Features

Arts Pioneer

Hugh Mulholland, the senior curator at Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre, has helped to transform Northern Ireland’s contemporary arts scene, says Patrick Kelly. Photography by Phil Sayer

Being Brunel, SS Great Britain, Bristol

This museum on the life and work of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel deconstructs what he made and what made him. By Nicola Sullivan

Spyscape, New York

Eleanor Mills talks to Shelby Prichard, the chief of staff at this espionage museum, about tapping into visitors’ inner James Bond

Just cause

Deborah Mulhearn discovers what museums are doing to mark the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some women the right to vote and paved the way for wider electoral reform

Trendswatch

What’s the secret of a successful Twitter campaign? Jonathan Knott talks to those in the know

On the money

Jonathan Knott finds the value of museums researching, interpreting and putting their collections of coins and medals on display

Museum of…

The National Poo Museum, Isle of Wight

Best of health

To mark July’s 70th anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service, John Holt checks the pulse of the UK’s medical museums and examines how they are charting the history of the nation’s wellbeing. Experts operating in institutions around the country describe how their collections convey human life – and death – through tales of straitjackets, surgeons and strong stomach

Museum of…

The Manor, Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire

The future is bright

Nicky Wilson, the co-founder and director of Jupiter Artland, talks to Eleanor Mills about the 10th birthday of this idyllic Scottish sculpture park.

International opening – Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town

Eleanor Mills talks to Mark Coetzee, the director of a new museum of contemporary art that is aiming to make a big impact on the lives of people in South Africa

Mission critical

Clear statements of purpose, vision and values provide a framework for guiding day-to-day museum work. Jonathan Knott reveals how institutions create and live by them. Illustration by Alan Kitching