Archives:

 Artificial intelligence is gaining an ever-increasing presence in our lives. Everything from deep-sea exploration to getting a cheeky take-away is being reimagined with some form of automation. Technology developers are racing to create fully autonomous machines with the ability to make decisions on their own. How many of these smart machines already exist? And how much control are we willing to transfer Read more...

A new display showcasing the very best of the Cartoon Museums collection of cartoon art, curated by Cartoonist and Cartoon Museum Trustee Steve Bell. Closed Monday Ticket included in admission price of £8.50 with concessions.  Under 18s, registered disabled and their carer are FREE. Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult Read more...

A new display exploring the unique and largely untold history, heritage and culture of the Krio people of Sierra Leone. Explore the history of the Krio people of Sierra Leone and discover the dress, architecture, language, lifestyle and tradition of their community in the London, Sugar and Slavery gallery’s latest display at the Museum of London Docklands. The Krios of Sierra Read more...

TURBINE HALL Acclaimed artist Kara Walker presents one of the most ambitious Hyundai Commissions to date Fons Americanus is a 13-metre tall working fountain inspired by the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London. Rather than a celebration of the British Empire, Walker’s fountain explores the interconnected histories of Africa, America and Europe. She uses water as a key Read more...

Visit an ‘abandoned’ Tube station underworld and discover what secrets lurk beneath our busy streets in our new Hidden London exhibition. Hidden London: the Exhibition will take you on an immersive journey of some of London’s most secret spaces in the oldest subterranean railway in the world. These ‘forgotten’ parts of the Tube network have incredible stories to tell about Britain’s Read more...

Music festivals sprang up in the eighteenth century in an age of philanthropy, following the tradition of benefit concerts for charities. This display explores some of the festivals across Britain from the Handel Commemoration in 1784 to the Crystal Palace concerts of the late nineteenth century, looking at the logistics behind their organisation and the expectations of the audiences. Closed Read more...

‘When we walk in that space we are walking between the past and the future and we are the present’. Carlos Bunga (b. 1976, Portugal) creates monumental structures out of everyday materials to propose architecture as transitory and corporeal in his first major UK commission. Bunga makes cardboard constructions and repurposes domestic furnishings to create an evolving installation in dialogue Read more...

Portraying Pregnancy is a major exhibition exploring representations of the pregnant female body through portraits, over 500 years. Until the twentieth century, many women spent most of their adult years pregnant. Despite this, pregnancies are seldom apparent in surviving portraits. This exhibition brings together images of women – mainly British – who were depicted at a time when they were Read more...

After a decade of conceptual and minimal art, the 1981 exhibition A New Spirit in Painting at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, took the art world by storm. Lavishly painted, epically scaled canvases reasserted the centrality of painting – and the hand of the artist. The 38 exhibitors hailed from Europe and America and were exclusively male. Was this show Read more...

Discover our collection of pilgrim badges that illustrate the extraordinary life of Thomas Becket. 2020 marks an important dual anniversary for the extraordinary figure of Thomas Becket. It will be 850 years since his dramatic murder on the 29th December 1170 in Canterbury Cathedral, and 800 years since his body was moved on the 7th July 1220 from a tomb Read more...

Out of the Blue celebrates the work of influential design company Designers Guild. Founded by Tricia Guild OBE, Designers Guild started life in 1970 as a small section of a single shop in Chelsea’s Kings Road. The brand has since evolved and grown into a global enterprise, whose products have changed the way we view colour, pattern and texture in Read more...

GROUND FLOOR GALLERIES Share a knowing look with mischievous eavesdroppers and peer behind the doors of 17th-century Dutch households… From illicit goings-on in servants’ quarters to portraits of high society, Nicolaes Maes captured life upstairs and downstairs in the Dutch Golden Age. Starting his career as one of Rembrandt’s most talented pupils, this exhibition – the first in the UK Read more...

Discover Your Legacy and Me, a creative project and free exhibition exploring the legacy of the Holocaust, created by the Holocaust Educational Trust’s young ambassadors. Following a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau and hearing first hand testimony from a Holocaust survivor, the young ambassadors were tasked with ensuring the Holocaust is remembered for generations; sharing their experiences and defending the truth of Read more...

A new look at the extraordinary life and work of the pop art superstar Andy Warhol was the son of immigrants who became an American icon. A shy gay man who became the hub of New York’s social scene. An artist who embraced consumerism, celebrity and counter culture – and changed modern art in the process. He was born in Read more...

This major exhibition explores the recurring motif of female subjects in art, as depicted in enclosed, ornate interiors. Such images are inherently alluring yet sinister, carrying implications of enforced isolation. This theme is prevalent in nineteenth-century British painting, with many Pre-Raphaelites and Orientalists showing a fascination with the so-called ‘gilded cage’. Visitors will encounter work by a breath-taking variety of Read more...

Titian’s sensuous interpretation of Classical myths of love, temptation, and punishment In 1551, Prince Philip of Spain, the future King Philip II, commissioned Titian, the most famous painter in Europe, to produce a group of paintings showing Classical myths primarily taken from the Roman poet Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’. The exhibition reunites all six paintings in the series, from Boston, Madrid, and Read more...

Internationally renowned artist, Ai Weiwei, takes over IWM London’s iconic atrium with a new artwork. Be immersed in this site-specific artwork, as the atrium is given in its entirety to an artist for the first time in the history of the building. Exploring international migration, conflict as a root cause of human flow, and the relationship between the individual, society Read more...

EXPERIENCE WHAT LIFE IS REALLY LIKE IN A REFUGEE CAMP. Life in a Camp is an innovative installation that immerses you in a refugee camp environment. Created in partnership with CNN, the installation utilises the international news network’s pioneering panoramic video newsgathering techniques to provide a deeper understanding of the lives of contemporary refugees. In a space of just 30 Read more...

IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO YOU ARE OR WHERE YOU ARE FROM. CONFLICT CREATES CRISIS AND CHAOS. War turns people’s worlds upside down, from the First World War to the present day, countless lives have been affected by conflict. Ordinary people are forced to make extraordinary decisions – should they stay or go? Refugees: Forced to Flee, the new exhibition at Read more...

From rucksacks to despatch boxes, Birkin bags to Louis Vuitton luggage, Bags: Inside Out explores the style, function, design and craftsmanship of the ultimate accessory. Extended hours on Friday until 9.30 Tickets are £18.00 with concessions.  FREE for under 11s Read more...

Back to Earth is a new multi-year project that invites over sixty leading artists, architects, poets, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers and designers, to devise artist-led campaigns, protocols and initiatives responding to the environmental crisis, with the support of partner organisations and networks. Interdisciplinary at its very core, Back to Earth will manifest throughout all of the Galleries’ programmes onsite, offsite and Read more...