Appointments
Seven new trustees have been appointed to the Wallace Collection. Marcus Agius CBE, Alexandra Shulman CBE, and Davinder Toor will serve a four year term, and Spencer de Grey CBE, Josephine Fitzalan-Howard, Larry Keith, Jakyung Moon Lambert, will serve a five year term on the board.
Openings & closures
After Perth Museum opened its doors last weekend, Scotland is to see further openings this month. The Wylleium, a new art gallery in the heart of Greenock will showcase the artwork of Glasgow-born George Wyllie, is set to open its doors for the first time on April 26 2024.
Crieff & Strathearn Museum will also open for the first time this spring. Located in Crieff’s former Town Hall, the museum will feature displays about Strathearn’s history as well as a programme of events, museum tours, and performances.
The Scottish Crannog Centre has also opened at its new site in Dalerb on Loch Tay, three years after a fire destroyed its replica crannog building.
For the first time, visitors will be able to set foot in The East Wing of Buckingham Palace. The area encompasses the front façade of the historic building and features the central balcony, where the Monarch and members of the Royal Family have gathered for public appearances during special occasions or historic moments since 1851. Tours can be booked from July.
Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum has pushed back its reopening to 2025, following complications in the construction of a new passenger lift. The museum had initially been set to reopen this summer, but delays caused by construction of a new lift mean the museum will now reopen in two phases.
Exhibitions
The National Maritime Museum Cornwall (NMMC) has announced a new permanent installation, ‘Small Boats, Big Stories’. The museum, home to the National Small Boat Collection, will display eleven small boats as part of the exhibition. In what is believed to be the first ever display of a boat of this kind by a UK museum, NMMC will present a small Zodiac dinghy, recently acquired for the National Small Boat Collection directly from UK Border Force. The inflatable boat was intercepted by a passing tanker in the English Channel in November 2018, with its five occupants later brought to Falmouth. It will be exhibited alongside several lifejackets, also acquired from the UK Border Force, as “a symbol of one of the most significant and socially relevant issues of our times.” Opens 19 April 2024.
This Spring, the first exhibition of work by photojournalist, filmmaker and humanitarian, Tim Hetherington opens following Imperial War Museum’s (IWM) acquisition of his full archive from the Tim Hetherington Trust in 2017. Featuring over 65 of his photographs, ‘Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington’ opens at IWM London on the 13th anniversary of his death while covering the Libyan Civil War in 2011. Newly displayed objects and photographs include the camera and diary he used in the days leading up to his death. Runs 20 April 2024 – 29 September 2024.
As part of the National Gallery’s free ‘Discover’ series, Degas’s Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando will go on display as part of an exhibition taking a closer look at the artist’s painting. ‘Discover Degas & Miss La La’ will reveal new information about the subject of the painting, her life and career to the public for the first time, including a number of never-before-seen photographs of Olga, as she was known to her friends and family. Runs 6 June – 1 September 2024
One of The Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery’s most well-known paintings, ‘Portrait of a Man in a Red Suit’ is appearing at the Royal Academy’s Burlington House exhibition ‘Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change’. It joins more than 100 major contemporary and historical works as “part of a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism – and how it may help set a course for the future.” Featured artists include Yinka Shonibare, Sonia Boyce and Hew Locke alongside works by JMW Turner and Joshua Reynolds. Runs until 28 April 2024.
‘Nalini’, an exhibition of photographic works by artist Arpita Shah, is set to open later this month at Duff House in Banff, Aberdeenshire. The exhibition, presented in partnership with Glasgow-based Street Level Photoworks, explores the connected histories of Arpita Shah, her mother and her grandmother, spanning India, East Africa and the UK. Opens 12th April 2024.
Touring exhibition ‘Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre’ will open at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath later this month, the final stop on a five year international tour. Featuring 100 original posters from 1890s bohemian Paris, including the legendary ‘Chat Noir,’ and characters of the Moulin Rouge, the exhibition then moves to its permanent home at the Musée d’Ixelles in Belgium. Runs 26 April – 29 September 2024.
