Features

Trendswatch: Celebrity donations

Objects belonging to well-known personalities are bringing some star power to museums, says Jonathan Knott

Museum of… Scottish Submarine Centre, Helensburgh

Louise Gray dives below the surface to discover this fledgling venue’s high-tech plans

Home truths

As Hillsborough Castle opens to the public, Patrick Kelly looks at how Northern Ireland’s country houses are interpreting their fascinating but troubled history

International opening: Nordic Museum, Seattle

Eleanor Mills gets a flavour of the Scandinavian history and culture that is rooted in this US city

Roll up, roll up

Museums are marking the 250th anniversary of the circus with a series of exhibitions and events. John Holt finds out how gallery acrobats, showgirl curators and parachuting dogs are all playing a part in tracing the history and cultural impact of “the greatest show on Earth”

Centre of excellence

Eleanor Mills talks to Martin Clark, the director of Camden Arts Centre in London, about supporting artists

International opening – The Legacy Museum, Alabama

This important new museum was created out of a wider campaign to confront the legacy of slavery, lynching and segregation in the US, finds Rebecca Swirsky

World view

Eleanor Mills talks to Nicholas Thomas, the director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, about global cultures, collections and repatriation. Photography by Phil Sayer

Trendswatch – book clubs

Museums are starting a new chapter in an attempt to engage more people with their collections, says Deborah Mulhearn

Museum of…

Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum

Northern Lights

As the Great Exhibition of the North gets underway in Newcastle and Gateshead, Geraldine Kendall Adams looks at how the programme has come together against background of political upheaval.

Beauty and the beasts

Deborah Mulhearn discovers how museums are making animal magic in their displays on the natural world