Appointments
The Peace Museum in Bradford has announced the appointment of Joe Brook as its Director. Brook joins the museum next month as it reopens in its new home at Salts Mill in Saltaire. Brook said: “Now more than ever are the collections and stories of The Peace Museum relevant to our increasingly turbulent world.”
The Barbican has announced two new appointments. Philippa Simpson, currently Director of Design, Estate and Public Programme at the V&A, becomes its new Director for Buildings and Renewal. Beau Vigushin will relocate to London to become its new Director for Audiences, having recently supported the transformation of the Arts & Culture Trust in Perth. Both will take up their new role in the spring this year.
Openings
The Story, a new history centre in Durham’s grade II listed Mount Oswald, is now set to open in the Summer. The Durham County Council project will celebrate the county’s history and heritage through the display of historic records, photographs and objects, alongside exhibitions, activities and events.
Warwickshire’s Compton Verney is to open a new sculpture park within its grounds this March. The new park will “stage a radical reinvention of the grounds”, it said, displaying modern and contemporary sculpture within the Georgian setting.
Exhibitions
IWM’s first exhibition on the Troubles is on its way to Manchester’s IWM North in March.‘Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles’ will open after its inaugural at IWM London. The exhibition includes first hand testimony and objects including a rubber bullet, propaganda posters and a Good Friday Agreement booklet. Runs 22 March 2024 – 29 September 2024.
Newcastle’s The Laing Art Gallery has announced its 2024 exhibition programme, which begins with ‘National Treasures: Turner in Newcastle. Art, Industry & Nostalgia’. It will host an exhibition of JMW Turner’s work, centering on a loan of The Fighting Temeraire, and over 20 additional works by Turner, as well as works from artists such as L.S. Lowry, Tacita Dean, and photographers John Kippin and Chris Killip. Runs 10 May – 7 September 2024.
The National Railway Museum has announced that the Flying Scotsman will spend the first half of the year on static display at the York museum. Until the summer, the locomotive will be displayed in the Flying Scotsman Story exhibition, before it travels to Locomotion in Shildon where it will go on public display later in the year.
Funding
Dorset Museum & Art Gallery is raising funds to keep two rare archaeological hoards in the county. It says the acquisition of the hoards, found locally by metal detectorists and declared treasure, would “complement the Museum’s existing archaeological collections which have national and international significance”. One of the hoards, dating to the 2nd century BCE, is “ incredibly unusual” it said, as the coins were imported from France. The fundraising required totals around £14.5k.
A project to reimagine the People’s Palace and Winter Gardens in Glasgow has secured funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The £850,000 of initial development funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is part of a multi-million redevelopment project.
New funding takes People’s Palace closer to £36m transformation project
Royal Cornwall Museum has secured £2.1m in funding to transform its exhibition spaces and create a new programme of activities and workshops. The project has received support from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme, which is managed by Cornwall Council and funded by the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.
Royal Cornwall Museum secures £2.1m to transform exhibition space
A new arts on prescription scheme at Mansfield Museum – designed to help survivors of trauma, domestic and sexual abuse – has received funding. A £99k grant from the Esmee Fairbairn Collection Fund will support the project which is hoped to improve survivors’ mental health through the ‘Nature Power’ scheme.
Funding granted for Mansfield Museum’s art on prescription scheme
Image: Flying Scotsman at Edinburgh Waverley Steve Morgan Science Museum Group
