Arnolfini
www.arnolfini.org.uk
Address: 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA
Telephone: 0117 917 2300
Opening Hours: Daily 10-8 (Thurs until 6)
Supertoys: On Play, Affective Machines & Object Relations
Designed for children & adults, the exhibition examines how toys allow feelings to be carried between the human subject & external objects, & the idea of reciprocal relationships with intelligent toys & robots. It includes an experimental “toy factory” section, created by Kahve Society–a group of artists and educators–& Natalie Jeremijenko's Robotic Geese and Ducks that will be taken outside the gallery to interact with local geese.
Price: Admission free. Date: 22 Nov 2008-18 Jan 2009

Attingham Park
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Address: Shrewsbury, Salop SY4 4TP
Telephone: 01743 708123
Opening Hours: Daily 11-5; closed 25 Dec
Give me Shelter
Providing a contemporary take on the 18th-century tradition of creating unusual experiences to enjoy in the pleasure-grounds, sculptures & installations by 11 artists are laid out within the 400-acre park surrounding the handsome 18th-century mansion. The works include over-sized bird-houses, a Rapunzel-esque tower, & a mysterious hideaway in the woods.
Price: Admission £4.20 (grounds only), children £2.20; family (2+3) £10.40; National Trust members free Date: until Sept 2009

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
www.balticmill.com
Address: South Shore Rd, Gateshead NE8 3BA
Telephone: 0191 478 1810
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Thurs until 8); closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan
Between The Sky And My Head
One of the largest-ever exhibitions of Yoko Ono’s work, the show is a collaboration with Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany. Sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, films, sound installations & participation works, indoors & out, include Imagine Peace billboards, Wish Trees on which visitors can hang their hopes & dreams, & My Mommy is Beautiful, for which they are invited to bring photographs and memories of their mothers
Price: Admission free. Date: 14 Dec 2008-15 Mar 2009

Barbican Art Gallery
www.barbican.org.uk/gallery
Address: Barbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS
Telephone: 0845 1207550
Opening Hours: Daily 11-8 (Tues, Wed until 6; Thurs until 10)
This is War! Robert Capa at Work/Gerda Taro/On the Subject of War
Three interrelated exhibitions devoted to war & photography show celebrated war photographs by Capa that defined key moments in history, & others by Capa’s fiancée Taro, who died in action. Works by four present-day artists show their impressions of current conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Price: Admission £8, concessions £6, children under 12 free. Date: until 25 Jan 2009
Le Corbusier–The Art of Architecture
A major survey of the renowned architect, thinker, writer & artist showing how his work changed dramatically over the years. On show are his 1925 master-plan for Paris, a complete kitchen from his 1947 Unité d’habitation, a monumental mural from his own office, & original models of his 1950s chapel at Ronchamp.
Date: 19 Feb-24 May 2009

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
www.virtualmuseum.info
Address: Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton BN1 1EE
Telephone: 01273 290900
Opening Hours: Tues 10-7, Wed-Sat & bank holidays 10-5, Sun 2-5.
Paintings Unwrapped
Sixty paintings, hung in pairs or in groups of three, encourage visitors to look afresh at art, to consider how they enjoy it & whether its style of presentation affects what they see. Free from the usual classifications & labels, it juxtaposes paintings by Alma Tadema, William Blake, Fernand Léger, William Scott, Glyn Philpot & others.
Price: Admission free. Date: 13 Dec 2008-13 Apr 2009

British Museum, The
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Address: Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG
Telephone: 020 7323 8000
Opening Hours: Daily 10.30-5, (Thurs, Fri until 8.30); closed 24-26 Dec.
Babylon
Paintings, films & music combine with archaeological treasures to reveal the reality behind the legend of Babylon. A tablet describing the dimensions of the ziggurat that inspired the Tower of Babel & glazed brick panels from the Ishtar Gate & Processional Way at Berlin are on show alongside oil paintings by European artists evoking the city’s history.
Price: Admission to museum free. Admission £8, students £7, children under 16 free; family (2+3 over-16s) £17. Booking on 020 7323 8181, or via website. Date: until 15 Mar 2009

Burrell Collection
www.glasgowmuseums.com
Address: Pollok Country Park, 2060 Pollokshaws Rd, Glasgow G43 1AT
Telephone: Tel: 0141 287 2550
Opening Hours: Mon-Thurs & Sat 10-5; Fri, Sun 11-5. Closed 25-26 Dec & 31 Dec-2 Jan.
Joseph Crawhall: The Masterpieces
To celebrate its 25th birthday, the Burrell puts on a special display featuring the works of “Glasgow Boy” Joseph Crawhall–including such favourites as Girl on a Bicycle & The Aviary.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 8 Feb 2009

Buxton Museum & Art Gallery
www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/buxton_museum
Address: Terrace Rd, Buxton, Derbys SK17 6DA
Telephone: 01298 24658
Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 9.30-5.30, Sat 9.30-5; open 24 Dec 9.30-1, closed 25-29 Dec & 1 Jan.
...all this could be lost
In his views of the mountain wildernesses of the Peak District, Snowdonia & the Lake District, James Brady uses digital video to re-work the canonical imagery commonly associated with the tradition of Romantic landscape painting of the 18th & 19th centuries.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 7 Feb 2009

Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum
www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk
Address: Clarence St, Cheltenham, Glos GL50 3JT
Telephone: 01242 237431
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-4 (first Thurs of month 11-4); closed 24-26 Dec & Jan 1.
Pre-Impress 09
Twenty artists from Gloucestershire Printmaking Cooperative present a range of new screen prints, monoprints, etchings, woodcuts & artists’ books.
Price: Admission free. Date: 13 Dec 2008-15 Feb 2009

Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk
Address: Clive Steps, King Charles St, London SW1A 2AQ
Telephone: 020 7930 6961
Opening Hours: Daily 9.30-6; closed 24-26 Dec.
Last Post: Remembering the First World War
From 1914 to 1918, as letters went to & from the trenches, the Post Office coped with dramatic increases in mail. The exhibition looks at censorship, & also at the thousands of women who filled the jobs of 75,000 absent postal workers. Among artefacts, posters & recordings are a Victoria Cross awarded to a member of the Post Office Rifles & the words of a 13-year-old telegraph girl whose job entailed delivering harrowing news to families.
Price: Admission £12 (includes audio guide), seniors & students £9.50, disabled & children free. Date: until 28 Feb 2009

City Art Centre
www.cac.org.uk
Address: 2 Market St, Edinburgh EH1 1DE
Telephone: 0131 529 3993
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5; closed 25, 26 Dec
A Time & a Place
A selection of paintings from the City of Edinburgh's collection, highlighting Scottish artists who have had a particular affinity with different parts of Scotland.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 18 Jan 2009

Courtauld Institute Of Art
www.courtauld.ac.uk
Address: Strand, London WC2R 0RN
Telephone: 020 7848 2526
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6; open 24 & 31 Dec 10-4, closed 25, 26 Dec, open 1 Jan 12-6.
Paths to Fame: Turner’s Watercolour Landscapes
Thirty works by Turner, including eight watercolours recently bequeathed to the Courtauld. Subjects range from Mont Blanc to Margate, demonstrating the artist’s continually inventive approach.
Price: Admission £5, concessions £4; students & children under 18 free; all admission free Mon 10-2. Date: until 25 Jan 2009

De La Warr Pavilion
www.dlwp.com
Address: Marina, Bexhill-on-Sea, E Sussex TN40 1DP
Telephone: 01424 229111
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6. Admission to pavilion free.
A Continuous Line: Ben Nicholson in England
This major touring exhibition is devoted to one of the most radical British artists of the 20th century. A selection of key works includes landscapes of the late 1920s & Nicholson’s Cubist still-lifes made between 1945 and 1958.
Price: Admission to pavilion free. Admission £5.50; seniors & disabled £3.50; students, residents of Rother District Council & children free. Booking via website. Date: until 4 Jan 2009

Dulwich Picture Gallery
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
Address: Gallery Rd, London SE21 7AD
Telephone: 020 8693 5254
Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 10-5; Sat, Sun 11-5; closed 24-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Saul Steinberg: Illuminations
More than 100 drawings, collages & sculptural assemblages make up this retrospective for the American artist who for 60 years produced covers for The New Yorker.
Price: Admission £5, seniors £4, concessions & children free. Date: 26 Nov 2008-15 Feb 2009
Paolo Veronese: The Petrobelli Altarpiece–Reconstructing a Renaissance Masterpiece
Veronese’s work was split up for the art market in the late 18th century. The exhibition reunites sections from Dulwich, Scotland & Canada with a newly-discovered fourth fragment.
Date: 10 Feb-3 May 2009

Fitzwilliam Museum
www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Address: Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1RB
Telephone: 01223 332900
Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5; closed 24-26 Dec, 31 Dec & 1 Jan.
I turned it into a palace
In homage to Sir Sydney Cockerell, director of the Fitzwilliam from 1908 to 1937, this show examines Cockerell’s close relationship with Ruskin, Morris, Hardy & Shaw & brings together many of his acquisitions, including medieval manuscripts & Keats’ autograph manuscript of Ode to a Nightingale.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 17 March 2009

Foundling Museum
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Address: 40 Brunswick Sq, London WC1N 1AZ
Telephone: 020 7841 3600
Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-6
Handel the Philanthropist
Marking the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death (23 February 1759) this exhibition focuses on the composer’s charitable life as well as on his musical career. Works of art & items of historical value accompany a programme of concerts & events celebrating his life & achievements.
Price: Admission £5, concessions £4, children free. Date: 7 Jan-28 June 2009

Geffrye Museum
www.geffrye-museum.org.uk
Address: 136 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8EA
Telephone: 020 7739 9893
Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5; closed 24-26 Dec & Jan 1.
Choosing the Chintz
An exploration of men’s close involvement with furnishing the home in the 19th century, of how women only later became the prime marketing target for furnishings &, finally, of how both sexes today are prepared to negotiate & compromise on such matters.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 22 Feb 2009

Grosvenor Museum
www.grosvenormuseum.co.uk
Address: 27 Grosvenor St, Chester CH1 2DD
Telephone: 01244 402008
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10.30-5, Sun 1-4; closed 24-26 Dec, 31 Dec & 1 Jan.
Kill or Cure? Medicines & Remedies
A look at the sometimes strange traditional cures of bygone times, & at which worked and which did not. They include the application of cobwebs to open wounds, the use of goose grease against colds, & getting a live mouse to run up the spine of patients suffering from backache.
Price: Admission free. Date: 13 Dec 2008-15 Feb 2009

Guildford House Gallery
www.guildfordhouse.co.uk
Address: 155 High St, Guildford, Surrey GU1 3AJ
Telephone: 01483 444742
Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10-4.45; open 24 & 31 Dec 10-4, closed 25, 26 Dec & 1, 2 Jan.
Arena
Displaying an eclectic mix of photographic styles, works by the members of this photographic group span a range of subjects including Icelandic landscapes, Indonesia after the tsunami, & the taxi-girls of Cambodia
Price: Admission free. Date: until 3 Jan 2009

Harris Museum & Art Gallery
www.harrismuseum.org.uk
Address: Market Sq, Preston, Lancs PR1 2PP
Telephone: 01772 258248
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5 (Tues 11-5), Sun 11-4; closed 25-27 Dec & 1 Jan.
Off the Rails: 10 Years of Collecting Fashion
Some of the latest additions to the museum’s collection include Horrockses 1950s dresses, Women’s Land Army uniform, Vivienne Westwood platform shoes & a Victorian mourning bonnet.
Price: Admission free. Date: until Oct 2009

Hayward Gallery
www.hayward.org.uk
Address: South Bank Centre, London SE1 8XX
Telephone: 08703 800 400
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Fri until 10); closed 24-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms
Major exhibition devoted to the celebrated American Pop artist, which includes films, videos & television programmes as well as iconic works such as Marilyn Monroe & the Campbell’s Soup tins, plus Warhol’s rarely-seen screen-tests of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, John Cale & Salvador Dali.
Price: Admission £10, seniors £9, students £6, children £4.50 (under-12s free outside school hours). Date: until 18 Jan 2009

Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert
www.hh-h.com
Address: 38 Bury St, London SW1Y 6BB
Telephone: 020 7839 7600
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9-5.30, Sat 11-4.
Lucian Freud
A major loan exhibition of early works by Freud, some dating from as far back as 1939 when the artist was only 16. It includes portraits & still-lifes & follows the evolution of Freud’s vision through years spent in Greece, Paris, Ireland & Scotland as well as London.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 12 Dec 2008

Imperial War Museum North
www.iwm.org.uk
Address: The Quays, Trafford Wharf Rd, Manchester M17 1TZ
Telephone: 0161 836 4000
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; closed 24-26 Dec.
Horrible Histories: Frightful First World War–The Exhibition
Based on Terry Deary's popular history of World War I for children, the exhibition sets the author’s words & artist Martin Brown's comical illustrations alongside historic items from the museum’s collections. Popular highlights include Kaiser Wilhelm's greatcoat, original signs from trenches, documents relating to the “Christmas truce”, the bell from the Lusitania, & German toilet paper.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 4 Jan 2009

King's Place Gallery
www.kingsplace.co.uk
Address: 90 York Way, London N1 9AG
Telephone: 020 7520 1490
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-7.30, Sun 11-6.30; closed 24 Dec-2 Jan.
Albert Irvin: A Retrospective
The gallery of this new, canalside art complex near King’s Cross shows colourful, monumental paintings by abstract artist Albert Irvin that reflect a desire to convey emotion.
Price: Admission free. Date: 5 Dec 2008-6 Feb 2009

Laing Art Gallery
www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing
Address: New Bridge St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8AG
Telephone: 0191 232 7734
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 2-5; closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Stanley Spencer
From the Tate Liverpool comes this exhibition of sketches & paintings, visionary biblical scenes & a series of self-portraits from 1914 until 1959, the year of Spencer’s death.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 11 Jan 2009

London's Transport Museum
www.ltmuseum.co.uk
Address: Covent Garden Piazza, London WC2E 7BB
Telephone: 020 7379 6344
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Fri 11-9); closed 24-26 Dec.
The art of the poster
A retrospective of a century of design featuring original artworks, including the first graphic poster commissioned for London Transport in 1908, & concept sketches by John Nash, Edward Bawden, Howard Hodgkin & other leading British artists.
Price: Admission £10, seniors £8, students £6, Freedom Pass holders & children under 16 free. Date: until 31 Mar 2009

Manchester Art Gallery
www.manchestergalleries.org
Address: Mosley St, Manchester M2 3JL
Telephone: 0161 235 8888
Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10-5. Closed 24-26 Dec & 31 Dec-1 Jan.
Holman Hunt & the Pre-Raphaelite Vision
Three versions of Hunt’s famous painting The Light of the World, from Manchester, Oxford & London, are included here alongside documents & original costumes used by Hunt in his work. Presented in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 11 Jan 2009
Ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci from the Royal Collection
A touring exhibition containing some of the Royal Collection’s greatest treasures which, due to their fragile nature, have rarely been on public display.
Date: 14 Feb-4 May 2009

Museum of Lancashire
www.lancmuseums.gov.uk
Address: Stanley St, Preston PR1 4YP
Telephone: 01772 534075
Opening Hours: Mon-Wed, Fri & Sat 10.30-5; Christmas & New Year closing to be arranged.
M6: 50
The exhibition celebrates 50 years of Britain’s motorways, since Harold MacMillan opened the Preston bypass on 5 December 1958. The network’s subsequent development helped transform Britain into a modern automotive economy, leading to massive changes in patterns of living, commuting & working.
Price: Admission £2, concessions £1, children free. Date: 29 Nov 2008-11 Apr 2009

Museum Of The History Of Science
www.mhs.ox.ac.uk
Address: Broad St, Oxford OX1 3AZ
Telephone: 01865 277280
Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 12-5, Sat 10-5, Sun 2-5. Christmas & New Year closing to be announced.
The English Telescope, from Newton to Herschel
The development of the reflecting telescope & the achromatic lens enabled the instrument to be made much shorter, resulting in astronomy becoming a fashionable pastime for 18th-century ladies & gentlemen. A number of the museum’s telescopes are on show, alongside stories of professors who took up grinding mirrors, instrument-makers who wrote textbooks & a silk-weaver bold enough to challenge the authority of Newton.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 22 Mar 2009

National Conservation Centre
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation
Address: Whitechapel, Liverpool L1 6HZ
Telephone: 0151 478 4999
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5.
Recollections: Photographs of Philip Jones Griffiths
A freelance photographer for The Observer, & famous for his images of the war in Vietnam, Griffiths also captured the political & social upheavals in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 22 Feb 2009

National Gallery
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
Address: Trafalgar Sq, London WC2N 5DN
Telephone: 020 7747 2885
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Wed until 9); closed 24-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Sisley in England & Wales
Born in Paris of English parents, Alfred Sisley always remained a British subject. However, only twice did he undertake painting campaigns in the UK: in 1874, in London, & in 1897, in Wales. This exhibition brings together works from these trips, which reveal Sisley at two of the most creative periods of his life.
Price: Admission to gallery free. Date: until 15 Feb 2009
Sainsbury Wing: Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian
More than 60 paintings illustrate the vital role portraits played in every aspect of human life during the 15th & 16th centuries. Works by Holbein, Raphael, Botticelli, Dürer & Bellini, loans from Spain, Austria, Italy & Sweden, range from statues to court portraits & poignant scenes of family life.
Price: Admission £10, seniors £9 (Tues 2.30-6, £5), students & children 12-18 £5, under-12s free; family (2+4 over-12s) £20. Booking on 0870 906 3891, or via website. Date: until 18 Jan 2009
Picasso: Challenging the Past
Around 60 works by Picasso, juxtaposed with Old Masters from the Gallery’s collection, demonstrate how the Cubist artist sometimes pitted himself against painters such as El Greco, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres & others, taking up their themes & techniques & making use of them in paintings of his own.
Price: Admission £12, seniors £11 (Tues 2.30-6, £6), students & children 12-18 £6, under-12s free; family (2+4 over-12s) £24. Booking on 0844 2091778, or via website. Date: 25 Feb-7 June 2009

National Gallery of Ireland
www.nationalgallery.ie
Address: Merrion Sq West, & Clare St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 1 661 5133
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 9.30-5.30 (Thurs until 8.30), Sun 12-5.30; closed 24-26 Dec.
Northern Stars & Southern Lights: The Golden Age of Finnish Art 1870-1920
The exhibition, organised in collaboration with the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, contains more than 70 works including landscapes by Eero Järnefelt & Väinö Blomstedt & examples of early 20th-century Modernism in Finland.
Price: Admission €7, concessions €4. Booking on + 353 (0)1 663 3513. Date: until 1 Feb 2009
Hugh Douglas Hamilton
Born in Dublin in 1740, Hamilton was one of the most accomplished portraitists of his generation. The fashionable set flocked to have their pastel portrait ovals made in Dublin & London, & also in Italy where Hamilton followed his clients on the Grand Tour.
Price: Admission to gallery free. Date: 22 Nov 2008-15 Feb 2009

National Glass Centre
www.nationalglasscentre.com
Address: Liberty Way, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear SR6 0GL
Telephone: 0191 515 5555
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; closed 25 Dec & 1 Jan.
Beautifully Crafted
An exploration of the way contemporary artists & designers fuse cultural histories & ancient techniques with new technologies. The exhibition pays homage to skilled artisanship, from glass-making to taxidermy, lace-making to marquetry.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 22 Feb 2009

National Museum and Gallery, Cardiff
www.nmgw.ac.uk/www.php/nmgc
Address: Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NP
Telephone: 029 2039 7951
Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10-5; closed 24-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Masterpieces of 19th-century Art
An exhibition of the museum’s best-loved Realist, Impressionist & Post-Impressionist works, including paintings by Cézanne, Monet, Rodin, Sisley & Turner.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 28 Jan 2009

National Portrait Gallery
www.npg.org.uk
Address: St Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE
Telephone: 020 7306 0055
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Thurs, Fri until 9); closed 24-26 Dec.
Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005
Famous images of public figures–such as Al Pacino, Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, William S Burroughs & Mikhail Baryshnikov–together with personal photographs of Leibovitz’s own family & friends, plus photo-reportages from the siege of Sarajevo, & the election of Hillary Clinton to the US Senate.
Price: Admission £11, concessions £10 & £9. Date: until 25 Jan 2009

Natural History Museum
www.nhm.ac.uk
Address: Cromwell Rd, London SW7 5BD
Telephone: 020 7942 5000
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5.50 (Fri until 9), Sun 11-5.50; closed 24-26 Dec.
Darwin
Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday (12 February 2009) is celebrated with an exhibition that retraces his life-changing journey as a young man aboard HMS Beagle on her five-year voyage to the Galapagos Islands. Notebooks, artefacts, personal belongings & the specimens he collected provide evidence for his theory of evolution. Family photographs & letters show Darwin as a family man, husband & father of 10 children.
Price: Admission £9, seniors £6, children £4.50; family (2+3) £24. Information on other events from www.darwin200.org/ Date: 14 Nov 2008-19 Apr 2009

Peninsula Arts Gallery
www.plymouth.ac.uk
Address: Roland Levinsky Building, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA
Telephone: 01752 585050
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-5, Sat 11-4.
Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery
This Hayward touring exhibition takes an in-depth look at slavery & injustice in the 21st century through the lenses of eight Magnum photographers. Subjects include child labour in Bangladesh, domestic slavery in Singapore, & the plight of cane-workers in Haiti.
Price: Admission free. Date: 10 Jan-21 Feb 2009

Queen's Gallery, The
www.royalcollection.org.uk
Address: Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Rd, London SW1A 1AA
Telephone: 020 7766 7301
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5.30; closed 25-26 Dec.
Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting
The 51 works on display include masterpieces by Hans Memling, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan Bruegel, Van Dyck & Rubens. They were produced in the Southern (Spanish-ruled) Netherlands during & immediately after the turbulence of The Eighty Years War with Spain, which lasted from 1568 to 1648.
Price: Admission (includes audio guide) £8.50, concessions £7.50, children £4.25; family (2+3) £21.50. Booking on 020 7766 7301, or via website. Date: until 26 Apr 2009

Royal Academy
www.royalacademy.org.uk
Address: Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
Telephone: 020 7300 8000
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6 (Fri until 10); closed 24, 25 Dec.
Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque: Aimé Maeght & his Artists
The story of the role played in the history of 20th-century art by Maeght, who founded a gallery in 1945 focusing on the adventurous new spirit in post-war Paris. This show contains 140 paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints & artists’ books by Miró, Calder, Giacometti & Braque, as well as works by Bonnard & Matisse, who helped Maeght establish his gallery.
Price: Admission £9, seniors & disabled £8, students £7, children £4 & £3, under-7s free. Booking on 0870 8488484, or via website. Date: until 2 Jan 2009
Byzantium 330-1453
The splendours of the Byzantine Empire brought together for this exhibition include icons, wall-paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, enamels & gold & silver metalwork, dating from the period between the foundation of Constantinople by Constantine the Great & the capture of the city a thousand years later by the Ottoman forces
Price: Admission £12, seniors & disabled £10, students £8, children £4 & £3, under-7s free. Booking on 0870 8488484, or via website. Date: until 22 Mar 2009

Royal Cornwall Museum
www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk
Address: River St, Truro, Cornwall TR1 2SJ
Telephone: 01872 272205
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5. Closed 21 & 24 Mar.
Space Age: Exploration, Design & Popular Culture
This major touring exhibition explores people's fascination with space & the way it has influenced everything from literature & comics to film, toys & design. Contrasting reality & fantasy, it shows real space objects alongside classic space-inspired designs: Jules Verne's book From the Earth to the Moon (1865); space-age fashion by couturiers Paco Rabanne & André Courrèges; & space-related motifs on fabrics & wallpapers.
Price: Admission free. Date: 24 Jan-18 Apr 2009

Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
www.salisburymuseum.org.uk
Address: The King's House, 65 The Close, Salisbury, Wilts SP1 2EN
Telephone: 01722 332151
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5
Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707–2007
Presented in association with the Society of Antiquaries of London, this touring exhibition (first seen at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2007) uses works of art, manuscripts & artefacts from the Society’s collection to explore the development of archaeology, from antiquarianism to the rise of professional archaeology.
Price: Admission £5, concessions £3.50, children £2; family (2+3) £11. Date: until 3 Jan 2009

Sam Fogg
www.samfogg.com
Address: 15d Clifford St, London W1S 4JZ
Telephone: 020 7534 2100
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9.30-5.30; closed 24 Dec-2 Jan.
Art of the Middle Ages
Sculpture, paintings, stained glass, manuscripts & miniatures from all over medieval Europe, dating from 11th to early 16th centuries. Highlights include a 14th-century lion-shaped water vessel & a 15th-century illumination showing Sir Lancelot’s cousin Lionel arriving at a monastery.
Price: Admission free. Date: 2 Dec 2008-16 Jan 2009

Science Museum
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
Address: Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DD
Telephone: 0870 870 4868
Opening Hours: Daily 10-6; closed 25, 26 Dec.
Japan Car: Designs for the Crowded Globe
A look at how “the spirit & the soil” of Japan influence the country’s car design. The exhibition includes 14 unusual cars from the past decade, & explores themes relevant to such a highly innovative & densely-populated country: cubic designs that favour space over speed; micro cars that are compact & technologically advanced; & climate-conscious hybrid vehicles.
Price: Admission to museum free. Admission to Japan Car exhibition: £8, concessions & children £6.25. Date: 29 Nov 2008-19 Apr 2009

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
www.nationalgalleries.org
Address: 75 Belford Rd, Edinburgh EH4 3DR
Telephone: 0131 624 6200
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5
Charles Avery: The Islanders–An Introduction
The art of a young, Scottish-born artist who, in his ongoing “Islanders” project, describes the topology & cosmology of an imaginary island in drawing, painting, sculpture & text. Among Avery’s new works is a sculptural installation The Plane of the Gods, which was purchased in 2007 by the National Galleries of Scotland.
Price: Admission free. Date: 29 Nov 2008-15 Feb 2009

Stockwood Discovery Centre
www.luton.gov.uk
Address: Stockwood Park, London Rd, Luton, Beds LU1 4LX
Telephone: 01582 548600
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-4; Sat, Sun 11-4; closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007
Winning images in this prestigious wildlife exhibition from the Natural History Museum, selected among more than 32,000 entries from 78 countries.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 4 Jan 2009

Sudley House
www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
Address: Mossley Hill Rd, Aigburth, Liverpool L18 8BX
Telephone: 0151 724 3245
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; open 24 Dec 10-2, closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Unfolding paper
Artists Steve Rooney & Sue Williams, with designer Damian Cruikshank, have created a series of sculptures from paper-based material. Folded to form three-dimensional shapes, they use geometric design to investigate different facets of the conscious mind & have been inspired by different rooms in Sudley House.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 22 Feb 2009

Tate Britain
www.tate.org.uk/britain/
Address: Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
Telephone: 020 7887 8008
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5.50 (first Fri of month until 10); closed 24-26 Dec.
Francis Bacon
Heralding Bacon’s centenary in 2009, this major retrospective brings together the most important paintings from each period of the artist’s life, & reassesses his work in the light of new information that has emerged since his death.
Price: Admission £12.50, seniors £11.50, students & children £10.50 (under-12s free). Booking on 020 7887 8888, or via website. Date: until 4 Jan 2009
Van Dyck & Britain
With loans from the Royal Collection & the National Trust, this exhibition explores the context of Van Dyck’s principle English works, showing the innovative approach of the Antwerp-born artist & his influence on later artists including Reynolds, Gainsborough & Sargent.
Price: Admission £12.50, seniors £11.50, students & children £10.50 (under-12s free). Booking on 020 7887 8888, or via website. Date: 18 Feb-17 May 2009

Time & Tide Museum of Great Yarmouth Life
www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
Address: Blackfriars Rd, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 3BX
Telephone: 01493 743930
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-4; Sat, Sun 12-4; closed 24-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Pete McKee–A Month of Sundays
McKee’s bold, poignant & often humorous paintings recall a time when life seemed simpler. Harking back to the “‘Golden Age’ of working-class life” in the late 1960s & early 1970s, at a time before shell-suits, plasma screens & mobile phones, he represents normal people relaxing at the seaside, at working-men’s clubs & at home.
Price: Admission £5; seniors, disabled & students £4.25, children £4.15. Date: until 15 Feb 2009

Turner Contemporary Project Space
www.turnercontemporary.org
Address: 53-57 High St, Margate, Kent CT9 1DX
Telephone: 01843 294208
Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10-4; closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Far West at Turner Contemporary Project Space
An exploration of the new consumer & cultural relationships emerging as the economic centre of the world shifts towards the East, & the effect of globalisation on aspects of popular culture. Work by artists from China, Japan, Taiwan & Thailand, as well as Europe & the US.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 4 Jan 2009

Victoria and Albert Museum
www.vam.ac.uk
Address: Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL
Telephone: 020 7942 2000
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5.45 (Fri until 10); closed 24-26 Dec.
Magnificence of the Tsars
The dress & uniforms of emperors & court officials capture the grandeur of Imperial Russia. Spanning two centuries, displays include lavishly embroidered coats from the wardrobe of Tsar Peter II, & coronation uniforms & regalia of other Russian rulers, exploring the influences & crossovers between military uniform, court dress, European fashion & traditional Russian costume.
Price: Admission £5, concessions £3, disabled & children under 12 free. Booking on 0844 209 1770, or via website Date: 10 Dec 2008-29 Mar 2009
Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones
Drawn from V&A & international collections, exhibits range from a 17th-century Puritan’s hat and a 1950s Balenciaga couture piece to more recent headwear by Stephen Jones & his contemporaries & the latest creations by young milliners such as Noel Stewart. The exhibition investigates the cultural & historic importance of millinery, looks at techniques, materials & processes; the buying & selling of hats; & their wearing & etiquette.
Price: Admission to museum free. Admission charge to Hats exhibition, to be arranged. Date: 24 Feb-10 May 2009

Wallace Collection, The
www.wallacecollection.org
Address: Hertford House, Manchester Sq, London W1U 3BN
Telephone: 020 7935 0687
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; closed 24-26 Dec.
Cartoons & Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster
A celebration of the work of Lancaster, architectural satirist, illustrator, theatre designer & inventor of the pocket cartoon–which ran in the Daily Express for more than 40 years. Alongside his illustrations & sketchbooks are theatre designs by Lancaster for Covent Garden & Glyndebourne
Price: Admission free. Date: until 11 Jan 2009

Weston Park
www.museums-sheffield.org.uk
Address: Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TP
Telephone: 0114 278 2600
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 11-5; closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan
Green drops & Moonsquirters: The Utterly Imaginative World of Lauren Child
This interactive exhibition is based on characters & themes from the works of best-selling children’s-book author & illustrator Lauren Child. Young visitors will discover Charlie & Lola, Clarice Bean, That Pesky Rat & other favourites.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 15 Feb 2009

Women's Library
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
Address: London Metropolitan University, Old Castle St, London E1 7NT
Telephone: 020 7320 2222
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 9.30-5.30 (Thurs until 8), Sat 10-4; closed 24 Dec-5 Jan.
Between the Covers: Women’s Magazines & Their Readers
The evolution of women’s magazines, from the 17th century to the present, examine love & relationships, house & home, beauty & fashion, & reveal how magazines have responded to women’s changing aspirations, concerns & social roles over the centuries.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 25 Apr 2009

World Museum Liverpool
www.worldmuseumliverpool.org.uk
Address: William Brown St, Liverpool L3 8EN
Telephone: 0151 478 4393
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; open 24 Dec 10-2, closed 25, 26 Dec & 1 Jan.
Only a Game?
From the classic era of the 1950s to the modern age of global superstars, the exhibition considers Europe’s love affair with football. It includes shirts, medals & trophies of George Best, Bobby Moore, Stanley Matthews & other great names, & memorabilia from the National Football Museum.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 1 Mar 2009

York Art Gallery
www.yorkartgallery.org.uk
Address: Exhibition Sq, York YO1 7EW
Telephone: 01904 687687
Opening Hours: Daily 10-5; open 24 & 31 Dec 10-2, closed 25-26 Dec & 1 Jan.
A Thousand Words–curated by Tracy Chevalier
The author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, & other novels, has chosen a selection of works to illustrate the idea that paintings depict the middle of a story. In her historical novels she expands backwards & forwards from works of art to create stories; here she encourages visitors to invent & share beginnings & endings to old favourites & less familiar works.
Price: Admission free. Date: until 11 Jan 2009