Latest news with #gallery
BBC News
11 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens plans approved
A Grade-II listed city centre museum is set to get new entrance and galleries after redevelopment plans were proposals for Sunderland's Museum and Winter Gardens were revealed earlier this year after it was confirmed the library currently housed in the venue would move and free up space. Restoration works to the roof and windows of the site will also be carried out. A timescale for the work and a developer are yet to be confirmed. The museum had not been renovated for more than 20 years, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. According to council plans, refurbishment was needed "to maintain current audiences, attract new visitors and for the museum in the longer term to be commercially independent".The council's conservation officer also claimed the relocated entrance would help increase footfall to the venue. What is planned? Several new gallery spaces will be created at the space will be freed up after the entrance relocates and the city library moves to the Culture House development in Keel Square in the autumn. Window on Wearside on the ground floor would feature "displays of star objects and new favourites, tactiles, interactives and AVs to enjoy Sunderland's story of sports, music, events and more".Sunderland Story, located in the soon to be vacated library, also on the ground floor, will have interactive games and "mass displays" of early archaeology, ship models and mining lanterns to help visitors connect with Sunderland's Space exhibition, set to be based in the glazed area facing Burdon Road which currently houses the museum shop. According to plans, it aims to serve as a collaborative space where communities can discover how to live sustainably. It will feature a "central island tree sculpture" and live plants. The Hold, on the third floor, will show the city's pottery and glass collections. Under planning conditions, the development must be brought forward within three years. Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
National Geographic
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
How to spend the perfect day in Switzerland's underrated financial capital
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Switzerland's largest city, straddling the Limmat River and facing the pristine shores of Lake Zurich, has long been best known for its financial clout and Swiss efficiency. But these days its cultural scene is also booming, with everything from 'blackout' dining concepts to fashion co-ops set beneath railway arches. Here's how best to take in the city in just 14 hours. 7am: Swim at sunrise at Seebad Utoquai The combination of the lake's glassy water and this swimming club has made such an impression on locals that it's kept them rising at dawn for more than 130 years. The Seebad's two-floor wooden bathhouse debuted in 1890 with curtained changing rooms, ladders directly into the lake and diving boards, and it's been eulogised ever since by bathers and those who'd rather soak up the sun on the timber terraces. Alternatively, Frauenbad at Stadthausquai is an art nouveau cabana exclusively for women's swimming (both April to October only). In the lidos along the Limmat River, bathers don swimwear produced from upcycled plastic found in the city's waterways. 8am: Breakfast at the Odeon A home for the city's gay community long before the first Swiss laws legalising same-sex relationships were passed in 1942, Cafe Odeon is a Viennese-style coffee house par excellence. Expect to see eggs served in a wide variety of styles, including, as this is Zurich, in the form of truffle omelettes with a side of Champagne. 10am: Go to a gallery Zurich is home to around 50 museums and around double the number of art galleries. Certainly the most generous with the big names is the Kunsthaus. Plenty of highlights on display come from the likes of Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, while Switzerland is represented by Alberto Giacometti and the world's largest collection of Dada, the absurd counterculture art movement born nearby at cafe-gallery Cabaret Voltaire on Spiegelgasse. 12pm: Explore under the bridges The railway arches of the city's Industriequartier once housed hundreds of stonemasons and mechanics. These days, they survive as Im Viadukt, a future-focused co-op of fashion shops, restaurants, venues and a food market replete with bars and takeaway counters. This is where to go for a classic Swiss lunch, whether you're looking for Alpine picnic supplies (typically cheese, pickles and breads) or some bratwurst. 3pm: Get a chocolate fix There's an extraordinary array of chocolate ateliers in Zurich, but among the best are Läderach, Max Chocolatier and truffle-specialist Sprüngli on Bahnhofstrasse. These days, macarons are the speciality, while ruffled chocolate nests and bite-sized batons come topped with gold-leaf. 5pm: Time for a sky-high cocktail It's worth seeing the city and all of its church spires from the rooftops. One of the best viewpoints is at 1838, an exquisite destination bar atop the Mandarin Oriental Savoy that snuggles up to the Fraumünster and overlooks Paradeplatz, a square that's perenially popular with locals. On a clear day, the entire lake and the Alps to the south can also be seen on the horizon. An Aperol spritz or Eichhof lager will help temper any giddiness. 7pm: Eat in the dark Switzerland helped pioneer many life-changers — wristwatches, the world wide web, instant coffee. It's also the home of the first restaurant in the dark. The blackout dining concept was created in 1999 by a non-profit foundation and born to create jobs for the city's visually impaired people. The focus isn't just the surprise three- or four-course menu (it could be spätzle, lake fish, Swiss beef), but on fostering conversations. 10pm: Go bar-hopping If anywhere has an edge in Zurich, it's Langstrasse, a long street of late-night bars and clubs in the heart of the red-light district. Resistant to change, it's the city at its most unbuttoned, with Bar 63 and Ole Ole the most popular venues. For something classier, albeit with negronis on tap, try Bar Sacchi in trendy Lochergut. Getting there & around British Airways, EasyJet, Edelweiss Air and Swiss fly to Zurich from UK airports including Edinburgh, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Manchester and Stansted. The fastest train route from London St Pancras International to Zurich takes 6hr55m, involving a change of stations in flight time: 1h45m. It's easy to explore Zurich's attractions on foot or by using the efficient, safe and clean public transport system. You can get a tram, train, bus or ferry at most times of day with ease. A 24-hour travelcard for use in central Zurich costs CHF9.20 (£8.30). Trams and buses run from 6am to 1am. When to go Zurich is worth visiting year-round. Winter and early spring see cold days with snow-daubed hills and ice skating — with average temperatures around 4-6C — while summer ushers in averages of 25-28C, which means open lidos and the bulk of the city's festivals. Autumn, cooler at around 15C, is for the Zurich Wine Festival, held every October with tastings, masterclasses and networking sessions. Where to stay 25hrs Hotel Langstrasse. Doubles from CHF152 (£140). La Réserve Eden au Lac Zurich. Doubles from CHF540 (£490). More info Planet Switzerland. £16.99 How to do it Switzerland Travel Centre offers two nights in Zurich in a three-star hotel, including a 72-hour Zurich Card for transport and discounts, from £230 per person, B&B. Excludes flights. This story was created with the support of Zurich Tourism Published in the July/August 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK). To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Last chance to visit solider exhibition before big museum move
VISITORS have a last chance to visit an exhibition about county soldiers before it closes and moves to a new base. The Worcestershire Soldier Gallery at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum in Foregate Street in Worcester will close on August 31. This is the last chance to visit the current exhibition ahead of the creation of a brand-new exhibition planned for The Commandery in Sidbury, Worcester. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm and on Sundays between 10am and 3pm. It is closed on Mondays and bank holidays. Bringing together the collections of the Mercian Regiment Museum (Worcestershire) and the Worcestershire Yeomanry Museum, the free to visit Worcestershire Soldier Gallery tells the stories of soldiers who have served in local regiments from 1694 to the present day. Helen Hunter, Collections Manager, The Mercian Regiment Museum, said: 'The current exhibition, opened by Princess Royal in September 2003, brought highlights of the Regimental collections, formerly held at Norton Barracks, into the heart of the city for the public to enjoy. Now is the time to re-visit your favourites in the exhibition ahead of our planned closure and move to The Commandery.' Stamford Cartwright, Curator of the Worcestershire Yeomanry museum added: 'Whether your favourites are the Yeomanry propellor and pear blossom OR the medal of Black Drummer John Freeman, the detailed Sikh jacket or the Victoria Crosses of the Regiment, this is your last chance to see them in their current home.' The Worcestershire Soldier at the Commandery will see the creation of a brand-new exhibition of Worcester's regimental displays. This exhibition will secure the future of the gallery as well as bring the Worcestershire Soldier's story into the heart of Worcester's heritage quarter. In doing so this provides an opportunity to redevelop the current displays, which have been in place for over twenty years. It is anticipated that the new galleries will open in early 2028. The Worcestershire Soldier at The Commandery, funded through The National Lottery Heritage Fund will create an engaging and educational space that celebrates the rich military history of Worcestershire, with a focus on the experience of its soldiers. The project has also received generous support from the UK Government's Townsfund.
Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Our greatest football photographer's secret? Ignore the game
The world of football is not, you would have thought, a world that concerns itself overly with events in art. These two great spheres of human endeavour appear fiercely separated. And in most locations they are. But not in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where, unbelievably, a gallery has inveigled its way into the hall of balls and is now luring unsuspecting football folk on to the aesthetic quicksand of art. The Oof Gallery is inside the huge Spurs merch shop, secluded in a small Georgian building that the planners, in their infinite English perversity, insisted must remain untouched while the club's new stadium was built around it. It now lurks there, almost invisible, surrounded by mountains of Spurs paraphernalia, a small pearl in a huge oyster. The shows they mount here are usually on a football theme of some sort. The latest offering pairs the football photographs of Peter Robinson with the creatively vandalised football shirts of Nicole Chui, who, on this evidence, ought never to have been allowed near a sports kit. More on that and on the adjacent issue of the awful 2025 Tottenham shirt in a moment. First, we need to plunge into the soccer sadness of Robinson, 81, hailed by The New York Times as the 'greatest living football photographer'. Amazingly he has recorded 13 World Cups and nine Olympic Games. For five decades he has been photographing the pigskin sport, and the show confirms he has visited and watched pretty much everywhere it has been played. In 2003 he was in Japan photographing the space-age Yokohama Stadium and noticing how a field of cabbages had grown plentiful right outside it. In 1993 he was in Beirut, shedding a tear for the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium after an attack by the Israeli air force had turned it into a bombed-out crater filled with refugees. What's fascinating here is how much of Robinson's interest lies at the game's peripheries and how little actual football he has recorded. When Portugal played Spain in Porto in 1981, he watched a disembodied hand reach out to collect the tickets from a walled-up bunker masquerading as an entrance kiosk. In the groundsman's hut at Southend United in 2004, he noticed that the groundsman was watching another game on the telly while his own team were playing outside through the open door. • Read more art reviews, guides and interviews What really interests him is the humanity of football rather than its skills: the way it bleeds off the pitch into the surrounding life. He likes a joke too. In 1970, at Wolves v Man Utd, he caught a moment when Bobby Charlton was approached by a policeman while taking a corner. Robinson called the photo The Two Bobbies. His picture of Bill Nicholson entering the gates of White Hart Lane in 1970 with a cheeky smile and a shapeless Marks & Sparks suit has become iconic, because Nicholson looks more like a dusty geography teacher than the most revered of all Tottenham managers. Humanity done, the rest of the experience at the Oof Gallery and its surroundings feels as if it is emphasising how football has changed for the worse, and how delusion has crept into its world. Nicole Chui is the founder of Baes FC, 'a grassroots football community for women, trans and non-binary people of Asian heritage aiming to play football in a safe space'. It sounds like a healthy and jolly London arrangement. Good on her. Where things start to unravel is that she also imagines herself to be a football artist, and in that role she has been given a space at the Oof to display her wares and to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that she should stick to founding community soccer teams. Chui's creative ambition is 'to disrupt perfection and inspire others to embrace their raw emotions'. This involves taking a needle and thread to an assortment of football shirts and sewing spider patterns across them, ruining their shape and disfiguring the design ambitions of the shirts' makers. If she improved them, even slightly, this would be a noble task. She doesn't. Instead the gaudy patching feels like an act of aggression, death by a thousand stitches, a killing of the football shirt. Somewhere along the line she has persuaded herself that being messy (as opposed to Messi) is the same thing as being creative. It isn't. As it happens, football shirts have experienced something of a renaissance in recent years. My fellow Sunday Times writer Joey D'Urso has just written an entire tome on the subject. Called More Than a Shirt, its big point is that every football kit in every land 'tells a deeper story about the world we inhabit'. To gather his evidence, Joey travelled the world, but I guess he never made it to the Tottenham stadium and the merchandising souk that surrounds the Oof Gallery, where rack after rack of 2025 Spurs kit makes you cry with its lack of fizz or ambition. To see where football shirts really have advanced, you need to leave behind the moneyed casinos of the Premier League and head down to the lower divisions. Walthamstow FC, from the Isthmian League North Division, recently brought out a fabulous turquoise kit based on the famous wallpaper designs of the Walthamstow local William Morris. My own team, Reading FC, now having fun in League One, issued a kit featuring a purple turtle design inspired by a local nightclub. This year their shirt is based on a Victorian biscuit tin designed by the local cake makers Huntley & Palmers. This is the football shirt cementing important links with the local community and pushing out the boat in invention and excitement. Sad, robotic Tottenham Hotspur should definitely try it. Peter Robinson: Double Vision is at the Oof Gallery, London, to Aug 31; Nicole Chui: Ruined, to Aug 2; What exhibitions have you enjoyed recently? Let us know in the comments below
Wall Street Journal
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
In New York, Group Shows Send Mixed Messages
New York The summer group show is an art-world mainstay. As collectors abandon their urban abodes for far-flung vacation homes, gallerists take advantage of the seasonal slowdown to stage exhibitions that offer a hiatus from the hard-nosed seriousness of the other months, a breezy annual break that's as welcome as a zephyr on a sweltering July day. So it's somewhat bold when a gallery tackles a meaty subject, and a pair of shows do just that, opting to investigate political power at a time when many folks have switched their phones to do-not-disturb as they sun on the beach.
