Friday 10 July 2026
What’s happening in museums, galleries, art and heritage
Happy Friday.
Maybe it’s the heat in London this week, but I need to get two things off my chest. Both are to do with how museums and galleries use social media. Let’s call them two of my pet hates.
Firstly, why-oh-why are we still seeing social posts begin: “We are delighted to announce…”? Argh! I’m far from the first person to highlight how this habit needs to be consigned to the dustbin, which makes it even more bizarre that it endures.
There are many reasons why it’s awful (it’s a cliché, it’s corporate speak) but the number one reason is that it simply delays the actual announcement. Just start with the news! Hooks are the most influential factor in what makes a social post succeed. ‘We are delighted to announce’ is not a hook. The remedy is simple: please just don’t ever type those words.
My second pet hate is using Instagram to make operational announcements such as the lifts are broken, you’re closing early, or — the absolute worse — your phone lines are down.
It’s not that there’s no value in telling people this information if they need to know it e.g. if they’re en route for a visit. It’s that these posts never reach this tiny pool of people anyway.
The year is 2026 and surely we all know that Instagram is powered by the algorithm and chronological feeds are a thing of the (quite distant) past. Posts about the tills not working will be seen long after said tills have been fixed. And even from the slither of people who might see it in time, I’d suggest the number who will be affected by the announcement will be close to zero.
And the other thing we know about Insta is that engagement is King — and no one is engaging with a post about busy phone lines. For every person that sees it and swipes, even fewer are then going to be served it. Which is why even Stories is not the right format for this type of news. It’s just totally pointless — and actively harms your future content too as the algorithm will think all your content is dud.
The hard truth on this one is that there’s no real alternative. An update to your website and an email to ticket bookers if absolutely necessary will have to suffice. Keep social for the good stuff.
Right, now that’s off my chest, I’m off to cool down. But read on for this week’s news!
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The Bayeux Tapestry has finally arrived in Britain. At 02:48am this morning and with two police escorts, a beige lorry with the artwork inside pulled into the loading bay of the British Museum. It’s arrival in London was watched by a select crowd including the French ambassador to the UK, the director of the British Museum Nicholas Cullinan, and BBC News’s Culture Editor.
“We've just witnessed something rather extraordinary” Cullinan said. “It is returning to England for the first time in almost 1,000 years.” (Read more)
It had travelled on a dedicated LeShuttle train through the Channel Tunnel to Folkestone. To mark the occasion, the museum had projected a message overnight onto the nearby White Cliffs of Dover, intended to be directed back to France. It simply said “merci!” (Read more)
Writing in the Times, French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the historic loan as “a gesture of trust, a tangible expression of a long-standing friendship and a sign of our shared desire to see France and the United Kingdom build their future together.” (Read more)
The new permanent home for London’s Migration Museum (due to open in 2028) is to be smaller than first planned.
The museum — which spent a number of years in a temporary space in Lewisham Shopping Centre — is to move into a new 21-storey building of student accommodation in the City of London. It’s been granted a 60-year lease without rent or service charges by the property developer.
But one of the three planned floors — which was to host events, meetings and workspaces — has been scrapped, and the developer will instead add 33 additional student rooms (to total around 800).
The museum has consented, in part because — according to the developer — “these proposals allow us to make a substantial contribution toward the fit-out.” And Museum Chief Executive Laurie Boult warned they were finding fundraising difficult due to a “challenging macroeconomic environment.”
Boult said the new planning changes — which are being questioned by local residents — would allow them “the certainty to deliver our permanent home on a stronger financial footing.” (Read more)
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Sums don’t add up for £20m Hereford Museum 💷
Herefordshire Council is “seeking reparations” after it was forced to scale back its ambitions for a major museum redevelopment when it emerged their budget estimates were £14m below what was needed. They had planned for the refurbishment of Hereford Museum & Art Gallery to cost £20m. But after a construction contractor was appointed, they found that was far too little. The Council says they’re now “in the process of seeking some reparations around the advice provided previously.” (Read more)
King’s Picture Gallery doubles masterpieces 🖼️
Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery — one of its most important State Rooms — has unveiled a major redisplay that’s doubled the number of artworks on show. Paintings by Rubens, Caravaggio and Zoffany are among 120 masterpieces (up from 63) from the Royal Collection which can now be seen as the Palace opens for the summer. Anna Reynolds, Surveyor of The King’s Pictures, said the work was “a longstanding tradition of renovations and re-hangs… following a change of reign.” (Read more)
London neighbours clash over Berlin Wall 🏡
A row has broken out in South London as neighbours have complained that resident Steven Thorpe has installed a surviving piece of the Berlin Wall in his garden. Thorpe said “I am very proud to have it. It’s a piece of history and I think it is wonderful.” But one neighbour criticised it as a “bloody ugly slab.” Another said it ruins “the view of the gardens.” And now philistine Southwark Council has served notice that his "unauthorised building works" are “unacceptable.” (Read more)
Collapse in visitors to Museum of Oxford 📉
There’s been a "catastrophic" drop in visitor numbers to the Museum of Oxford after an entry fee was introduced, local campaigners say. Save Our Museum say that the £4 charge has seen numbers collapse by 70 to 80%. A spokesperson for the campaign said “a mistake was made in introducing charging and it needs to be rectified as soon as possible.” The local council said "these are early days for the new scheme.” (Read more)
Hull’s Maritime Museum releases tickets 🎟️
Ticket booking to visit the £20m new Hull Maritime Museum will open on Monday. Entry is free but bosses expect high demand from the city’s residents to see the completely overhauled venue when it’s unveiled next month. It’s also been revealed two of the most important surviving objects connected to Hull’s great 18th-century whaling ship Truelove — which the British captured during the American War of Independence — will be shown. One is a remarkable engraved whale tooth depicting the ship. (Read more)
Belgium 🇧🇪
A fire at the Centre Pompidou’s new Brussels outpost has caused significant damage. Air-conditioning units on the roof of the section which will house the venue’s architecture centre were set ablaze. The fire was brought under control but there’s been significant water damage from the effort to tackle it. As such, this section of the building will not open with the rest of the Kanal museum this November. “It’s a huge setback” Kanal’s Director said. (Read more)
France 🇫🇷 Netherlands 🇳🇱
Masked burglars have carried out an overnight raid on a French museum, snatching around 20 pieces of jewellery worth €4 million. They targeted the Musée Lalique in Grand Est, which is dedicated to luxury glassmaker Rene Lalique. The town's mayor slammed the museum’s contracted private security firm. “The security company did not intervene immediately; they did not call the gendarmes” he said, adding “we pay large security firms and this is the result.” (Read more)
Australia 🇦🇺
Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) — Australia’s largest private museum — has announced it’s planning an outpost in Thailand. Mona Bangkok will be a partnership with Asset World Corporation (AWC), one of Thailand’s largest real estate conglomerates. AWC will build, own and operate the museum, while Mona will be responsible for curation, collection and exhibitions. The partnership will have an initial span of 15 years, with the new venue expected to open in 2029. (Read more)
Open more hours for Brum museums
Several of Birmingham’s museums will extend their opening hours after the city council increased its funding to the Trust that runs them by £289,000. Changes include the Museum and Art Gallery and Thinktank opening six days a week. (Full story)
Home advantage for Lucas museum neighbours
With two months to go before opening, filmmaker George Lucas has said he will give the neighbours of his $1bn new museum free annual passes. Everyone living in the museum’s 90037 ZIP Code in LA will get one, thought to be around 65,000 people. (Full story)
Town of Culture comp whittles down
Fifteen towns have been shortlisted to become the UK’s first Town of Culture, after nearly 400 places entered. They include Grimsby and Rotherham in England, the Isle of Bute and Lerwick in Scotland, and Strabane in Northern Ireland. (Full story)
Blockbuster Raphael pulls in crowds
The Met’s just-closed blockbuster exhibition Raphael: Sublime Poetry was the museum’s highest-attended exhibition since 2018. It welcomed over 562,000 visitors — or an average of 6,800 per day during its three-month run. (Full story)
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👀 Last edition’s most clicked stories:
🥇 Museum Wales’ CEO has apologised for a botched recruitment process
🥈 Blockbuster 9-hour queues as Bayeux Tapestry breaks ticket records
🥉 National Museum Cardiff could close for a significant period of restoration
📊 Last week’s poll results | Did you wait in the online queue to secure Bayeux Tapestry tickets? If so, for how long?
— Under an hour 18%
— Under 2 hours 14%
— Under 5 hours 18%
— Under 9 hours 7%
— I saw the wait time and gave up! 43% 🏆
🗳️ This week’s poll |
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