Friday 03 July 2026
What’s happening in museums, galleries, art and heritage
Happy Friday.
Next week, John Constable's The Hay Wain will go on display in Ipswich. The hugely-famous painting (created in 1821) depicts an idyllic countryside scene at Flatford in Suffolk with a horse and cart in the River Stour. Yet this trip for the masterpiece — where it’ll be shown at Christchurch Mansion — marks the first time it has ever been in Suffolk. Yes — spoiler alert — it was painted in London.
But Flatford was a location that Constable knew well. He was born and grew up in the area (his father even owned the mill here, which is also depicted in other Constable works) and the landscape around him during these early years would be an inspiration for life. The Hay Wain was crafted in Hampstead, but from many open-air sketches that Constable had made over several years, and from his memories.
It’s 250 years since Constable was born this summer — the reason for this landmark loan from the National Gallery — and yet you can still to this day, walk in his exact footsteps.
Flatford Mill is now owned by the National Trust, as is much of the land surrounding it, and so too is the very cottage you see in Constable’s most famous painting.
I visited for the first time recently, and when you position yourself at the exact viewpoint depicted in the work, it’s uncanny — like seeing the past and present in one frame. There are many other viewpoints for other Constable works here too (such as this iconic work, now in Tate’s collection), all meters from each other.
It’s a beautiful spot. Eating scones from the Trust’s tearoom, directly on the riverbank, is hard to beat for a slice of quintessential English countryside. Although also not to be missed are the boat trips along the Stour. It might only by a 30 minute ride — run by volunteers of the River Stour Trust — but it feels like going back centuries. There’s hardly any signs of contemporary life on your journey. It’s just you, your fellow boat passengers, and glorious, peaceful nature.
The landscape all around this area is dubbed ‘Constable Country’ due to the links with the artist. It’s all walkable — with a number of guides like this one offering walks from 3.5 to 6 miles where you can take in many other highlights. These include the hugely picturesque village of Dedham with its church that houses one of only three religious paintings Constable ever completed, and East Bagshot, where his parents are buried and where his first studio still stands today (it’s opposite the Red Lion pub, a great spot to refuel). Head to Manningtree railway station to begin and end all your Constable walks.
If you want to make it a longer trip, I can recommend booking a room at the Crown in the small and charming village of Stoke-by-Nayland. You wake up, and directly out of your window is the very countryside Constable fell in love in. I’ve always been a city boy at heart but — 250 years on — he’s started to win me round.
The Hay Wain features in the exhibition The Hay Wain: Walking Constable’s Landscape which runs from 11 July to 04 October at Christchurch Mansion. Trains run to Ipswich and Manningtree from London Liverpool Street
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Bayeux fever has officially arrived. The first tickets to see the Bayeux Tapestry in London this autumn went on sale — and they smashed the record for the most tickets ever sold in a single day for an exhibition at the British Museum as tens of thousands of people tried to nab their spot.
The online queue reached peaks of over 80,000 people, with some having to wait up to 9 hours to book. All the tickets for dates from September to December sold out in 24 hours. Tickets for 2027 will be released in October.
The museum said the sales generated more than £2.5m. Helpful, as in an interview this week, Director Nicholas Cullinan said “the exhibition is going to be the most expensive we’ve ever staged.” He also defended the ticket prices — up to £33 at peak times — telling the Today programme, “we do need to recoup those funds”. (Read more)
A €1.9m renovation of the leading sculpture museum in the Netherlands has been unveiled. And the revamp includes the creation of sand dunes in which to display art.
“We’ve created a new kind of landscape for sculpture,” Brigitte Bloksma, the Director of Museum Beelden aan Zee told me at the unveiling. “It’s the first rooftop sculpture dune in the world.”
The museum is literally dug into the dunes of the Hague’s vast beach at Scheveningen. “Now we’re bringing back the dunes into the building,” Bloksma says.
The new terrace features the same sand that surrounds the venue, and the same vegetation and grasses too. And sculptural masterpieces from the collection are now displayed among them.
“There’s more nature…it’s really good for the dune landscape, and for birds and bees,” said Bloksma. And it’s good for visitors. “We’re creating a space where you feel welcome, and you can walk around sculpture, you can touch them, you can sit on them.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has realised she’ll soon have a boss with the political authority to sack her. So while invisible since 2024, this week she’s sparked into life as the ‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham plots his new cabinet.
Among many interventions this week, she took a swipe at the National Lottery’s funding for good causes as too “concentrated in London and the south-east.” She’s launched the first review in 20 years of how it distributes its billions from lottery players — including vital cash to museums and heritage.
“I’ve always been a devolution radical” she said, a day after Burnham’s major speech on the need for more devolution. She said it was “outrageous” that with the lottery’s money, “no one has thought to ask the public how to spend it in over two decades.” She’s been culture secretary for 10% of that time. (Read more)
She’s also taking herself and the Culture Department off Twitter/X as she says it “now favours abuse and misinformation.” With DCMS now deeming it beyond the pale, will those remaining UK museums on the platform follow? (Read more)
Nandy also announced that 400 towns had submitted bids to be the first UK Town of Culture in 2028. (Read more)
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Angelica Kauffman joins National Gallery collection 🇨🇭
A major Greek mythology picture by the 18th-century artist Angelica Kauffman has been donated to the National Gallery. It is the only Kauffman painting in their collection (a previous picture was transferred to Tate and later lost in the Blitz). Achilles discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes is part of a gift from Dallas-based collectors Richard and Luba Barrett of three pictures by important Swiss artists. All three have gone on display. (Read more)
Bosses consider Cardiff museum closure 🏴
National Museum Cardiff could close for a significant period of restoration. The PCS union has said it’s in “early discussions” about closures, prompting Museums Wales to release a statement saying “no decisions have been made” but confirming it was an option. If closure is recommended, there’ll be “a full review and consultation” they said. Meanwhile Museum Wales’ CEO Jane Richardson has apologised for a botched recruitment process for a senior role at the organisation. “We messed up” she said. (Read more)
‘Dragon Doctor’ celebrated in new Linder artwork 🐉
A new mosaic by British artist Linder has been unveiled at London Zoo to mark its 200th anniversary. The work honours Joan Beauchamp Procter — the ‘Dragon Doctor’ — who was the first female curator of reptiles and who revolutionised how they were kept. She died aged just 34. Titled Sirona, it’s Linder’s first permanent public artwork. She said the commission helped her uncover “Procter as a true heroine of the natural world… in Joan I found a kindred spirit.” (Read more)
David Bowie archive heads on tour 👨🏻🎤
V&A Dundee will be the first host of a national tour of 100 highlights from the V&A’s David Bowie archive. Many items will have never been on public display before. The exhibition will subsequently travel to Showtown in Blackpool, before stops in County Durham, Hull and Bristol. V&A Dundee Director Leonie Bell said they “couldn’t be happier” to host the inaugural display and that “Bowie has always been one of the most-requested cultural figures our audiences have wanted to see.” (Read more)
England’s public arts funding to extend to five years 💷
Arts Council England (ACE) has revealed the first details on how it will overhaul its funding of arts bodies, after the criticisms of the Hodge review. Its core funding for National Portfolio Organisations will now extend to five-year terms, rather than three. The process will ask “less of applicants” assures ACE, saying organisations will “notice the application form is shorter and clearer.” Those successful for funding will be announced in July 2027. (Read more)
Germany 🇩🇪
The official portrait of former German chancellor Angela Merkel has been unveiled. Merkel — who was in power for 16 years — presented the painting at Berlin’s Bode-Museum where it will be displayed until October, before being transferred to the chancellor’s official residence where portraits of all former leaders hang. Unusually, Merkel paid for it herself, reportedly so she retains ownership incase the far right ever win power again. (Read more)
Netherlands 🇳🇱 USA 🇺🇸
Rotterdam’s Dutch national photography museum must pay €400,000 to its former director after a court ruled she was unfairly sacked. Birgit Donker was fired in 2025 after the board alleged a culture of fear and an “unsafe” work environment had emerged under her leadership. But the judge ruled there was no evidence to substantiate this, and the Nederlands Fotomuseum had “serious” failures as an employer. Donker said: “Everything I have been accused of has been dismissed.” (Read more)
🔗 MORE NEWS | NYC Mayor Mamdani approves record $323m funding for culture — up 7% on last year
Hockney returns to the big screen
To mark his recent death, an “intimate” and “revealing” 2017 film on David Hockney is returning to UK cinemas for a limited run. David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts examines Hockney’s two RA shows in the 2010s. (Full story)
Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker elected to Oscar museum
Three-time Oscar winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has been elected to the board of trustees of LA’s Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. He’s “aligned with our vision for public education and preservation of film history” a statement said. (Full story)
Visitor milestone achieved in Perth
Perth Museum has welcomed its 500,000th visitor — just over two years since first opening. Initial targets had been 167,000 visitors a year. The council leader hailed that the museum was “bringing more people into our city.” (Full story)
Shock as Sycamore Gap sapling stolen
A sapling grown from the felled Sycamore Gap tree has been stolen from the grounds of a National Trust castle. It was snatched from Cumbria’s Wray Castle two months after planting. The castle’s manager said they’re “shocked and saddened.” (Full story)
24-hour ‘detention’ for Ai Weiwei begins
Just under three hours ago, Ai Weiwei began his harrowing 24-hour performance piece recreating his secret detention in China from 15 years ago. You can watch it live from Manchester’s Aviva Studios right now. (Watch live)
— Please consider donating to support this newsletter — or at least to buy me a pint as a thank you.
👀 Last edition’s most clicked stories:
🥇 Award-winning Australian artist accused of copying Basquiat
🥈 Southbank Chair Misan Harriman to step down early
🥉 Artwork removed from National Portrait Gallery after row over Churchill’s role in famine
🗳️ This week’s poll |
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