Appointments
Research England has announced that Dr Nick Merriman has been appointed to chair the Museums, Galleries and Collections Fund review. Dr Merriman has previously served as Director of the Manchester Museum, Director of Museums and Collections and Reader in Museum Studies at UCL. He has also served as Chair of the University Museums Group 2009 to 2013, Convenor of the Museums Association’s Ethics Committee, and Chair of the Collections Trust. He has also published widely on museum studies topics.
The Director of the Jewish Museum London, Frances Jeens, is to leave the role this month for a new post in the Houses of Parliament.
Jewish Museum London Director to leave for role in Houses of Parliament
Openings
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery is to temporarily move from its home in Apsley House in Old Town, as it makes way for a permanent new location. It will move to the first floor of the Civic Offices on Euclid Street, while plans are made for a potential new permanent home at Swindon’s Cultural Quarter.
Lutterworth and District Museum has reopened after a move to new premises in the centre of the Leicestershire market town. The independent museum will now show exhibits ranging from Roman times to the present day, with ongoing development of its displays.
Exhibitions
Opening tomorrow, 14 October 2022, the Museum of London Docklands opens ‘Executions’, a new major exhibition exploring the capital’s history of public punishment, from the first recorded public execution in 1196 to the last in 1868. Objects on display include a woven silk vest said to have been worn by King Charles I at his execution, a 300-year-old bedsheet embroidered with a love note in human hair, and items belonging to the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.
Manchester’s People’s History Museum will open a new exhibition next month exploring the fight for disabled people’s rights. In development since 2018, ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ features protest material and objects, and opens on the first day of UK Disability History Month, 16 November 2022, until 16 December.
Now open at the National Waterfront Museum, a project to record the faces and testimonies of the last generation of Welsh coal-miners has gone on display. Surviving coal miners and their relatives have been photographed using a process called photogrammetry, which converts two-dimensional images into three-dimensional portraits, displayed alongside stories in their own voices.
Wellcome Collection will present ‘Jim Naughten, Objects in Stereo’, a new exhibition by British photographer Jim Naughten, curated by Emily Sargent and Ruth Horry. Using the 19th century technique of stereoscopic photography, which makes two-dimensional images appear three-dimensional, the exhibition is hoped to draw attention to the objects in a collection not often exhibited. Naughten visited the recently closed Blythe House in west London as part of the project. Runs 24 November 2022 – 23 April 2023.
This winter, the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill, West London is partnering with Holland-based designers 75B, to exhibit a series of ‘City Crest’ tapestries. 75B produced woven ‘City Crests’, to celebrate cities from around the world. Woven at the Textile Museum in Tilburg, the tapestries portray popular brands and icons that are ingrained in daily life. Runs 19 November 2022 to 5 February 2023.
This autumn Tate St Ives opens an exhibition of new work by Turkish artist Burçak Bingöl. Entitled Minor Vibrations on Earth, the exhibition is the result of Bingöl’s 2022 residency in St Ives, from which she has created a new installation combining traditional ceramics with modern styles and forms. Runs 15 October 2022 – 15 January 2023.
Funding
Initial funding has been secured for the redevelopment of the Diving Museum in Hampshire. Its owners, The Historical Diving Society, received £72,814 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, ahead of plans to apply for a full grant at a later date.The funds will be used to work collaboratively with the local community to create an “accessible and engaging exhibition and learning programme”, it said.
Black Country Living Museum’s £30m redevelopment project, ‘Forging Ahead’, has received an investment boost from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
Black Country Living Museum’s major development secures new funding
Cornwall Council has announced initial transitional support for the Royal Cornwall Museum, securing its future after a tumultuous period in which staff said it was at threat of closure.
Council backing secures Royal Cornwall Museum’s short-term future
