On a @gwr.com train. Forty minutes late and counting, crawling towards its final stop with no explanation for the continuing delay. The wifi barely works and there’s no sign of the catering that was promised when I was waiting to catch it. Shambolic.

Plenty of cash for capital projects at the National Gallery, but not enough for running costs. How are they going to cope with the extra overheads of a new wing? www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/13/l...

£42k for a lead (I.e. extensive experience) curatorial post - with management responsibilities - at a national library in one of the most expensive cities in the world? no wonder they’ve been on strike!

New article just published: 'A Dataset of Collections Dispersal following Museum Closures in the UK during 2000–2025.' Outlines the data collected by the Mapping Museums team during their museum closure project, and it's open access. 🗃️ openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/articles/10....

The number of university jobs lost in the last three years is awful: ‘Roughly 13,300 people received severance pay from this sample of the sector alone … this is in addition to 9,290 and 6,960 in the two previous years – almost 30,000 in total.’ www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...

The British Library’s entry in the world‘s smallest mince pie contest (cappuccino for scale)

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 16 ‘First Snow’ Artist: Rowland Hilder

I can't imagine how many people have been waiting for the British Library to open its new catalogue and make online requests possible from today. And guess what? Requests aren't working ...

For avoidance of confusion, that’s just about all academic staff, excluding Heads of Dept and- of course - Senior Management Team.

When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!

It's wild that there appears to be more current concern for the Lost Library of Alexandria than for the British Library. The BL's crisis exemplifies the accelerating destruction--through apathy as much as by design--of human knowledge & learning. I'm not even being dramatic.

News | Closed River & Rowing Museum seeks new homes for its collections Henley institution calls for sector-wide expressions of interest for ethical transfer of objects

The new report from the Mapping Museums Lab is out! Two years of research on closed museums and their collections from 2000 to 2025, with charts, tables, and even some pretty pictures. Get your copy here: mapping-museums.bbk.ac.uk/publications/

Another journalist (Jeff, not Mic) who inexcusably doesn't know about Eliza, the first chatbot, or pretends not to.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

The Museum of Carpet in Kidderminster is the only one of its kind and is due to close in December: www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/2563429... #museumclosure

The Quaker Tapestry Museum in Kendal is due to close in December. It's been open for over 30 years www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Opposition to the relocation / supposedly temporary closure of Walsall Leather Museum is growing, with over 1900 signatures now. No new home for the museum has been identified so far. www.change.org/p/stop-the-c...

📣 Call for Papers 📣 Please share widely. I am pleased to announce a #CfPs for the upcoming international conference on Museums and Dissidence at @officialuom.bsky.social Scan the QR code for further details. #Museums #Dissidence #PoliticalDisagreement #Conference #MuseumActivism

Which one is more English?

Sad news about DeJohnette; this is a nice obit. I once saw him play with Jarrett's Standards Trio. There were a lot of camera flashes, irritating Jarrett. DeJohnette appealed to the audience to stop, saying: 'don't take photos, just take the music', in the most dignified way you can imagine.

Tickets still available for this in conversation event, 'Ritual Objects and Avant-Garde Art at the Jewish Museum of New York', online on Wednesday.

Pollocks Toy Museum and the Bakelite Museum have been looking for new homes. This new collaborative project in Dalston, East London, could be the one: www.colvestone.org

Films: We need to hack a keycard, obtained by seducing one of the guards. We then need to drop in from the skylight after jumping from a plane, and dodge all of the lasers and traps, carefully switching the jewels for fakes that weigh the same to avoid tripping the alarm. Real life:

The next @mghg.bsky.social in conversation event is on Wed 22 Oct 2025 at 17:30. Hear Jeffrey Abt talking about his book 'Too Jewish or Not Jewish Enough: Ritual Objects and Avant-Garde Art at the Jewish Museum of New York'. Book here: www.eventbrite.com/e/mghg-in-co...

Probably the loveliest thread you will read today, full of beauty and kindness and improvised owl physio

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer. This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Thousands of Londoners have indefinite leave to remain. They have legal rights and are our friends, neighbours and colleagues, contributing hugely to our city. Threatening to deport people living and working here legally is unacceptable.

Still time to book tickets for the museums history event of the season! Join us on 26-27 September for two days packed with papers showcasing UK and international perspectives, in-depth keynote talks and roundtable discussions: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/confe...

Another powerful blog post and kudos @wadehistory.bsky.social I don’t think “ECR” works as a meaningful label any more E - “early” is based on an out of date PhD➡️ postdoc➡️ permanent timeline C - “career” is wildly optimistic for most of us R - how many of us in teaching jobs get paid to research?

Just a week remaining to get your tickets for the @mghg.bsky.social conference on 'Creating the museum': 🏛️ National Gallery, London 📅 26-27 September, 10-5pm (come for one or both days) 🔗 www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/confe... All welcome!

do you work in a university/faculty/school in the UK that abolished “departments”? willing to share experiences (by DM if preferred)? RTs also appreciated

Just an astonishing bit of engineering - read down the thread for more info

Sonny Rollins is 95 today which feels slightly miraculous, a survivor from his art form's heroic age

Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say

(1902, Wuppertal, Germany.) Another era, very stylish. The still-functioning oldest suspended monorail in the world.

Interesting & critical review of the new V&A Storehouse by @profdanhicks.bsky.social artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

Bookings are open for the @mghg.bsky.social / National Gallery conference 'Creating the museum' on 26 and 27 September. A great lineup of speakers! www.nationalgallery.org.uk/events/confe...

This is great, read the whole thread

AI is now capable of designing a record-breaking deep sea submersible on its own. This marks a new age of exploration and I encourage all my fellow AI champions to build one and get in it so they can celebrate this achievement from the bottom of the sea.

Goodbye to the history department at Lancaster University, where the @socialhistsoc.bsky.social was founded 49 years ago. From tomorrow we are part of a School of Global Affairs. Next year, who knows what will be - please sign our petition against mass redundancies chng.it/PZfTFDjNcr

"The Israelis don't want us to film out of the window at the devastation inside Gaza. But I've spent 10 mins looking at it with my own eyes and I can tell you communities in the north of Gaza, that I knew well, are flat. There's nothing left of them." Jeremy Bowen www.bbc.com/news/videos/...

Please share this call for participants from @sineadcarter.bsky.social, who is doing a brilliant PhD project with me and @nataliethomlinson.bsky.social -- and do get in touch with her if you were involved with Reclaim the Night, squatting/housing activism or feminist architecture c. 1968-1990!

It would, obviously, be asking too much for our media and political class to care more about the repeated, state-directed criminal massacres of starving civilians in Gaza than what some rappers say at Glastonbury. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at @qmcbs.bsky.social for this paper on AI and history by @davehitchcock.bsky.social, which was not only thought provoking but very entertaining as well. hitchcockian.medium.com/this-is-the-...

NEW: Labour's planned disability benefit cuts could affect the majority of current working-age claimants with ischaemic heart disease, inflammatory arthritis, hip and knee disorders and Crohn’s disease, according to analysis of new DWP data By me, for the Big Issue: www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

This is a very common scenario: a private museum closing because its owner wants to retire, with the collection going to auction.

Refreshingly clear and to the point.

"It's something that the West will learn to regret really — that they were so spineless." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Open all of the crossings. Let in lifesaving aid at scale, from all directions. Lift restrictions on what & how much aid we can bring in. Ensure our convoys aren’t held up by delays and denials. Release the hostages. Implement the ceasefire. Let us work.