Appointments

Broadcaster, political pundit and former Conservative MP Nick de Bois has been announced as the new chairman of the British Tourist Authority (BTA). De Bois was previously Chair of the VisitEngland Advisory Board for three years since June 1 2020, and was awarded a CBE in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to tourism and the economy as chair of the VisitEngland Advisory Board.

Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan has been reappointed to the role of Culture Secretary by the UK’s latest Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. Donelan first took up the role under the leadership of Liz Truss early last month.

Michelle Donelan reappointed as culture secretary

Openings

The National Trust has this week opened The Children’s Country House in Derbyshire, at Sudbury. The heritage destination has been designed primarily so that young people can lead their own experience and take an interest in the building’s heritage.

Newly opened Children’s Country House hoped to “spark a lifelong love of heritage”

Exhibitions

The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester has opened an immersive exhibition exploring the science of music. Created by the Science and Industry Museum, ‘Turn It Up: The power of music’ opened this week and premiered at the Manchester Science Festival before a national and international tour. The exhibition includes unusual instruments and musical inventions, and a light and sound installation ‘musical playground’.

The V&A is to stage the first major UK exhibition to explore the work of the Renaissance master Donatello, including artworks never seen before in the UK. On display next year will be Donatello’s early marble David and bronze Attis-Amorino from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, as well as the reliquary bust of San Rossore from the Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa, and bronzes from the High Altar of the Basilica of St Anthony in Padua.

The Scottish Maritime Museum’s next exhibition will dive into Scotland’s forgotten history of industrial whaling. ‘All mortal greatness is but disease’ takes its title from Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’, and will include an audio installation and photographs, artworks, artefacts and textiles drawn from the Scottish Maritime Museum’s collection and on loan from the South Georgia Heritage Trust and the Scottish Fisheries Museum. Opens Friday 18 November 2022.

At the Natural History Museum, a free exhibition curated by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg explores how “an idea of an animal can be more powerful than the animal itself”. At the centre of ‘Lost Rhino’ is a life-size projection of a northern white rhinoceros, a critically endangered species, which will appear and disappear in front of visitors. Opening on 16 December 2022 until March 2023.

The winning portraits from the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 are to go on display at Cromwell Place, South Kensington. Schneidermann’s portraits of her neighbour’s lockdown chores in South Wales, from the series Laundry Day, won first place at the awards.

Tate Britain has opened a free exhibition dedicated to British photographer Bill Brandt. The exhibition features 44 original photographs from across his career, which are displayed alongside the magazines and photobooks in which these images were most often seen. Bill ‘Brandt: Inside the Mirror’ is Tate’s first Brandt exhibition and runs until 15 January 2023.

Funding

The trustees of The Museum of Carpet in Kidderminster are in search of £20,000 to ensure the museum’s survival as it battles with increasing energy bills. An urgent appeal to raise up to £20,000 has been launched by the trustees at the Vicky Bagnall, chair of trustees at the museum, told the press that it will be the “most difficult year of its existence”.

The announcement of the organisations successfully joining Arts Council England’s (ACE) Investment Programme for 2023-26 has been delayed. On Tuesday ACE said that the decision to delay had been made following discussions with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Arts Council England’s investment programme announcement delayed

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