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Appointments
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has announced the appointment of Medea Sógor Ekner as its Director General. Ekner was made interim Director General last June, and brings over twenty-five years of experience in the art and museum sector in Sweden and New Zealand, and prior experience within ICOM.
Director General appointed as ICOM aims to become ‘renewed institution’
Openings & closures
Tullie in Carlisle has provided an update to its reopening plans, which are now expected in autumn 2024. Having closed late last year, it is currently updating its welcome area and creating a new ground-floor gallery, community studio, shop and café. While the main area is closed, its Backing the Blues exhibition, curated with Carlisle United F.C., is still expected to open on 20 July in its exhibition gallery.
Star of the BBC’s ‘Outnumbered’ and presenter of The Great British Dig, Hugh Dennis, has officially opened a new archaeology gallery at the Maidstone Museum. Maidstone Borough Council, which runs the museum, officially opened the ‘Lives In Our Landscape’ to visitors yesterday.
Hugh Dennis opens new archaeology gallery at Maidstone Museum
The first phase of the British Museum’s Masterplan is expected to be marked by the official opening of the new British Museum Archaeological Research facility tomorrow, Friday 7 June 2024. Also known as BM_ARC, the opening date will mark the anniversary of the Museum’s foundation through the British Museum Act.
British Museum to progress Masterplan with official opening of BM_ARC
Exhibitions
A new exhibition has opened at Battle Abbey in East Sussex, revealing its connections with the D Day landings. ‘D Day Connections’ tells the stories of a handful of the thousands of men who passed through Battle Abbey, the site of the 1066 Battle of Hastings, when it was used by the War Office during the Second World War. A group of Battle Abbey’s volunteers, who spent months tracing clues, have gathered information about the lives of some of the men who spent time at the site before fighting in the Normandy campaign. Runs at the site until Sunday 30 June 2024.
The first major UK survey of the work of visual activist Zanele Muholi has gone back on display today at Tate Modern, after it was cut short by lockdown restrictions in 2020. Muholi came to prominence in the early 2000s with photographs that told the stories of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and intersex lives in South Africa. Over 300 photographs will be on display which Tate said will “challenge dominant ideologies and present the participants in their photographs as empowered individuals superbly existing in the face of prejudice, intolerance and often violence.” Runs 6 June 2024 – 26 January 2025.
The People’s History Museum (PHM) in Manchester has today put on display collection and archive objects relating to historic general elections. Dotted throughout its museum, some of the items form part of its General Election Trail. The museum, which has the country’s largest collection of campaign, political and election material, will display aGeneral election banner from 1906, a ‘New Labour’ t-shirt from 1997, and a Campaigning Politician’s Guide from 1951. Runs until Monday 30 September.
One of Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ paintings from Arles in France is to travel outside of the US for the first time since it was acquired in 1935. The picture, now at Philadelphia Museum of Art, will be lent to the National Gallery’s exhibition ‘Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers’ where it will be seen alongside the Gallery’s own Sunflowers painting for the first time since early 1889 when they were in the artist’s studio. Runs 14 September 2024 ‒ 19 January 2025).
Next month Sir John Soane’s Museum will present an exhibition by Liberian-British artist, Lina Iris Viktor, titled Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings. The sculptural works, made especially for the exhibition, will be interspersed throughout the museum. Three large intricate works from the artist’s Constellations series will be shown, which the museum said will create a “contemporary counterpoint to the labyrinthine spaces of Sir John Soane’s Museum and his characteristic use of golden light.” Runs 10 July 2024 – 19 January 2025.
Funding
Dame Vivien Duffield has given a £30m gift to the Clore Duffield Foundation to celebrate its 60th Anniversary. The capital will fund the creation of further Clore Learning Spaces
Since 2000, the Clore Duffield Foundation has funded more than 70 Clore Learning Spaces. A number of new spaces will open during the anniversary year including Kensington Palace, the Natural History Museum and Paisley Museum. New Clore Learning Spaces have also been announced at The Courtauld, and the V&A Storehouse. The funding will also support the Clore Garden at Tate Britain, the first details of which were announced earlier this year.