World war two objects from the Imperial War Museum will be used to explore Blackpool’s untold wartime history in a new exhibition at the city’s Showtown museum.
The project is one of 11 exhibitions announced this week in the latest round of the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund.
Now in its ninth year, the UK-wide grant programme supports smaller regional institutions to borrow nationally significant works with local resonance from national or major lending museums and galleries.
A total of £321,014, including support from the London Historic Houses Museums Trust, has been awarded in the latest round. In total the scheme has now provided almost £1.9m across 106 organisations since it began in 2017.
The loan programme provides the costs of securing loans, including transportation, conservation and community engagement, with the aim of increasing access to significant objects, sharing resources across the country and bringing lasting benefits to borrowers, lenders and audiences.
Showtown’s Wartime Blackpool: Bright Lights in Dark Times exhibition will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of world war two, exploring how stars such as George Formby and Vivien Leigh performed on Blackpool’s stages to boost morale.
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Harewood House in Leeds will celebrate this year’s shared 250th anniversaries of JMW Turner and Jane Austen with an exhibition of Turner’s country house paintings loaned from Tate, the British Library, and the Royal Academy of Arts. The works will be displayed alongside Austen’s reflections on class, romance, and wealth in the first ever UK exhibition to bring the work of the two artists together.
In South Wales, Parc Howard Museum & Art Gallery and Carmarthenshire Museum are also celebrating Turner’s 250th anniversary with an exhibition of sketches and watercolours from the artist’s travels through the area.
Meanwhile the Museum & Tasglann nan Eilean on the Isle of Lewis will explore the lives of emigrants from the Outer Hebrides using major loans from National Museums Scotland.
Local Anglo-Saxon treasures will be on show in Echoes of the Saxons: Death & Legacy at Discover Bucks Museum, alongside recently unearthed finds from nearby HS2 excavations in Wendover displayed for the first time.
In addition to the loans, the Weston Loan Programme has awarded research and development grants to Dales Countryside Museum in Yorkshire for a project to uncovering stories of women in rural life, and to Suffolk Archives for a project on witches and witchcraft in Suffolk.
The grants will enable the museums to develop plans for ambitious loan projects by undertaking research, strengthening partnerships with institutions and refining proposals.
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The Weston Loan Programme is supported by the Garfield Weston Foundation, with funding confirmed up to its 10th anniversary in 2027. Applications for round 10 of the programme will open in autumn 2025.
“The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund unlocks the power of our national collections by sharing them with regional museums and galleries across the UK,” said Jenny Waldman, director of the Art Fund.
“Whether it’s Turner’s romantic visions of Wales, Saxon treasures unearthed in Buckinghamshire, or Blackpool’s untold wartime story, these exhibitions demonstrate how art and artefacts can resonate deeply with local communities. We’re so pleased to support museums to tell these stories through another year of our valuable partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation.”
Sophia Weston, the deputy chair of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said the charity was “thrilled to support the exhibitions which will bring these cultural gems to life for audiences across the country”.
Weston Loan Programme exhibitions
Wartime Blackpool: Bright Lights in Dark Times
Showtown, Blackpool, 2 April – October 2025Austen and Turner: a Country House Encounter
Harewood House, Yorkshire, 2 May – 19 October 2025Masterpieces from Kenwood: The Splendour of British and French Painting
Gainsborough’s House, Suffolk, 3 May – 19 October 2025Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits
Kenwood, London, 16 May – 5 Oct 2025. The grant was made possible with support from the London Historic Houses Museums Trust via Art Fund.Tigers & Dragons: India and Wales in Britain
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 24 May – 2 November 2025Cianalas’s Dòchas / Homesickness and Hope: Stories of Hebridean Emigration
Museum & Tasglann nan Eilean, Benbecula and Stornoway, Scotland, 31 May – 29 November 2025Echoes of the Saxons: Death & Legacy
Discover Bucks Museum, Buckinghamshire, March – November 2026Constable 250
Colchester & Ipswich Museums (Christchurch Mansion), three exhibitions between March 2026 and February 2027Romantic Wales – JMW Turner in Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire Museum & Parc Howard, Wales, May – November 2026Lincolnshire in the Viking Age
Lincolnshire County Council (Lincoln Museum), July – October 2026Queer Britain, London
An exhibition has been supported, with details to be announced soon.
