The best museum and art exhibitions to visit this Easter across the UK

Get a culture fix this Easter with our pick of the best exhibitions and museums across the UK

Soak up some culture at a museum (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Easter isn’t just an opportunity to eat your own body-weight in chocolate. It’s also the perfect time for a well-earned long-weekend catch up with friends and family.

Whether you have a few days to spare, or a full fortnight in which to keep the kids entertained, we’ve rounded up some of the best museum and art exhibitions to check out.

With the UK home to an astonishing 1,800 museums, there’s certain to be an establishment that caters to your interests, from niche, one-room archives to sprawling national collections.

Our pick takes in contemporary art, motherhood, dark skies, seabirds, children’s books, 1960s fashion and much more besides.

And while spring may have officially begun by the time the Easter weekend rolls around, the British weather is nothing but fickle, so a museum is a good rain-safe option to have in your back pocket.

From Cambridge to Cornwall, Omagh to Angus, here’s our selection of the best museum and art exhibitions to check out this Easter, to inspire, educate and entertain.

Blaenafon and Cardiff, Wales

Big Pit National Coal Museum

2024 is the fortieth anniversary of the miner’s strikes, Britain’s biggest industrial dispute. To commemorate the date, Wales’s Big Pit Coal Museum is exhibiting Streic! 1984-1985 Strike! which will include exhibitions at both Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenafon and at the National Museum Cardiff. Visitors can also go on a tour of the former mine to learn more about the gruelling job of a miner, with a former worker taking tours. Expect to learn more about this integral part of British history whose impact can still be felt today.

Streic! 1984-1985 Strike!is at the Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum, until 1 March 2025, free.

Bristol

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood

The Arnolfini presents visual art, performance, dance, film, and music (Getty Images)

Hayward Gallery Touring’s major group exhibition explores the pain, pleasure, joy and heartache motherhood can bring. Featuring the work of more than 60 modern and contemporary artists, from the feminist avant-garde, to the present day, this exhibit considers motherhood as a creative enterprise, and engages with themes of ambivalence, gender and caregiving. Exploring diverse experiences of motherhood, this landmark exhibition aims to highlight the complexity of motherhood.

Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood is at the Arnolfini from 9 March to 26 May 2024, free (donations welcome)

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Cambridge

William Blake’s Universe

William Blake’s Universe brings together the largest-ever display of works by the 19th-century radical British artist, printmaker and poet. The exhibition explores wider themes including romanticism, mysticism and spiritual regeneration, showing Blake’s work alongside that of some of his European contemporaries, such as the German romantic painters Philipp Otto Runge and Caspar David Friedrich. Many of these pieces have never been displayed publicly in the UK until now – prepare to have your consciousness expanded.

William Blake’s Universe is at the Fitzwilliam Museum until 19 May 2024, free (booking essential)

London

Cute

Ginger Cat by Louis Wain, 1931, from Somerset House’s Cute exhibition (Somerset House)

This major new exhibition explores “the irresistible force of cuteness in contemporary culture”, and includes work by over 50 artists and contributors, alongside culturally significant objects. As well as new artworks, the exhibition includes video games, music, fashion, toys and social media, plus a disco to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Hello Kitty. As well as making you go “awww”, the exhibit also considers the cultural impact of cuteness, revealing its phenomenal and complex cultural power.

Cute: An Exhibition Exploring the Irrestible Rise of Cuteness is at Somerset House until 14 April 2024. Tickets £18.50 (concessions from £11).

The Biba Story: 1964–1975

Biba at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum (Duffy Archive )

Fashionistas will adore this exhibition of Barbara Hulanicki’s influential label. Biba came to epitomise swinging London and continues to resonate today. From the first simple shift dresses, to super-glam wraps, trouser suits, sequinned bodices and floppy hats, this exhibition brings together some of the British label’s most beloved looks.

The Biba Story: 1964-1975 is at the Fashion and Textile Museum from 22 March to 8 September 2024. Tickets £12.65

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind

Conceptual: Ono at an exhibition of her work in 1968 (Getty Images)

After years of being dismissed as nothing more than John Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono is finally getting the major retrospective she deserves. Featuring over 200 works spanning more than seven decades, this exhibition celebrates key moments in the 91 year old’s trailblazing multi-disciplinary career. Expect scores, installations, film, music and photography, including “Cut Piece” (1964), where people were invited to cut off her clothing, and her banned“Film No.4 (Bottoms)” (1966-67) which she created as a “petition for peace”. Visitors are invited to take part in creative and active encounters with Ono’s works, such as “Wish Trees for London”, where you can contribute personal wishes for peace. The Independent’s critic says that this exhibition “shows it’s time to accept her not only as an extraordinary human being, but a very significant artist”.

Yoko Ono: MUSIC OF THE MIND is at Tate Modern until 1 September 2024. Tickets: £22 (concessions available)

Manchester

Manchester Open 2024

Linda Wachaga, one of the artists exhibiting at the Manchester Open 2024 (Jason Lock)

Taking place every two years, the Open Exhibition is the biggest celebration of Greater Manchester’s creative talent. This major exhibition brings together artwork including paintings, prints, photography, sculpture, ceramics, digital and mixed media, video, audio and more. And with entries welcome from people of all backgrounds and experience, this is a wonderful opportunity to support new and emerging talent.

The Manchester Open 2024 is at HOME until 28 April 2024, free (booking essential)

Newcastle

Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books

(Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books)

Bookworms young and old will love this adorable museum arranged over seven floors in the heart of Newcastle. It champions reading, bringing storytelling to life with an events calendar consisting of storytelling and crafts. Current exhibitions include the chance to get to know beloved children’s books such as Judith Kerr’s Mog and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, David McKee’s Elmer and Friends, and the Horrible Histories series.

Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books, free

North Berwick, Scotland

Scottish Seabird Centre

Puffins can be seen in Scotland between March and August (Getty Images)

This marine conservation and education charity has plenty of Easter holiday activities to keep kids and adults entertained, including boat trips around the local islands, beach cleans, seaside sketching sessions, and science skills sessions.

Scottish Seabird Centre. Tickets £11.95

Omagh, Northern Ireland

OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory

Will you be lucky enough to see the Aurora Borealis in Omagh? (Getty)

According to scientists and astronomers, the Solar Maximum in 2024/25 is set to bring the best displays of the Northern Lights in 20 years, with the aurora borealis visible across the UK in recent nights. With this in mind, there’s no better time to visit Northern Ireland’s only International Dark Sky Park. Here, visitors can explore the solar system, gaze at the night sky using telescopes, and enjoy evening audiovisual shows, holographic installations and more. Located at the foot of the dramatic Sperrin Mountains, this is a beautiful place to discover the natural world.

OM Dark Sky Park and Observatory. Tickets £5

Scotland

A Bonnie Way: Unravelling the Seduction of the Countryside

The Travelling Gallery hits the road (The Travelling Gallery)

Travelling Gallery is a fantastic contemporary art gallery housed in a bus that has been travelling around Scotland since 1978, bringing art, conversation and new outlooks. Its current exhibition, A Bonnie Way: Unravelling the Seduction of the Countryside, presents the work of three artists who explore their experiences of life and conversations in rural and semi-rural places. The exhibition will tour between March and May 2024, stopping in Angus, Aberdeen, Dundee, Shetland Islands, Moray and the Highlands.

Travelling Gallery, Until May 2024, free.

St Ives, Cornwall

Outi Pieski

“Rising Together II” by Finish artist Outi Pieski (Tor Simen Ulstein KUNSTDOK)

Outi Pieski is a Sámi visual artist based in Ohcejohka (Utsjoki), Finland. In this, her first large-scale UK exhibition, she explores the culture and identity of the Sámi people, Europe’s largest indigenous group, ancestral return and the relationship between humans, animals and nature. Using wood and textiles, Pieski creates colourful thought-provoking, energetic and important sculpture, paintings, photographs and more.

Tate St Ives, Until 6 May 2024, £12 (concessions available)