In brief

The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Manchester Art Gallery have teamed up with Central Manchester University Hospitals to create a programme of activities for hospital staff. Culture Shots, which runs from 6-12 February, aims to enhance the wellbeing of hospital workers and promote the health benefits of visiting museums and galleries.


Applications are open for Art Fund Collect, which gives curators a share of £75,000 to buy a work at the Collect Art Fair (11-14 May). The Art Fund and the Crafts Council started the scheme in 2008 as a way of increasing the amount of public collections with contemporary craft. The deadline for applications is 14 March.


The Queen has approved Royal Museums Greenwich as the overall title for the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory Greenwich. The National Maritime Museum will open the Royal River: Power, Pageantry & the Thames exhibition in April, which will celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and will mark the 75th anniversary of the museum’s opening by George VI.


The Design Museum has unveiled John Pawson Architects’ plans for its new home at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, London. The scheme was boosted last year when designer Terence Conran donated £7.5m plus the value of the sale of the lease of the museum’s current building at Shad Thames.