John Holt
Best in show | Layered Legacies, 2024, by Mani Kambo
Harewood House's artistic director chooses a contemporary piece that draws on the property's revered fine art interiors
Wish you were here | Is life always sunny for seaside museums?
At the height of the summer holiday season, John Holt dodges dive-bombing seagulls to talk to coastal museums about leaking roofs, fossil hunting and the grand old tradition of appropriating items from hotel bedrooms
Best in show | The Umbrellas, 1881-86, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
How Leicester Museum & Art Gallery has used digital tech and animation to bring this masterpiece, on loan from the National Gallery, to life
Best in show | The Garden of Eden with the Temptation in the Background, c.1600
This slightly bonkers but brilliant masterpiece by Jan Brueghel the Elder takes centre stage at Compton Verney's latest show
Museums Change Lives | 2023 Winners
Meet the latest winners of the MA's awards recognising social impact in museums
Best in show | Plaster, 1993, by Elisabeth Frink
This artwork, on display at Dorset Museum in Dorchester, shows the sculptor's fascination with animals in their wild state
‘It’s a huge process of learning and unlearning, making progress with kindness as you go’
Radical Changemaker Award-winner Zeynep Kuşsan tells us about her groundbreaking work
Best in show | Lady Dorothy Campbell as Niobe, 1935, by Madame Yevonde
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Best in show | The Wife: Her Book, 1907, by Haydn Brown
This fascinating – if dated – piece of social history is the highlight of a new exhibition at Halliwell’s House Museum, Selkirk
Tales of the unexpected
Unusual museums can be tucked away in unlikely places. John Holt talks to the people who look after these out-of-the-way venues about loneliness, plastic rats and preparing for Armageddon
