John Tunnard: Inner Space to Outer Space, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
13 March-28 June
Pallant House Gallery is reassessing the achievements of John Tunnard, the frequently overlooked surrealist painter. Tracing his development from early experiments in abstraction to complex architectural landscapes, the works on display will reflect Tunnard’s varied interests in music, nature, and, in particular, his later fascination with science and space travel. Workshops and tours are planned to coincide with National Science Week (12-21 March).
Cost £20,000
Main funders in-house, with support from Arts Council England and De’Longhi
Curators Simon Martin, Brian Whitton
Beyond the Boundary, International Slavery Museum, Liverpool
19 March-12 September
A series of photographs celebrating legendary cricketers from the African diaspora, such as Viv Richards and Basil D’Oliveira.
The exhibition will explore the paradoxical relationship between cricket and colonialism; initially a legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, the sport gradually became a means of breaking down racial and imperial boundaries.
In the latter half of the 20th century this culminated in the West Indies becoming world champions of the so-called “white game”, and the international cricketing community shunning South African apartheid.
Cost £7,500
Main funder National Museums Liverpool
Curators Richard Benjamin, June Bam-Hutchison, with assistance from South African cricket historian Andre Odendaal
Korea 1950-53: The Cold War’s Hot War, National Army Museum, London
19 March-31 December 2012
The National Army Museum is launching a new display to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the world’s first (and only) UN conflict.
Examining the role played by the British Army in the war, the show will include archive material such as razor blades and toiletries given to a British prisoner of war by his captors, a cotton handkerchief printed with Chinese propaganda messages and a submachine gun supplied by the Russians for use against the Allies.
Cost £54,000
Main funders National Army Museum, Middlesex Regimental Museum Endowment Fund
Curators in-house
Food Glorious Food, Museums Sheffield: Weston Park, Sheffield
20 March-28 November
From rationing books to celebrity chefs, this family-friendly exhibition will explore the place of food in British culture over the last 50 years.
The show includes an eclectic display of labour-saving gadgets, culinary devices and unusual recipes, as well as a walk-in larder filled with nostalgic packaging and food facts.
It will examine how the nation’s changing relationship with food, such as the present grow-your-own trend, reflects the wider concerns of the age.
Cost £90,000
Main funders Renaissance Yorkshire, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Change4Life
Curators Teresa Whittaker, Clara Morgan
Exhibition design Design Map
Partner University of Sheffield, Tour partner V&A Museum of Childhood
Quilts 1700-2010, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
20 March-4 July
The Victoria and Albert Museum has been planning an exhibition to showcase its collection of quilts for the past six years. Many of the items in the show have not been displayed for decades.
Incorporating loans from across the country, Quilts will take visitors through 300 years of British quilt-making and the stories, both personal and political, which lie behind the designs.
Highlights include the Rajah quilt, an 1841 coverlet made by women convicts on board a deportation ship to Australia, and an 18th-century quilt on which the maker’s secret diary is inscribed in code. Visitors can make their own quilts at a series of workshops.
Cost undisclosed
Main funders Friends of the V&A, Coats Crafts, Coats Foundation Trust
Curator Sue Prichard
Exhibition design V&A Design
Graphics Studio Frith
Francis Bacon: In Camera, Compton Verney, Warwickshire
27 March-20 June
Bacon always colluded with the myth that his paintings appeared spontaneously – so he might not be best pleased with this exhibition, which brings together significant works with the artefacts that inspired them.
In Camera takes visitors through the artist’s meticulous working process; in place of preparatory drawings, Bacon often tore up and twisted photographs to reconfigure imagery for his portraits.
One sitter, David Sylvester, arrived to find that his likeness had been already gleaned from a photograph of a rhinoceros. The exhibition also features five oil works never before shown in the UK.
Cost undisclosed
Organiser Compton Verney in association with Dublin City Gallery, Hugh Lane
Curators Martin Harrison, Antonia Harrison
Simon Faithfull: Recent Findings, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston
27 March-5 June
The UK premiere of artist Simon Faithfull’s latest work. The show will feature video, drawings and installations, including the film 0˚00 Navigation (pictured above), which follows a solitary figure on an obsessive journey along the Greenwich Meridian line.
Harris Museum has organised the exhibition as part of Abandon Normal Devices, a festival of new cinema and digital culture taking place across the North West in March.
Cost £16,000
Main funders Preston City Council, Renaissance North West
Curator Lindsay Taylor
