Best of 2024
It’s been a busy, intense year for me. I’ve been finding the new rhythms of working parenthood, still figuring out how to balance work, time with family, and time for myself. I would previously have largely spent the latter in a museum, but increasingly find I just want to curl up at home. But, as ever, a feast of cultural offers have kept me invigorated and inspired when I’ve made it out of the house. So here, as usual in the order that I visited, are my top ten for 2024.
National Portrait Gallery (London)
Although this reopened in 2023, I didn’t manage to spend quality time exploring until early this year. The rehang is beautiful and thought-provoking, filled with visual and intellectual juxtapositions. It shows why portraits matter and what a rich story they can tell.
The Museum of English Rural Life (Reading)
Long on my list, the MERL did not disappoint. This museum shows how good curating is done with attractive, witty displays that left me with a deeper appreciation of rural history, objects and contemporary concerns.
Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change - Royal Academy (London)
There was so much to learn from this rich show on the colonial roots of the RA, the history of British art, and of British art history as a discipline. I’ll be interested to see how the work continues to inform practice at the RA.
Sculpture Playscape - Turner Contemporary (Margate)
Navigating museums and galleries with an active toddler has been a new experience this year. Leap then Look’s play space is fun, tactile and inventive. Alfie had great fun and it got me looking and thinking differently.
Fundación César Manrique (Lanzarote)
I hugely enjoyed discovering Manrique’s life and work on a trip to his native island. Hard to pick just one of the cultural attractions in which he had a hand as the island is arguably his total artwork developed from a suite of natural and cultural sites.
Paris 1924: Sport, Art and the Body - Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge)
This show brought great joy to my art&science soul. It used the return of the Olympics to Paris after 100 years to look at the history of our understanding of the body through art and sport with some fabulous objects and artworks.
Hetain Patel, Come as you really are (Croydon)
A rare treat to have an Art Angel project on my doorstep! Patel’s project was a collaboration with hobbyists all over the UK and filled Croydon Grants (a historic department store) with their treasures. The film was particularly poignant.
Tavares Strachan, There is Light Somewhere - Hayward Gallery (London)
An artist I’ve followed with interest for a few years, Strachan really stepped into the UK spotlight this year with a major piece in Entangled Pasts too. His Hayward show was rich and rewarding, drawing particularly on image systems across history and disciplines.
Now you see us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 - Tate Britain (London)
This expansive show was exhausting for all the right reasons, introducing me to a pantheon of female artists that I’m ashamed not to have known better, if at all. I was struck by the range of lending institutions as well as the breadth of genres.
Glow Wild - Wakehurst (Sussex)
The UK is now awash with Christmas light experiences. I’m always a fan, but Glow Wild was especially magical. The trail of illuminated sculptures and lanterns were handmade and focused on an environmentally-friendly and nature-focused approach.