Opening this month

1 October-23 January 2010

Dennis Morris first discovered photography as a young boy growing up in Hackney in east London. His first professional photograph appeared on the front page of the Daily Mirror when he was aged just 11 and he went on to become a music photographer, taking portraits of Bob Marley, Grace Jones and Marianne Faithful, among many others.

Morris has donated two collections to Hackney Museum from his early work documenting life in the borough during the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition is part of a range of activities Hackney council is organising for October's Black History Month.

Cost £6,000
Main funder Hackney Council
Curator Sue McAlpine
Film Kwaku Mensah


3 October-31 January 2010

This exhibition is the first major showing of the archive donated by Edward Bawden to Bedford's Cecil Higgins Art Gallery during the 1980s. The collection contains more than 3,000 examples of his murals, watercolours, prints, illustrations and graphic design work. Bawden died in 1989.

Cost £38,000
Main funders Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Borough Council, Renaissance East of England, Priorities Challenge Fund, St Jude's
Curators Victoria Partridge (keeper of fine and decorative art), Tom Perrett (head of collections and exhibitions)


8 October-31 March 2010

An exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the country's first national Women's Liberation Conference at Ruskin College, Oxford. The conference led to a number of key demands relating to areas such as pay, education and contraception. Ms Understood will assess the legacy of the movement and how it has transformed the lives of women today.

Cost N/A
Main funder London Metropolitan University
Leverhulme Trust-funded research Rachel Cohen
Curator Gail Cameron
External researcher Barker Langham
Exhibition design Muf


14 October-24 January 2010

The Wallace Collection will be displaying 25 new paintings by Damien Hirst, including two triptychs that are being shown in the UK for the first time. Hirst will become one of the few living artists to show his work at the museum - Lucian Freud did the same in 2004.

Cost N/A
Project manager Helen Jacobs
Main contractor Coniston

Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain, The Collection, Lincoln
16 October-3 January 2010

This touring exhibition is a spin-off from the show the Society of Anitquaries organised in 2007 to celebrate its 300th anniversary. Objects from the society's collections include the Lindsey Psalter, a lock of Edward IV's hair and part of a Roman bronze equestrian statue found in Lincoln. These are being displayed alongside objects from the museum's own archaeological collections, as well as some more recent finds. The touring show is supported by a web exhibition.

Cost £388,000 (for four venues)
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund, Society of Anitquaries, partner museums
Curators David Gaimster, Julia Steele
Guest curator David Starkey
Project consultant PRC
Exhibition design Stiff + Trevillion Architects
Web design Spiral Productions


16 October-10 January 2010

Created to mark the Year of Homecoming 2009, this exhibition features photographs of people who have made contributions to the image of Scotland at home and abroad. The portraits, by photographer Craig Mackay, include singer Sharleen Spiteri, artist John Byrne and cyclist Chris Hoy.

Cost N/A
Main funders BNY Mellon, Homecoming Scotland
Curator Maureen Barrie
Exhibition design Charlotte Hirst, Mairi MacLean (NMS)
Film Alistair Ferguson


31 October-28 February 2010

A show featuring more than 100 works exploring Leicester's German Expressionist art collection. The collection was started with acquisitions from a 1944 exhibition at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery of works from private collections that were brought to England for safe-keeping from the Nazis by artists and private collectors.

Cost N/A
Main funder Leicester City Council
Curator Simon Lake
Exhibition design Leicester Museums and Galleries
Marketing design David Weight Design