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The Midlands has a wealth of art galleries and museums hosting a range of fantastic exhibitions - both permanent and temporary. Here's a selection of what's showing across the region.
BRITISH CERAMICS BIENNIAL: FRESH 2025
British Ceramics Biennial returns for its ninth edition this month. Taking place across six weeks, the festival features free exhibitions, screenings, talks and events, all of which are being presented across the site of the original Spode factory in the heart of Stoke-on-Trent.
“It’s wonderful to be back at Spode,” says Clare Wood, CEO & artistic director of British Ceramics Biennial. “We’ll be animating this important post-industrial site with ambitious, imaginative and important works in clay and ceramic.
“The Biennial is a true celebration of clay’s creative potential, both for making beautiful objects and for tackling some of the most pressing issues of our time.
“I’m looking forward to sharing the work of more than 60 outstanding artists with our thousands of visitors over the course of the Biennial.”
Image credit: Olga Siruk, Incantation, courtesy of the artist
Spode Works, Stoke-on-Trent, Saturday 6 September - Sunday 19 October
DESIGNING TERRY PRATCHETT'S DISCWORLD
Exhibition celebrating 30 Years of Paul Kidby’s Illustration
This brand-new exhibition displays the artwork of Paul Kidby - Terry Pratchett’s ‘artist of choice’ for his Discworld books.
Explaining why he selected Paul, the late author once said: “He sees things my way about 75 per cent of the time, which suggests either mind reading is happening or that my vision of my characters is really rather vague until I see his drawings.”
The exhibition includes colourful paintings, ‘exquisite’ pencil drawings, ‘and a rogue’s gallery of favourite Discworld characters’.
Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, Saturday 13 September - Sunday 4 January
SARI STORIES
The companion presentation to The Offbeat Sari - a major exhibition, celebrating the contemporary sari, which is also currently showing at MAC - Sari Stories is a collaboration between the venue and the critically acclaimed local South Asian arts organisation Sampad.
The show shares joyful and moving reflections on the sari, all of which were submitted - through an open call - by people from across the Midlands region.
“The sari reflects a very rich tapestry of South Asian culture,” explains Priya Khanchandani, The Offbeat Sari’s curator. “It represents womanhood, it represents identity across regions, across classes, communities and history.”
Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, until Sunday 19 October
COMMODITIES: SCULPTURE & CERAMICS BY RENEE SO
Hong Kong-born artist Renee So’s latest exhibition may well be a game changer in terms of how Compton Verney’s world-renowned collection of Chinese Bronzes is viewed... Specialising in darkly playful ceramic sculptures, Renee’s work explores how perceptions of history can be distorted, re-fashioned and changed, asking the question: ‘How do we create the new stories that we tell ourselves today?’
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, Saturday 20 September - Sunday 8 March
JESUS & THE POPE BY ROBBIE WILLIAMS
Burslem-born Robbie Williams has teamed up with local ceramic design brand 1882 Ltd to transform two of his ‘inkling’ drawings into abstract works of art depicting Jesus and The Pope.
The superstar singer’s technicolour pieces sit alongside a collection of works donated by 60 of the UK’s leading artists, architects, designers, musicians and creative polymaths.
The artworks have been transformed into plates by the Barlastan-based company and are being auctioned off to fund an apprenticeship scheme.
Publicising the show, Robbie said: “I’m from the Potteries, Burslem born & bred. Clay built our city. We are of the earth - we are earthy people.”
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, until Sunday 7 December
THREAD THE LOOM
his group exhibition, celebrating the art of weaving, provides visitors with the chance to observe, engage with and participate in traditional and contemporary art & craft practices.
The show will see an AVL Studio Dobby loom - on loan from Birmingham City University - being activated through a series of micro-residencies with international artist Seulgi Lee and five West Midlands weavers... Textiles produced on the loom will be exhibited alongside work by contemporary artists Raisa Kabir, Alis Oldfield, Bharti Parmar, Dinah Prentice and Su Richardson.
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, until Sun 7 September
I GREW UP 90S
A trip down memory lane awaits visitors to this summer-long celebration of all things 1990s. Featuring more than 200 iconic objects and artworks, the show recalls toys, video games, fashions, food, films and music from the decade of Cool Britannia. In the process, it calls to mind all manner of cultural treasures, from the Spice Girls and Lara Croft, to Pokémon and Power Rangers.
Worcester City Art Gallery. until Sunday 7 September
BILLY DOSANJH ENDZ OF THE WORLD: CODED FURNACES
Film, photography, sculpture, print making and painting all feature in the artistic output of Billy Dosanjh, much of whose practice is set in the de-industrialised factory towns of the Midlands.
This new exhibition of Billy’s work considers the subject of technical evolution, examining the similarities between the Industrial Revolution and current technological developments, in particular the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Wolverhampton Art Gallerv. until Sunday 21 September
WATCH US LEAD
Multi-disciplinary artist Christopher Samuel’s new exhibition highlights the experiences of disabled people of colour in Birmingham - and echoes the many facets of his own lived experience as a Black disabled man.
Bringing together stained glass and drawings with nine newly recorded interviews, the show investigates themes of stigma, belonging and agency.
Commenting on his exhibition, Christopher said: “The realisation of how important making this body of work is, was highlighted for me through the barriers I encountered [in delivering it] - showing that the system has not historically been set up to preserve stories or voices like mine.”
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, until Friday 26 September
EMMA TALBOT: HOW WE LEARN TO LOVE
Compton Verney’s major summer exhibition features a collection of new and recent work by award-winning artist Emma Talbot which ‘powerfully explores the experience of life; from birth to death’.
The show includes examples of Emma’s sculpture, painting, animation, drawing and large-scale paintings on silk.
At the heart of the exhibition is an epic new installation called The Tragedies. Drawing on a selection of stories, including the Ancient Greek tale of Medea - who killed her two sons as an act of revenge - the artwork is a reflection on the ‘unbelievable acts of aggression’ which people feel compelled to commit during times of confrontation.
The exhibition also contemplates ‘our shifting relationships with technology, language and communication’, exploring how, in new forms and guises, they can transform public and political narratives.
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, until Sunday 5 October
OUTSIDE IN: SHELTER
Shelter is the seventh National Open exhibition to be presented by Outside In, an award-winning charity dedicated to helping artists who encounter barriers to accessing the art world. These may include issues around health, disability, isolation, or the individual’s social circumstance.
As part of Shelter, surrealist sculptor & furniture designer Chantal Pitts was selected for a 21-week residency at the gallery, during which period she developed an interactive and den-like installation that will serve as the exhibition’s information hub.
The New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 19 October
THE OFFBEAT SARI
“The idea for the exhibition came from a desire to challenge the way that South Asian culture is conventionally depicted - as being timeless, or rigid in the colonial or post-colonial past.”
So explains Priya Khanchandani, who has curated this major exhibition. The show celebrates the contemporary sari and brings together a selection of striking garments designed, worn and crafted by people from India. “I wanted to showcase South Asia as a culture in the process of evolution, and one which is as relevant to contemporary fashion as anywhere else.
“MAC is a fantastic place to present the exhibition. Its artistic programme reflects and represents the cultures of the city of Birmingham, and I think the show will resonate with Brummies of South Asian heritage in a meaningful way.”
Midlands Arts Centre (MAC). Birmingham, until Sunday 2 November
SEULGI LEE
New pieces commissioned by Ikon form part of Seulgi Lee’s first solo exhibition in the UK. The Seoul artist and Paris resident creates work which reflects her interest in the relationship that exists between craft practices and the language system. To do so, she has developed a unique sculptural vocabulary in which she often combines conceptual approaches with artisanal methods.
Ikon Art Gallery, Birmingham, until Sunday 7 September
BRICK DINOS
This new exhibition provides families with the opportunity to step back in time to the prehistoric world.
The show’s attractions include a range of Lego dinosaur sculptures - created in collaboration with palaeontologists - behind-the-scenes videos, photo opportunities, and the chance to uncover fossils at an interactive ‘dino dig’.
Visitors can also get creative with hands-on Lego and Duplo play, design their own dinosaurs on a graffiti wall, and take home dinosaur-themed colouring sheets.
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until Sunday 7 September
OUTSIDE IN: SHELTER
Shelter is the seventh National Open exhibition to be presented by Outside In, an award-winning charity dedicated to helping artists who encounter barriers to accessing the art world. These may include issues around health, disability, isolation, or the individual’s social circumstance.
As part of Shelter, surrealist sculptor & furniture designer Chantal Pitts was selected for a 21-week residency at the gallery, during which period she developed an interactive and den-like installation that will serve as the exhibition’s information hub.
New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 19 October
THROUGH THEIR EYES: 80 YEARS ON
Marking this month’s 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Through Their Eyes is part of the National Memorial Arboretum’s The Year Was 1945... project. The initiative comprises displays, events, services, talks and tours, its aim being to share the stories of those who served during wartime.
Through Their Eyes has been produced by the Royal British Legion, the UK’s largest charity solely dedicated to supporting the needs of the Armed Forces community.
National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, until Sunday 16 November
DIPPY IN COVENTRY: THE NATION'S FAVOURITE DINOSAUR
The Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast - life-size, made of plaster-of-paris, and affectionately referred to as Dippy - has taken up residence in Coventry for an initial period of three years.
Diplodocus carnegii, to give it its official name, lived during the Late Jurassic period, somewhere between 155 and 145 million years ago. Huge, plant-eating dinosaurs with long, whip-like tails, they grew to about 25 metres in length and are believed to have weighed around 15 tonnes, making them three tonnes heavier than a London double-decker bus.
Dippy first arrived in London in 1905 and recently visited Birmingham as part of an eight-city tour that attracted a record-breaking two million visitors.
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until Tues 21 February 2026