Appointments
The Prime Minister has reappointed Robert Noel as a Trustee of the Natural History Museum and will serve for a two year term commencing 24 April 2024. Noel, whose career is in real estate, is currently Chair of Taylor Wimpey Plc and Chair of Hammerson plc.
The Horniman Museum and Gardens has appointed three new Trustees. Diana Maine, a professional educator who is already a volunteer at the Horniman; Yesomi Umolu, the Director of Curatorial Affairs and Public Practice at Serpentine, and Nick Wyver, Consultancy Director for SB+CO. They will be joined on the board of Trustees by Boardroom Apprentice Brian O’Sullivan, a local resident who has been appointed for 12 months through the UK Boardroom Apprentice Programme.
Openings/ closures
The opening of the Women’s Museum in East London takes place tomorrow, International Women’s Day 2024. The museum, developed by Barking and Dagenham Council, is described as “a socially engaged exhibition and community space, which will give platform to the experiences of women, girls and allies from the area and beyond.” A new artwork by Meera Shakri Osbourne, which will be the first in a series of commissions by contemporary artists for the inaugural exhibition ‘An Idea of a Life’ will be on show from Friday 8 March 2024.
Tate Britain has revealed plans for a new garden, in a collaboration with landscape design practice Tom Stuart-Smith Studio and architects Feilden Fowles. Dubbed the Clore Garden, after its backing from the Clore Duffield Foundation, the gallery said it aims to create a space at the front of the gallery which will integrate art with nature.
Exhibitions
In June, Manchester Museum will open Wild, an exhibition which will explore approaches to environmental recovery and ‘rewiliding’. Via immersive installation, audio, film and interactive elements, alongside natural history collections and artworks, visitors will be introduced to five wild places across the globe including the Knepp Rewilding Project in Manchester and Yellowstone National Park, America’s first national park. Runs 5 June 2024 – 1 June 2025.
A new exhibition in partnership with The National Archives opens at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum later this month. ‘Spirit of Invention: A world of creativity from Victorian Britain to the present day’ is inspired by the thousands of creative designs registered with the Board of Trade which are held at The National Archives. Visitors will see hand-drawn designs for inventions like William Blackmore Pine’s ‘Flower Cornet’, a discreet hearing device that looks like a flower and a ‘Peach Protector’, a glass dome that protects a peach from being eaten by bugs. Runs 16 March – 23 June 2024.
‘Kafka: Making of an Icon’ opens at the Bodleian Libraries in May. It will mark 100 years since the death of the author, and will feature manuscripts, notebooks, letters, photography and other ephemera from the author’s life and literary career. Runs 30 May – 27 October 2024.
A portrait of the newest Doctor Who star, Ncuti Gatwa by photographer Robert Wilson joins Scotland’s national collection of art, and is now on display at the National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait. The photograph will join a collection which includes former ‘Doctors’ from the TV show; Peter Capaldi and David Tennant.
The Scottish Maritime Museum (Denny Tank) is celebrating the history of lighthouses, their keepers and the engineers who made them possible, in a new exhibition, ‘Following the Lights’. On display will be a history of lighthouse innovation via Fresnel lens – ‘the invention that saved a million ships’ – alongside day to day artefacts such as playing cards, crockery, cutlery, first aid kits and other emergency supplies, letters and books. Runs until 17 August 2024.
To mark International Women’s Day, a new exhibition at St Fagans National Museum of History in Wales highlights the stories of “the women of Wales who demanded a future free from war.” On display in ‘Petitioning for Peace’ will be a chest and petition on loan from the National Library of Wales. Signed by nearly 400,000 women in Wales after the First World War, the petition was subsequently presented to the women of the United States of America. A century later, the Women’s Peace Petition and the chest were rediscovered and gifted back to Wales. Runs 9 March 2024 – 15 September 2024.
A major yearlong exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike has opened at the National Coal Mining Museum for England in Wakefield. Pictured above, ‘84/85 – The Longest Year’ will focus on the experiences of miners and their families, via interviews, archive footage, quotes, photography and artefacts from 1984/85. Runs until 3 March 2025.
Funding
Announced as part of the government’s Spring budget yesterday, £52.5m of “nationally-significant cultural investments” will be provided to organisations across the country. It includes £15m for the National Railway Museum in York, £10m for National Museums Liverpool, £5m for National Poetry Centre and £10m for British Library North in Leeds, £2.6m for V&A Dundee and £10m Venue Cymru in Conwy, Wales.
Budget 2024: permanent tax relief for museums, multi-million funding announced
Image
© Ken Wilkinson. Featured in 84:85 – The Longest Year (6 March 2024 – 3 March 2025)
