Our Programme

Exhibitions & Displays

Sheffield Museums presents a broad range of exhibitions and displays extending, complementing and contextualising the city’s collections of art, human and industrial history, and natural science. We work in collaboration to create a programme that helps people to connect with their collections and reflect on current topics through what we hope to be thoughtful and often joyful experiences.   

Developing a large-scale exhibition takes a long time. We tend to schedule our exhibitions two or three years in advance and work on them over that period. It takes time to secure loans from public and private collections, think about developing the exhibition’s story and decide how we are going to resource it.

The exhibition development process can start in different ways. We often agree the broad principle and dates for the exhibition with our project collaborators and this gets things moving. Collaborators might be another museum or gallery, a creative practitioner or and individual, a university or a community group. The process then goes on to include:

• Research into potential exhibition themes and potential connections to Sheffield
• Creating an exhibition storyline and deciding the objects that will best tell that story visually
• Agreeing the logistics – timescales, budgets, identifying additional resources that may be needed
• Arranging loans from museums, galleries and other lenders
• Carrying out conservation work to ensure objects are able to be displayed
• Sometimes we work with designers to create the look of the exhibition
• Work with our collaborators to write and develop the interpretation for the exhibition - the labels, information panels and digital content in the exhibition
• Building and preparing the exhibition structure, from reconfiguring our flexible walling system to mount making and framing objects and then decorating the space
• Installing the objects ready to welcome visitors

If you have an idea for an exhibition, we’d love to hear from you – email us at exhibitions@sheffieldmuseums.org.uk

Events & Activities

Our event and activity programme spans sensory messy play sessions for under 5s right through to in-depth talks with leading experts in their field. Our events are often linked to the exhibitions we’re presenting, inspired by collections or created in collaboration with people and organisations in the city and beyond.

Our events tend to be programmed around three to six months in advance and often form part of wider events, celebrations or festivals taking place, either locally or nationally.

If you have an idea for an event, please get in touch – email us at learning@sheffieldmuseums.org.uk