Features
Welcome all
With high-profile events such as the Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Dickens bicentenary, this is going to be a big year for attracting overseas visitors to the UK, writes Geraldine Kendall
Best in show
Haidar Ali and Ibrahim Khan: Sultan Muhammad Adil Shah and Ikhlas Khan riding an elephant, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford
The Museum of…Our pick of the UK’s specialist collections
Instruments, astronomical and musical, are the focus of a museum dedicated to William and Caroline Herschel. By Geraldine Kendall
The art of science
Ian Blatchford hopes his experience at the V&A will help him to transform the National Museum of Science and Industry. Simon Stephens meets him
Great expectations
Many museums are hoping to banish hard times by attracting visitors to events celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth. By Deborah Mulhearn
Going local
What do ideas of localism, volunteering, and community empowerment mean for museums and their audiences? Helen Weinstein reports
The Museum of… Our pick of the UK’s specialist collections
The British Golf Museum maps out how an east coast Scottish game conquered the world, writes Louise Gray
Text messages
Manuscripts can be revealing and thought-provoking objects but they are not easy to display or interpret. Deborah Mulhearn looks at some solutions
Spreading folk tales
Simon Costin has ambitious plans to create a museum dedicated to British folklore. Simon Stephens meets him