Museum Moves: 27 October – 2 November 2023

Appointments

The Design Museum has announced a new cohort of Design Researchers in Residence, who will spend the next year at the museum developing projects that respond to the climate emergency. The third cohort’s projects will span retrofit architecture, community energy, plant scent adaptation, and landscape preservation. The residency forms part of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, delivered in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Sheffield Home of Football, a charity planning to open a footballing heritage museum in the city, has appointed the former head of Sheffield Libraries & Archives, Nick Partridge BEM as its first Chief Executive. The charity said Partridge will “drive forward the charity’s strategy and ambition” for the creation of the museum.

Captain Peter Turner has been named the new Chairman of Trustees for The Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare. Turner has been a Trustee of the Helicopter Museum since 1996 and has held the position of Vice-Chairman of the museum since earlier this year.

Openings

Historic Sheffield museum Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet has closed this week as it begins a two-year, £235,000 redevelopment project. Opening again in two years, it will first use capital from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, alongside further support from Sheffield City Council and the J G Graves Charitable Trust, to carry out a number of improvements.

Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet closes for £235,000 redevelopment

Exhibitions

The upcoming V&A East museum has announced details of its first exhibition.In 2025 it will open its doors to visitors with ‘The Music Is Black: A British Story’, an exhibition exploring how Black British music has shaped British culture and its global impact from 1900 to the present day.

V&A East museum announces 2025 inaugural exhibition and new Culture Council

The world’s fastest all-electric aircraft, Spirit of Innovation, is now on display at the Science Museum in London, and is the final object to be added to the museum’s Making the Modern World gallery. Put on display on National Engineering Day earlier this week, the Rolls-Royce aircraft suspended from the ceiling of the gallery.

Sculptor Tony Cragg will present an exhibition of works at Castle Howard and York Minster, opening next year. The new collaboration between the two Yorkshire venues will see over 30 works by Cragg go on display. ‘Tony Cragg at Castle Howard’ will be the first major exhibition by a contemporary artist to be held at the historic estate. Runs 3 May – 22 September 2024.

A new exhibition showcasing the work of 20th century British photographer Yevonde will be shown at the Laing Art Gallery later this month after its run at the National Portrait Gallery, London. ‘Yevonde: Life and Colour’ will include new prints and discoveries that have been revealed by the latest research on Yevonde’s colour negative archive, which was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2021. Runs 11 November 2023 – 20 April 2024.

Ulster Transport Museum has acquired seven motorbikes that were raced by Northern Ireland’s best known road racers, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Department for Communities. The bikes are now on display in the museum’s Driven Gallery, which has reopened to the public following a short closure over the Summer to make way for the bikes.

The Vagina Museum opens at its new East London location with a temporary exhibition, ‘Endometriosis: Into the Unknown’, this weekend. Produced in collaboration with Oxford EndoCare, part of the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, and the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics based at The University of Oxford, it will explore the myths and the reality of living with the condition, the basics of endometriosis and new cutting edge research. Opens 4 November 2023.