Brent's new museum gives an excellent guide to this north London borough and the experiences of the people who live there, says Alison Porter

Ruffled minds and restless pillows, to paraphrase a line from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, loom large in Brontëan Abstracts, the installation at the Brontë Parsonage Museum by British artist Cornelia Parker.

Sharon Heal admires the industrial might demonstrated by 'bits of big kit' on show at a trust-run museum in Sheffield

This fascinating and fun exhibition about the lives of gay men in the merchant navy manages to avoid preaching. By Jane Morris

Rachel Souhami discovers that a potentially fascinating museum is let down by poor lighting and a lack of interpretation

Croydon's revamped museum is an impressive attraction, with the experiences of local people at its heart, says Peter Lewis

The revamped Museum on the Mound follows the story of banking and money in Scotland. By Simon Stephens

The difficulties of using a thematic approach in this exhibition about refugees are eclipsed by the remarkable stories of the people who found a home in London, writes Penny Ritchie Calder

Sara Selwood is underwhelmed by a series of displays set in new galleries that follow the changing home lives of London's middle class across the centuries

Rebecca Mileham says the National Trust needs to build on its winning approach to interpretation for children at Chastleton House to make the property a real success

Maria Blyzinsky enjoys the new home of a museum that contains the remarkable range of objects amassed by the Victorian collectors Richard and Henry Cuming

Middlesbrough's new art space may be glamorous and informal, but the content falls way short of what the city deserves, writes Caroline Worthington