It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
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Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
It’s London Marathon month, so it’s best to get out of the capital lest ye be trampled underfoot and then told how running “isn’t just a physical journey, it’s an emotional one as well” by 32-year-olds having an identity crisis. Anyway, thanks to ‘Not London’, you’ve got better places to be!
These are my recommendations of exhibitions to see outside of London this April, taking you from Derby to Dundee, with thought-provoking conceptual art (“what if we were all nicer to each other and stopped setting fire to the planet?” being a major running theme) and breathtaking artefacts (16th-century letters! Quilts! Uranium glass!) along the way.
Here are your 10 must-see April exhibitions:
Perth Museum, Perthshire - The Last Letter of Mary, Queen of Scots - until 26 April
I struggle to get my head around artefacts; that someone hundreds of years ago truly touched the same object that I’m now looking at - or, even spookier - touching it too. Touching, however, is definitely out of the question for this one at Perth Museum: the last letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587, just moments before her execution at Fotheringhay Castle for trying to overthrow her cousin, Elizabeth I (that’s family for you). This is the first time the letter has left the National Library of Scotland’s storage facility in a generation, so this is your chance to get up-close to history. And this isn’t going to be like when a band that was hot in the 80s reunites for a final-goodbye-forever tour and proceeds to be on festival bills every passing year until they’re put in a home - this really is a one-off opportunity.
Fruitmarket, Midlothian - Ilana Halperin: What is Us and What is Earth - until 15 May
Who is your best celebrity birthday twin? Mine’s a toss-up between Georgia O’Keeffe and Anni-Frid from ABBA (what a duo). Well, artist Ilana Halperin’s is Eldfell: a 200-meter volcano born during an unexpected eruption off the coast of Iceland in 1973. Since realising they burst into existence at the same time when she turned 30, the artist has made a large body of work dedicated to her relationship with the volcano - much of which is on display this spring in Edinburgh. Halperin is fascinated by our connection to geology, where it ends and where we begin, and - crucially - how quickly you can boil a saucepan of milk in a hot sulphur spring. Featuring watercolours, drawings, sculptures, crystals, and fossils, this exhibition is a textural feast for the eyes and offers visitors a moment to slow down and connect with the natural world. (P.S. happy half birthday to me, Georgia, and Anni-Frid for next month xoxo)
Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derbyshire - Joseph Wright of Derby: Life on Paper - until 17 May
You know Joseph Wright of Derby: he made those massive paintings of scientists doing unpleasant things to birds in the dark. Well, this month, I went to his birthplace and namesake (he was called ‘of Derby’ because first names weren’t used in exhibitions and he didn’t want to be confused with the artist Richard Wright of Liverpool - although I’m sure Richard Wright would love to be confused with Joseph Wright these days) to check out ‘Life on Paper’, the show Derby Museum and Art Gallery have on display while many of their major paintings are on display in London’s National Gallery for ‘Wright of Derby: From the Shadows’. ‘Life on Paper’ is brilliant and truly made me appreciate Wright’s artistic vision and execution, having been previously impressed-but-ultimately-unmoved by his bird-smothering work. The works on display give a joyous, intimate glimpse into his life - from his time as a trainee-draughtsman, to his Grand Tour of Italy with a toddler in tow.
God’s House Tower, Hampshire - RAFTS - until 25 May
With ‘RAFTS’, Alistair Debling has reframed climate change as an access and care issue, working with Dr Gordon Inglis, the Principal Research Fellow of the School of Ocean and Earth Science, and Rose Road, a local charity providing care services for young people with complex disabilities, to put human needs at the centre of a topic so often dominated by numbers. In the main gallery of God's House Tower, a recreation of Inglis’ desk floats on a carpeted sea, expertly constructed on a wooden wave, crafted in the shape of the “hockey stick” trend seen on graphs mapping global heating. For me, the desk acted as a reminder that, if your office, too, was catastrophically flooded thanks to the climate crisis, your boss would still expect you to jump on a quick Teams call.
g39, Glamorgan - Heaven in the Ground - until 23 May
In 2024, I found myself reading a lot of books about death (I’m feeling much better now, thank you for checking in) and thought for the first time about what I would like to happen to my body once I’m gone (no, seriously, all good now, ta). With ‘Heaven in the Ground’ - an exhibition of sound works and soil-and-ceramic sculptures -DARCH, a Welsh artistic duo made up of Umulkhayr Mohamed and Radha Patel, are examining the key role humans play in an infinite “sacred cycle” by giving their bodies back to the earth when we’re buried. Celebrating all-things underground (“all aboard!” - no, not like that), DARCH explore how the soil deep beneath our feet - which has been traditionally viewed as the location of hell - could, in fact, be heaven.
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, North Lincolnshire - ARTIST ROOMS: Jenny Holzer - until 13 Jun
I love it when arts spaces set up shop inside historic buildings, and 20-21 Visual Arts Centre sounds like an absolute belter. It’s housed inside Scunthorpe’s St John’s Church, which was consecrated in 1891 and lay dormant for 16 years from the mid-1980s before being turned into a gallery. (Sidenote / Plea: please can we all agree that unused lovely old buildings - especially consecrated ones - should be reclaimed as spaces for the community, rather than be gutted-out and turned into private homes?) And this spring, they’ve got Jenny Holzer! Holzer is the artist whose work introduced me to feminism and meant that I spent the ages of 14 to 17 speaking like I was literally the first person to hear about it, so this could very well be my dream show and dream venue.
Sunny Bank Mills, West Yorkshire - For The Love of Textiles - from 04 April until 28 June
Another cultural hub inside a repurposed historic venue - hurray! This time it’s ‘For The Love of Textiles’ in Sunny Bank Mills: a mill founded in 1829 and now home to an artistic, retail, and business community, thanks to major regeneration by the sixth generation of the mill’s original owners. This is a what-it-says-on-the-tin exhibition, all about textiles and, well, how much we love them. Our lives are in near-constant contact with textiles, and these fabrics often become markers for the key moments in our lives, from wedding dresses to death shrouds. Held inside an old textile mill, could there be a more apt venue for this show?
“From tarot cards to uranium glass” - not my list to Father Christmas - but the objects on display at Manchester Museum for ‘The Artefacts of Prediction: Imagining Tomorrow’, an exhibition which looks into the past to see what the people of 1900 predicted for the future. We’ve all seen those black-and-white BBC clips of children from the 1960s giving their almost-laughable-if-they-hadn’t-ended-up-coming-so-true predictions of the year 2000 (“some mad man will get the atomic bomb and just blow the world to oblivion” - eek) - well, this exhibition promises to be - largely - less damning. Showcasing scientific objects, pop culture ephemera, fashion, and design from the turn of the 20th century, this show, like a bully calling you names, demonstrates how what the people of 1900 said about the future says a lot more about them than it does about us.
Spode Museum, Staffordshire - Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’ - until 30 August
Spode Museum is genuinely one of my favourite places on earth, largely thanks to their shop, which is absolutely chock-a-block with pottery from the last century organised in what can only be described as joyous abandon. ‘Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of ‘Other’’ explores one of Staffordshire’s most iconic ceramic designs, first made around 1790 and sort-of-nicked off the Chinese. The relationship between Chinese and British pottery is long and complicated (like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, or explaining how AI works to an ageing parent), and the Willow Pattern is the perfect example of how Chinese designs were remoulded to suit British palettes, and in so doing, permanently shaped the West’s image of the East.
V&A Dundee, Angus - Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show - from 03 April until 17 January 2027
You’d be hard-pressed to find photographs that better capture a moment in history than snapshots of fashion runays (or weddings - you can spot an 80s bride from a 100 leg-warmer-wearing paces away), so ‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’ at V&A Dundee is more than just the story of clothes, but rather a history of how we have wanted to look: a chronicle of our visual desires. Boasting pieces from Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, and Louis Vuitton (and the rest of them), from the private fashion salons of the 19th century all the way to today, where we’ve got robots and nepobabies involved, this is the perfect show for fashionistas and the stylistically-tragic-but-seeking-inspiration alike.
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