Huge UK museum schemes under threat
Government plans axing millions in funding from six major capital projects
— in partnership with Art UK
This edition also features: Ashmolean Museum saves masterpiece | Picasso comes to Ireland | Judy Garland Museum tries to bring ruby slippers home
Happy Friday
I’m a huge fan of Sir David Chipperfield.
For those that don’t know his work — although you really should — he’s the renowned British architect that’s famous in museum-land for elegant, minimalist designs. His biggest hits in the UK alone are remarkable: the Hepworth Wakefield, the Turner Contemporary, the Royal Academy’s expansion.
But this week I went to Berlin, a city home to his most brilliant museum project. The Neues Museum was closed since the second world war when Allied bombs turned it into a charred ruin. Chipperfield unveiled a sensational resuscitation in 2009. A marriage of old and new that deserves the ultimate chef’s kiss for sensitive but exciting restoration.
I last went to the Neues Museum in 2018. On this trip though, I headed for a first-time visit to another Chipperfield Berlin restoration: the Neue Nationalgalerie.
A vastly different building to the Neues Museum, it’s a modernist icon. Designed by Mies van der Rohe and completed in 1968, it stands as a testament to Mies’s architectural philosophy of “less is more.”
But… it’s not great.
Yes, the exterior is striking — even if it does look like Stansted Airport. But most of the galleries which show the permanent collection are below ground. There’s no natural light, there’s low ceilings, and artworks don’t have space to breathe.
They are INCREDIBLE artworks FYI, genuine masterpieces. The curation and interpretation is of high quality. But as a building it’s a bit meh. I was surprised, as Chipperfield is so great!
It was a relief then to read up after that the gallery was actually a nightmare to work on. Chipperfield’s £120m, six-year refurbishment was described by the Guardian at the time as a Sisyphean task. In an interview, Chipperfield himself lamented how badly the building was made. He was brought in to mend the fact that it was dogged by cracking windows, heavy condensation and awkward display spaces. Yet Chipperfield revealed Mies’s work here is so stripped back, there’s nowhere to go with it.
In the same interview, he said there was an “emotional battle” over the carpet — which he lost — and which was therefore faithfully replaced. On my visit I thought the carpet made it feel like wandering around the Frieze tent.
So while it’s a destination for art lovers, it’s a disappointment for Chipperfield fans.
And as if to prove that point, I had been hoping after my 2-hour wander that I would be able to let it all sink in with a (large) beer in the cafe. But I was met with a sign at the cafe’s entrance that said it was unexpectedly shut due to a burst pipe. Even masters aren’t miracle workers. I guess even Chipperfield can’t exorcise the ghost of Mies.
— maxwell
— in partnership with Art UK
Boost sales with the Art UK Shop
Christmas is coming, and so the 140 institutions selling their unique products through the Art UK Shop are going to benefit.
That’s because the Shop is a destination e-commerce site for consumers looking for cultural gifts — and sales generate cash for partner museums and galleries.
“Our marketing activity helps bring these wonderful products to customers and allows shoppers the chance to give back to the collections they love” Camilla Stewart, Director of Partnerships and Collection Support at Art UK says.
That revenue is not just at Christmas though. The top-sellers earn thousands of pounds of net income per year from the Shop. Art UK’s marketing support is year-round.
It’s why the Courtauld Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the Pier Arts Centre are just some of the collections already on the store.
Want a festive boost for your organisation too? Now’s the time to get involved, so that everything is in place in time for Christmas 2025. But you’ll be making money long before then.
Email shop@artuk.org right now to start benefiting from the Art UK Shop.
Need To Know
Reeves reverses funding pledges
Some of the UK’s biggest museum capital projects are under threat after the Labour government said it is “minded to withdraw” millions of pounds that had been awarded to schemes by the previous Conservative administration.
£100m of Levelling Up funding was awarded to projects — including £10m to redevelop the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool, and £15m for the National Railway Museum’s masterplan — in the Spring Budget this year by then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. But as part of last month’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated the cash would be scrapped due to “the need to make savings.” Ministers will consult on the proposals with each individual venue.
The six museums and cultural centres affected — which also include the £2.6m given to V&A Dundee for their permanent galleries overhaul, and £10m for British Library North — have released anodyne statements about working constructively with government to make the case for their projects. I’m sure they are fuming. (Read more)
Morris museum mania in 2025
The William Morris Gallery in North London is to rehang its permanent galleries. It’s the first time they’ve been overhauled since the gallery reopened after a £5m revamp in 2012.
The project — which will also see essential works carried out to improve the environmental performance of the building — will add themes to the permanent displays such as such as the role of women artists and designers in the Arts and Crafts Movement, as well as the influence of Islamic Art on his work.
The rehang begins next year when the gallery will celebrate its 75th anniversary. It’ll also mark the milestone with an exhibition examining the extraordinary versatility of Morris’s work in popular British culture. For Morris Mania, the public is being asked to donate all manner of artefacts adorned with his distinctive designs. The show will also debut a new film showing Morris’s patterns in TV and cinema, such as in Gogglebox and My Fair Lady. (Read more)
Heritage groups win station battle
Liverpool Street station’s £1.5bn wholesale redevelopment — hated by heritage and conservation groups — has been binned, and an entirely new and more modest overhaul proposed instead.
Plans to erect a skyscraper standing 21 storeys high on top of the London terminus have been scrapped, as has the proposal to demolish parts of the station and next-door Great Eastern Hotel which are both listed buildings. The new proposals are scaled back and include creating a smaller skyscraper adjacent to the site, which would protect more of the station’s Victorian features. Original architects Herzog & de Meuron — who completed the Tate Modern extension in 2016 — are no longer involved.
Historic England had said the original project set out “oversized and insensitive proposals.” They now say they are considering their position on the new plans — a sentiment shared by the Victorian Society who were equally against the 2023 proposal. (Read more)
News from the UK
Amazing acquisition 🖼 | The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has pulled off a remarkable feat by raising £4.5m to save a 600-year-old Italian Renaissance painting from leaving the UK. It’s purchased Fra Angelico’s The Crucifixion, preventing its planned move overseas, and it’ll now go on public display for the first time. A lead donation to secure the work came from the museum’s Chair Lord Lupton, who said the “acquisition represents a collective outpouring of support.” (Read more)
Bell blockbuster 🎨 | The biggest ever exhibition dedicated to groundbreaking artist Vanessa Bell is to open at Charleston in Lewes, her famous home and studio. Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour will open in March and will see 100 pieces go on display celebrating Bell — the sister of Virginia Woolf — as a radical pioneer of modernism in her own right. Visitors will see Bell’s vibrant paintings, revolutionary textiles, furniture designs, and ceramics, in a show organised in partnership with MK Gallery. (Read more)
Drawing debut ✍️ | A striking double portrait of artists Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck will go on display in Scotland for the first time tomorrow. The work — by Flemish artist Erasmus Quellinus II — was stolen from an Eastbourne gallery in 1979 and thought lost for 45 years. It was recovered in 2021 and reinstated at Chatsworth House this year. It now makes its Scottish debut as part of exhibition Dürer to Van Dyck: Drawings from Chatsworth House. (Read more)
Mansion raid 🚨 | Thieves have stolen precious historical treasures from the National Trust’s Montacute House in Somerset after a night-time break in. Items including a 300-year-old silver table centrepiece were snatched from the stunning Elizabethan property. The house’s general manager said the centrepiece was of “exceptional significance” and that the burglary had been a “very upsetting incident” for staff and volunteers. The police are now investigating. (Read more)
Story continues 🏴 | A major U-turn by Edinburgh council will see the People's Story Museum on the Royal Mile reopen. It had been mothballed to save cash — as reported in this newsletter — but a public backlash has seen that decision reversed. It’ll reopen in December. But museum campaigner Jim Slaven said this "only a first step" and that the venue “must be curated properly, cared for and invested in.” (Read more)
News from around the world
USA 🇺🇸 | The Judy Garland Museum in Minnesota is vying to buy the ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz which are up for auction. The slippers — one of four surviving pairs from the film — were stolen from the museum by an ex-mobster in 2005 while on loan. Their recovery by the FBI came in 2018. The current bid stands at over $800k. A gala helped raise funds, with additional support coming from state lawmakers. But the auction will run until December so bids could rocket. (Read more)
Ireland 🇮🇪 | A major, never-seen-before Picasso exhibition will be the highlight of the National Gallery of Ireland’s 2025 exhibitions. Picasso: From the Studio is a collaboration with the Musée Picasso national-Paris and is supported by KPMG Ireland, and it’ll examine the key studios and locations that defined the iconic artist. Also next year, the gallery will stage the first ever display in Ireland of Scotland’s 38 watercolours by JMW Turner from the Vaughan Bequest. (Read more)
Australia 🇦🇺 | Four years after being dramatically cut short due to Covid restrictions, a major exhibition of Impressionist masterpieces is returning to Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria. It’s a second chance for Australian audiences to see the largest group of Impressionist paintings to visit the country — all on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Opening in June, it’s been totally reimagined, and expanded to include additional works never seen in the country before. (Read more)
Ireland 🇮🇪 | Dublin-based artist Isabel Nolan is to represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2026. Her work for the 61st edition of the Italian arts festival will then tour Ireland in 2027 thanks to support from the Arts Council. Arts Minister Catherine Martin TD said “Nolan is recognised to be at the forefront of Irish visual arts practice” and hailed the Biennale for raising “awareness of Ireland’s strong visual arts sector.” (Read more)
Best of the rest
Towner Trustee | Former UK Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has joined the board of Trustees of the Towner Eastbourne. Towner’s Director CEO Joe Hill said she would be an “enormous asset.” (More)
Liverpool Biennial | The UK’s largest free festival of contemporary visual art is back in 2025, and the theme’s been revealed as Bedrock, reflecting the city’s sandstone foundations and its social fabric and values. 30 artists will take part. (More)
Unique mystery | Bodmin Moor’s enigmatic monument King Arthur’s Hall has been revealed to be 4,000 years older than originally thought. Its purpose remains a mystery but “there is no other parallel” in the UK or Europe say experts. (More)
Retail boost* | Make money for your museum or gallery in 2025 — and beyond — by selling your products on the Art UK Shop. You’ll benefit from their valuable marketing activity too. (More)
*This is sponsored content
👀 Last week’s most clicked news story | University College London staff voice concern over ‘dismantling’ of its art museum
— Enjoyed today’s edition? A welcome thank you is a donation, which you can do in just a few clicks here.