Spending the rest of August and the upcoming autumn in the UK? Lucky you: there’s so much to do and see (plus book ahead) with a National Art Pass.
Feeling the post-holiday slump or fast-approaching back-to-school blues? Don’t fret, there’s still so much to book to see and do, and we have your next UK day out with friends or family planned with help from Art Fund’s National Art Pass.
Art Fund is a brilliant organisation that helps these exciting UK galleries, institutions, and museums raise money in order to buy and share exciting works of art, connect with their communities, and inspire the next generation. You’ll be playing your part in helping their work with the National Art Pass. Plus, there is so much in it for you too, with amazing ticket deals to discounts in the museum shops and cafes. What are you waiting for? Here is everything to see this summer and book ahead with a National Art Pass.
In partnership with Art Fund.
To See This Summer
Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, Durham
Immersive experiences are all the rage now; becoming the biggest trend in art installations spanning fashion, painting, bubbles and lots more. But history? There aren’t many places where you can declare you have stepped back in time to live how Britons once lived during England’s Georgian and Edwardian eras, or during the Second World War. Beamish, The Living Museum of the North in County Durham is one of those (very few!) places. Plus, as winners of Art Fund’s annual Museum of the Year prize (which commends the galleries and art spaces championing local communities) there’s all the more reason to visit this year. Go and do as the locals did on a farm in the 1940s or learn more about the area’s mining history.
Sea Inside, The Sainsbury Centre, Norfolk
There’s no denying the enormous importance and power of our oceans on human life and marine life throughout history, but can the sea survive us? This is the question that the exhibition Sea Inside at The Sainsbury Centre explores via imaginary, physical, and psychological interpretations and solutions. The exhibition features a myriad of mediums each crafted by renowned international artists including Shuvinai Ashoona, Marcus Coates, Evan Ifekoya, Laure Prouvost and Hiroshi Sugimoto, and includes new work by Tyler Eash, Chioma Ebinama and Harun Morrison, as well as a new commission by Gabriella Hirst. Each artist tackles human-to-human connections and relationships as well as human immersion and reliance on oceans via this art.
Austen And Turner: A Country House Encounter, Harewood House, Leeds
The UK is celebrating 250 years since one of the country’s most pioneering literary figures was born. This someone, is none other than Jane Austen. So, what an apt time to head up to Leeds and learn more about the author via an incredible celebration of her work at Harewood. Painter JMW Turner is on display alongside Jane Austen, as a way of portraying the enormous social change the UK went through during the turn of the 1700s to 1800s, boasting rare paintings and manuscripts including first editions and private collection artefacts.
To Book Ahead
Marie Antoinette Style, V&A, London
Let them eat cake! Marie Anotinette swanning into the V&A this autumn is one of the most anticipated exhibitions still to arrive this year. The ill-fated Queen of France long remains a fashion icon, albeit over 230 years since her death in 1793. Design, fashion, film, the decorative arts – you’ll find her influence throughout it all! Now, you’ll be able to see the artefacts, fashion items, paintings, and more that have all contributed to her timeless appeal: all the frills and opulence (pastel toned, naturally) included.
Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World, National Portrait Gallery, London
This man wore many hats: fashion photography, royal photographer for the British monarchy, fashion illustrator, party host, horticultural lover, writer, social caricaturist, illustrator … the list goes on. The National Portrait Gallery is pulling apart much of the photographic and sartorial work that gave Cecil Beaton’s name the weighting we know it to have today. How did this man capture over sixty years of art and culture through his work? Visit this exhibition to find out.
Light And Magic The Birth Of Art Photography, Tate Modern, London
So, what is the basis for all photography? Light, and a little bit of magic, so this upcoming exhibition at London’s Tate Modern argues. Pictorialism was the first international photography movement, developing from the 1880s all the way up to the 1960s. The Tate looks back on this almost-century of work via images created by photographers working across Seoul to New York to Brazil to Singapore and beyond, and how it has lent to the modern photography we know today. It’s never too early to book an exhibition, especially one as big as this. Make the most of your National Art Pass Summer Trial and book now.
Lead image: Kate Moss, Fashion: Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Julian d’Ys, The Ritz, Paris 2012. [photographs of Kate Moss at the Paris Ritz for Vogue US April 2012 issue] © Tim Walker.
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