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 Fashion Museum Bath Foundation has appointed Lesley Exley as Trustee, bringing extensive expertise in retail, luxury brands, and cultural leadership from senior board roles at Selfridges, L’Oréal, Laura Ashley, and Waterford Wedgwood. Currently a Senior Advisor at The Inzito Partnership and Director of The Holburne Museum, Bath, Exley has over 30 years of experience in fundraising and serves as Trustee and RemCo Chair of The Retail Trust. Her appointment comes as the Foundation works to secure the future of the museum and its internationally renowned collections ahead of its planned 2030 reopening.
Openings & closures
Durham County Council is to create a new cultural venue in 2026, at the site of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Museum and Art Gallery, which closed in 2016. The former home of the museum, which told the story of the DLI – a British Army regiment that served from 1881 to 196 – is being stripped down to its basic structure and almost completely rebuilt as ‘The Light’. The venue will house the county’s only contemporary art gallery, a dedicated ‘DLI Gallery’, and offer facilities for events and conferences.
Closed museum to be integrated into new Durham cultural venue
Exhibitions
The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots
Perth Museum | Perth
Opening: 23 January 2026 – Closing: 26 April 2026
The exhibition centres on Mary, Queen of Scots’ last letter, written at 2am on 8 February 1587, six hours before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle. The letter, addressed to her brother-in-law in France to put her affairs in order, will be displayed above the Stone of Destiny alongside objects from the reigns of her son and grandson. The manuscript is rarely seen outside of storage due to its historical significance and conservation requirements. Three co-developed exhibitions will tour concurrently for the first time in 2026, making it a bumper year ahead for the MAGNET (Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring) partnership, which will also publish the first part of its sector toolkit on joint planning and co-development in early 2026.
Gender Stories
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery | Brighton; Walker Art Gallery | Liverpool
Opening: 31 January 2026 (Brighton); 16 May 2026 (Liverpool)
Part of the MAGNET (Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring) partnership programme, Gender Stories opens at its second venue, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, on 31 January 2026 before moving to Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, on 16 May. The exhibition has been co-created by its host museums and will be personalised by each new venue with unique public programmes led by artists and local communities. Gender Stories is one of three MAGNET exhibitions touring concurrently in 2026, marking a significant milestone for the network of 12 museums and galleries sharing collections with diverse regional audiences.
Human Natures
Derby Museum and Art Gallery | Derby; Manchester Museum | Manchester
Closing: 22 February 2026 (Derby); Opening: April 2026 (Manchester)
Human Natures concludes its run at Derby Museum and Art Gallery on 22 February 2026 ahead of its move to Manchester Museum in April. Part of the MAGNET (Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring) partnership, the exhibition has been co-created by its host institutions and will be personalised at each venue with unique public programmes led by artists and local communities. The exhibition is one of three MAGNET shows touring concurrently in 2026 across 12 museums and galleries around England.
Colour: A season of shades, tints and tones
Tullie | Carlisle; Gosport Museum & Art Gallery | Gosport; Royal Albert Memorial Museum | Exeter; Bristol Museum and Art Gallery | Bristol
Showing: Until 25 January 2026 (Tullie); Opening: 7 February 2026 (Gosport); Summer 2026 (Exeter); Autumn 2026 (Bristol)
Colour: A season of shades, tints and tones tours four venues in 2026 as part of the MAGNET (Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring) partnership programme. The exhibition continues at Tullie, Carlisle until 25 January before moving to Gosport Museum & Art Gallery from 7 February, followed by Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter in summer and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in autumn. Each venue personalises the co-created exhibition with unique public programmes led by artists and local communities. By the end of 2028, the three concurrent MAGNET touring exhibitions will have been seen by more than half a million visitors across 12 museums and galleries around England. The programme is funded by Arts Council England with a £336,000 Touring Projects grant and Art Fund with £75,000 supporting a three-year coordinator post.
Childhood in War
Imperial War Museums | London
Opening: 31 July 2026 – Closing: 28 February 2027
This major exhibition at IWM London explores how conflict has shaped children’s lives from 1914 to today through personal testimonies, objects, and interactive displays. Featured items include a Holocaust survivor’s teddy bear, an evacuee train carriage, and a Cold War-era kitchen, alongside wartime games, outfits, and Britain’s children’s books. The exhibition examines war’s impact on play, schooling, health, home life and safety, accompanied by family events including vintage games and creative workshops.
Catherine Opie: To Be Seen
National Portrait Gallery | London
Opening: 5 March 2026 – Closing: 31 May 2026
The UK’s first major museum exhibition of American artist Catherine Opie’s work, bringing together over 80 photographs spanning 30 years of her career. The exhibition explores themes of social, political and individual identity through studio portraiture, environmental studies and documentary images. Featured works include ‘Being and Having’ (1991), comprising 13 portraits of the artist and her leather dyke community, alongside portraits from series such as ‘High School Football’ (2007-09) and ‘Surfers’ (2003). The exhibition is designed by architect Katy Barkan and includes interventions within seven Collection galleries at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Van Eyck: The Portraits
National Gallery | London
Opening: 21 November 2026 – Closing: 11 April 2027
The first ever exhibition of portraits by Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck (active 1422–1441) brings together all nine of the artist’s painted portraits from across Europe. The exhibition includes exceptional reunions such as the Gallery’s own ‘Arnolfini Portrait’ (1434) displayed with ‘Portrait of a Man (Giovanni? Arnolfini)’ (c.1440, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), and van Eyck’s newly conserved ‘Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)’ (1433) shown alongside the portrait of his wife Margaret (1439, Groeningemuseum, Bruges). The show foregrounds new research on the artist’s technique, original frames and cryptic inscriptions whilst addressing controversies over his sitters’ identities.
Emilija Škarnulytė
Tate St Ives | St Ives
Opening: 6 December 2025 – Closing: 12 April 2026
A major exhibition of work by Lithuanian-born artist Emilija Škarnulytė at Tate St Ives. The exhibition presents Škarnulytė’s films and immersive installations in large-scale environments, exploring deep time, invisible systems and power structures through works including ‘Aldona’ (2013), ‘Æqualia’ (2023), and new 16mm film ‘Telstar’ (2025). The display includes glass sculptures and lightboxes alongside architectural structures that invite viewing from different perspectives and scales.
Water Pantanal Fire
Science Museum | London
Opening: 6 February 2026 – Closing: 31 May 2026
The exhibition features more than 60 striking images captured by two leading Brazilian photographers, Lalo de Almeida and Luciano Candisani, documenting the world’s largest wetland between 2007 and 2024. The photographs showcase the Pantanal’s biodiversity including jaguars, howler monkeys, caiman, marsh deer, fish and birds, while contrasting the region’s natural beauty with destruction from devastating wildfires that burned 26% of the region in 2020. The exhibition is displayed for the first time in the UK and forms part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26.
Funding
Historic England has awarded a £21,120 grant to restore the Grade II* listed Mint House in Pevensey, East Sussex, a 16th-century timber-frame building with rare wall paintings that was added to the Heritage at Risk Register in 2022. The funding will help the Friends of the Mint House commission structural assessments and a conservation management plan as they work to transform the deteriorating building into the “Home of Sussex Folklore,” with recent testing revealing its timber was likely felled during Henry VIII’s reign in the 1520s-1530s.
