16 January-9 May
Using a combination of solar photography and science, this exhibition explores humankind’s attempts to understand the sun and its effects on earth, looking at the changing answers to questions about the star’s size, structure, life-cycle and energy source. Early solar observations, key work carried out at Greenwich’s Royal Observatory and the latest Nasa discoveries all feature.
Cost £7,000
Funder in-house
Exhibition team Marek Kukula, Rebekah Higgitt, Jude Holland, Robert Edwards, Dewar McAdam, Fiona Romeo
16 January-13 March
The Harris Museum is one of four galleries to host this touring exhibition of major British artworks from the latter half of the 20th century. More than 70 works will be on display, many of them seen as controversial at the time of their creation.
The collection encompasses sculpture, ceramics, painting and photography and follows on from the 2006 exhibition, Creative Tension: British Art 1900-1950. Featured artists include Lucian Freud, Henry Moore, Frank Auerbach and Laura Ford.
Cost £70,950
Main funders Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, participating galleries
Curator Amanda Draper
23 January-7 March
An interactive exhibition inspired by the emotional relationship between food and people. The show will examine how eating and drinking together has become a way of breaking down social boundaries.
A group of artists, including sculptor Alex Frost and ceramicist Rebecca Wilson, have created installations based on themes such as food cravings and taste memory. The museum will also stage a series of discussion events over a bowl of soup, exploring the everyday rituals surrounding food.
Cost £7,000
Main funders Scottish Arts Council, Fife Council
Curator Tonia Lu
23 January-18 April
The artist’s letters, rarely shown in public, are to be displayed along with 65 paintings and 30 drawings. Many letters contain work-in-progress sketches of the paintings that will be shown alongside them, offering an insight into the artist’s creative process. Works include Self-Portrait as an Artist and The Yellow House on loan from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum.
Cost undisclosed
Main funders BNY Mellon, Cox & Kings (travel partner)
Curators Ann Dumas (Royal Academy of Arts, London), Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
25 January-25 April
An exhibition of work by photojournalist John Bulmer documenting life in the heart of England’s industrial north during the 1960s. Based on The North, an influential 1964 Times supplement, the images show a region on the verge of change – from one of the world’s industrial centres to a culturally diverse, but economically deprived area. Bulmer broke new ground by shooting in colour, mainly working in fog or winter light.
Cost £7,000
Funder National Coal Mining Museum for England
Curators Imogen Holmes-Roe in consultation with John Bulmer
Exhibition design The Cafeteria
27 January-16 July
A look at the artistic potential of new computer coding tools. The exhibition shows how digital artists have used open-source technologies such as Processing and Open Frameworks to produce everything from large-scale interactives to imagery of mathematical patterns in nature.
The gallery will host a new commission by American digital artist CEB Reas, plus work by Golan Levin and William Ngan.
Cost £14,000
Main funders Arts Council England through Grants for the Arts, Museums Sheffield
Curators Lovebytes, Museums Sheffield
30 January-23 May
In an experimental take on contemporary craft, Hove Museum & Art Gallery has commissioned ten craftspeople to create new pieces out of second-hand and discarded objects such as drink cans and old furniture.
The results include waste-paper sculptures and landscapes shaped out of computer parts. In addition, the curators will choose a variety of objects from Brighton & Hove Museums’ historical collections that also reflect the theme of re-use.
Cost £24,000
Main funders Headley Trust, Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove Museums
Curators Polly Harknett, Matt Smith
