Friday 24 July 2026
What’s happening in museums, galleries, art and heritage
Scroll for: UK news 🇬🇧 | Global news 🌍 | News in brief 🗞️
Happy Friday.
So, it turns out visiting the Bayeux Tapestry last week wasn’t one of Lisa Nandy’s final engagements as culture secretary, as I had predicted.
The most eye-popping development from this week’s formation of a new British government was not John Healey’s genuinely surprising appointment as Chancellor — it was that Nandy retained her job.
In many ways, I doubt there’s anyone more surprised than Nandy herself. She has spent weeks aligning herself with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, even before he returned as an MP. She was the first cabinet minister to campaign for him in Makerfield. Fair enough, that’s politics. She saw the way the wind was turning, and she clearly wanted a promotion.
Yet that’s the most baffling thing about retaining her in the role: she does not enjoy it! All the signs that come out of DCMS is that she’s bored by the job. Observers outside the culture, media and sport sectors — as well as those inside, including many of you reading this — can see that she has done the bare minimum over the past two years.
On her reappointment this week, the Political Editor of The New World James Ball wondered whether “this is intended as a punishment to Lisa Nandy, who clearly hates the job; or a punishment to the entire UK culture sector, which is suffering as a result of that.”
Zooming out to what the new government means for museums, I think the most important thing to keep an eye on will be universal free entry to England’s national museums, and the recent revival in interest in making foreign tourists pay admission.
The new Prime Minister has all this week announced new policies as part of his pledge to give people "more breathing room" in the first weeks of his government. These so far have included scrapping VAT on electricity bills from the autumn, and the reintroduction of the £2 bus fare cap. All are headline-grabbing announcements that, yes, will help people in incremental ways. But crucially, they cost relatively little in the grand scheme of state spending.
What worries me is that another relatively minor line on the government’s budget spreadsheet is the grant-in-aid to nationals to cover free entry. We know at last year’s Budget that the Treasury modeled both abolishing it altogether, as well introducing charges for foreign visitors. I can see this being revived.
And while under the new regime the former would probably conflict too much with the Prime Minister’s pledge to help Brits with the cost-of-living, the latter could be too-easy-to-resist as a way to get some quick cash to spend elsewhere. It would be argued it’s only rich international tourists who will lose out, and it also wouldn’t hurt his vibe that it will (wrongly) be presented as only metropolitan-elite London institutions that will be affected.
If Burnham does want a quick win (and all week his announcements have shown that he does), all he has to do is ask the Treasury to dig out that folder again. Suffice to say it would be a massive mistake — but I expect all the culture secretary will do is shrug.
Now onto this week’s other news!
maxwell
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British curator Jessica Morgan has been appointed the new director of Tate.
Morgan — who has led the New York-based Dia Art Foundation since 2015 — succeeds Maria Balshaw who quit earlier this year. It’s a return to Tate for Morgan who was previously a curator between 2002 and 2014.
It’s reported she’ll be taking a huge pay cut for the new gig. At the Dia Foundation, Morgan was paid about $840,000 (£631,000) in 2024, according to tax filings. Tate’s accounts say Balshaw was paid about £222,000. The Times believe Morgan will “be getting a package allowing her to undertake freelance work as well.”
In an interview with the Financial Times to mark her appointment, Tate’s chair of trustees Roland Rudd said Morgan had secured the directorship “fairly and squarely” after a process featuring “some extremely strong candidates.”
The newspaper says these other contenders included Tate’s interim director Karin Hindsbo, and Laurence des Cars, former head of the Louvre who resigned earlier this year after the fallout from the jewel heist. (Read more)
🔗 COMMENT | Tate desperately needs a radical overhaul – but will its new director really be an agent of change? (Jonathan Jones in the Guardian)
The director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Anthea M. Hartig, appeared before a tense congressional hearing where she was grilled extensively by Republican lawmakers. One labelled the Smithsonian as “infected by a woke ideology.”
Republican questioning mirrored previous Trump administration attacks — the President in his second term has targeted the museum extensively — and the hearing followed a report released by the White House that accused the Smithsonian of being "subject to institutional capture by a radical, activist ideology that is fundamentally opposed to telling the noble, honest story of the great country we know and love."
Hartig argued in the hearing that the museum is not unpatriotic, citing the prominent display of artifacts such as the desk on which Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, Horatio Greenough’s statue of Washington and Lincoln’s top hat. “And we tell the truth about the times that the country fell short of its own founding ideals,” she said. (Read more)
Magdalene show tours north England 🖼️
A significant exhibition exploring the legacy of Mary Magdalene through historic and contemporary art is to tour three museums in the North of England next year. The show — called Mary Magdalene: Woman and Myth (a title giving Friday afternoon vibes) — has been created by the National Gallery in London and will feature 8 of their masterpieces. It’ll debut at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery before stops at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield and Auckland Palace in Bishop Auckland. (Read more)
Fire-ravaged art school ditches restoration 🏫
Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has admitted it cannot afford to fully rebuild the fire-damaged Mackintosh Building — one of Britain’s greatest buildings — which was twice destroyed by fire in the 2010s. Restoration costs have now risen to £265m, five times GSA’s annual turnover. It now plans to move forward with a "stabilising" project. It will also seek external funding for future wider regeneration, but the school’s chair has said a full "faithful reinstatement" — which many people want — will now never be possible. (Read more)
🔗 INTERVIEW | GSA chair: Mackintosh Building can never be exact replica (The Herald)
Museums take on Newcastle heritage gem ⛏️
One of Newcastle’s finest Victorian buildings which houses an internationally significant mining engineering archive, has seen its future secured after its ownership was taken over by the city council. Its management will be now be operated by the North East Museums service, who are expected to primarily run it as an events space to generate income. A spokesperson from North East Museums said events would include “concerts, weddings, conferences and public openings for special events”. (Read more)
Reform council vetoes museum move 🗳️
Hugely controversial plans to relocate Walsall Leather Museum from its historic building have been scrapped, after the new Reform-led council voted to reverse the previous Tory-administration’s decisions. They also voted to renegotiate with Walsall College after they were given the building's lease to use for special educational needs provision. The council’s culture spokesperson — Reform UK’s Councillor Matt Eason — said: “The strength of public feeling on this issue has been clear.” (Read more)
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Italy 🇮🇹
The Director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence has said she’s intensifying a crackdown on unauthorised usage of the museum’s most famous artwork: Michelangelo’s David. Andreina Contessa says the most recent case was a nearby takeaway using its likeness to advertise ice cream. “The cease and desist letter has already been sent,” she said, as the Italian cultural heritage code restricts free use. “It is precisely because the image belongs to everyone that it cannot be used for other purposes, especially not for commercial, advertising or political purposes.” (Read more)
France 🇫🇷
The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery has reopened to the public, nine months after thieves raided it. But the remaining collections and display cases have been permanently removed, and will be relocated in a more secure space in the future. Director Christophe Leribault said the aim was “to start afresh” and to restore the space “to its original function and status as a ceremonial state gallery.” He said he hopes it allows visitors to “rediscover the splendid architecture and decor” of the 17th century room. (Read more)
Italy 🇮🇹
The EU has officially pulled its €2m (£1.7m) funding to the Venice Biennale in response to Russia’s allowed participation in this year’s edition. Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco hit back saying the decision was “political” [er, duh!]. He said that the EU was “abandoning” the Biennale and they “cannot accept that.” Bowing to the EU’s demands, Buttafuoco added, would mean the Biennale “[renouncing] our principles of freedom of expression, of research, fantasy, imagination [and] values.” What an idiot. (Read more)
Ecuador 🇪🇨
A new winning design for the National Museum of Ecuador has been picked — after the first choice was scrapped just days after being unveiled due to a public backlash which also forced the resignation of the museum’s director. The new plans are vastly more elaborate, and feature a curved brick structure. Several firms refused to participate in the rerun evaluation. An architect involved in the original decision criticised the replacement design, saying: “structurally, it does not work. It literally cannot stand.” (Read more)
Peerage creates new culture minister
The British Council’s Director of Arts Ruth Mackenzie has joined the government. She is the new minister for arts appointed by the Prime Minister. Mackenzie has been given a peerage to take up the role. (Full story)
Pandemic TV suit donated to museum
The suit worn Sir Jonathan Van-Tam — England’s former deputy chief medical officer — during the daily TV Covid briefings has been donated to his local museum. Boston Guildhall Museum will include it in a display on the town’s famous residents. (Full story)
Eurostar open up access to art city
It’ll soon be even easier for UK art lovers to visit the wonderful art-filled city of Antwerp. From December, there’ll be four direct Eurostar services from London each day. My tip? Head straight to KMSKA. (Full story)
Philip and Fiona find a fortune again
The BBC’s Fake or Fortune has unearthed another… fortune! An "enormously important" 18th Century painting of a woman from India by the Scottish artist Katherine Read has been uncovered. It’s worth £100,000. (Full story)
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👀 Last edition’s most clicked stories:
🥇 Outcry over Zendaya’s ancient earrings on press tour for The Odyssey
🥈 Wham!, chintz and clay lead the V&A’s exhibitions in 2027
🥉 Natural History Museum wins landmark business rates challenge
📊 Last week’s poll results | How do you rate the V&A’s 2027 exhibition programme?
— 👍👍 24%
— 👍 43% 🏆
— 👎 26%
— 👎👎 7%
🗳️ This week’s poll |
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