathé. The gallery has been designed at the height of little people, with lowered display cases, interactives and sightlines to challenge assumptions about accessibility.
Fairy Tales
British Library | London
Opening: 27 March 2026 – Closing: 23 August 2026
The exhibition explores fairy tales through illustrations, pop-up books, manuscripts and puppets from the British Library’s collection. Visitors journey through a cottage, dark woods, royal palace and ‘far far away land’ to discover iconic characters and magical objects. Featured items include Charles Perrault’s ‘Histoires du temps passé’, Mervyn Peake illustrations for the Brothers Grimm’s ‘Household Tales’, Arthur Rackham’s ‘Cinderella’, Disney concept artwork, Quentin Blake illustrations, Ivan Bilibin’s ‘Vasilisa the Beautiful’, Walter Crane’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’, puppets from Little Angel Theatre’s ‘The Snow Queen’, and Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript of ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’.
Funding
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens has secured £500,000 from the Wolfson Foundation towards its £13.6m four-year redevelopment, adding to previously announced funding including £5.2m from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and support from Arts Council England’s MEND fund. The transformation, due to start later in 2026, will relocate the main entrance into Mowbray Park, create new exhibition galleries and displays, a community learning facility called “The Growing Space,” and improvements to the Winter Gardens and public realm.
Brighton & Hove Museums has secured £100,000, also from the Wolfson Foundation, towards the £6.5m restoration and reinterpretation of the Royal Pavilion Garden, which also includes £4.37m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and investment from Brighton & Hove City Council. The project will restore the Regency garden’s historic character, reinstate historic landscaping, improve accessibility and integrate educational resources, with a key aim of removing the nationally significant site from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.
