Previous Exhibitions

Pieces of Me was an exhibition that was on display at Museum & Art Swindon between the 9th July and the 28th September 2024.

It was Museum & Art Swindon's first exhibition produced and curated by young people. It brought together the voices of young people from the Where We Are… project, showcasing their thought-provoking work alongside modern and contemporary artworks from Swindon’s collections.

The Where We Are… project saw young people join forces with Museum & Art Swindon, Prime Theatre, the British Museum and Swindon artists to explore their place within the arts in Swindon. Their exhibition delved into the creative process and unpicked the pieces of identity, from the influence of place, to the importance of self-expression.

Double Take was on display at Mueum & Art Swindon between the 9th July and 28th September 2024.

This exhibition brought together the work of six Museum & Art Swindon Collection artists, four contemporary Wiltshire artists and 200 Swindon school children.

Asking pupils across Swindon to look… and then look again. Their challenge was to take inspiration from artworks in the Swindon Collection. With the support of practising professional artists Anya Beaumont, Jo Beal, Jo McAree and Helen Moore, pupils produced their own creative responses. Their artwork was displayed alongside the work of the artists who inspired them. Pupils explored the ways we experience and respond to the world around us. Their work encouraged us to see the world in new and unexpected ways – to sit up and take notice.

Fossil Hunters: Unlocking Swindon's Jurassic Past was on display from 4 October 2025 to 11 April 2026

Visitors were invited to step back in time 150 million years and explore Swindon’s fascinating fossil history in Fossil Hunters,  which celebrated the town’s remarkable Jurassic geology and the pioneering individuals who studied it.

It featured some of the most important figures in British geology, including William Smith, Gideon Mantell and W.J. Arkell, whose discoveries helped shape our understanding of the prehistoric world and who all studied the fossils and rocks of Swindon. 

Fossil Hunters featured highlights from the Museum’s stunning collection of Jurassic marine fossils, including ammonites, marine reptiles, molluscs and the newly acquired Swindon Stegosaur vertebra. Also on loan were key specimens from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Fossil Hunters was supported by Arts Council England’s Unlocking Collections campaign.

Leslie Cole: Recording Conflict ran from 2 August 2025 to 3 January 2026.

Swindon-born Leslie Cole (1910-1976) was a prolific war artist.  Commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee from 1941 until 1946, Cole travelled extensively, completing portraits of military figures and recording the effects of war in Burma, Borneo, Greece, Germany, Malta and Singapore.  Despite Cole’s important records of work during the war, and unflinching depictions of wartime devastation, his name is not widely known.

On the 80^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, ‘Leslie Cole: Recording Conflict’ explores Cole’s work before, during and after the conflict.  It showcases paintings and lithographs from Museum & Art Swindon, and generous loans from the Imperial War Museum, to demonstrate the breadth and depth of Cole’s experience.

Through works by artists like Mary Kessell, Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland, the exhibition also explored the role of the War Artists Advisory Committee, and Cole’s place within its legacy. 

The Lost Surrealist: Henry Orlik's Quantum Revolution ran from 24 October 2025 to 14 March 2026

Henry Orlik (b.1947) and his family arrived in England as refugees in 1948, and were part of the large Polish Diaspora to settle in Swindon.  Orlik studied at the Swindon School of Art from 1963-66, and Gloucestershire College of Art from 1969-72.  He gained a high profile in the 1970s as an artist working in a surrealist idiom, and showed alongside surrealist masters such as René Magritte and Salvador Dalí.

After spending decades in obscurity, Orlik’s work has seen a recent resurgence of national interest.  In collaboration with Winsor Birch, this exhibition explored and celebrated Orlik’s career.  A selection of paintings and works on paper from private lenders presented Orlik’s striking, otherworldly scenes and intricate mark making. 

The Human Experience: Reflections on Swindon’s Art Collection ran from 31 January to 5 June 2026.

What does it mean to be human?  How do we experience life individually and collectively?  How does art present our most complex experiences? 

This exhibition explored these questions through a selection of artworks from the collection at Museum & Art Swindon.  ‘The Human Experience’ was curated by volunteers from Multaka-Swindon. Multaka means Meeting Point in Arabic, it is an opportunity for people to come together to share thoughts, ideas and experiences. Personal and cultural perspectives were woven into the exhibition, but the themes explored were part of the universal human experience.

A Very British Art Revolution ran from 11 March to 5 July 2025.

The first decades of the 20th century were a time of great social and political change in Britain – and it was no different in the art world. A Very British Art Revolution: Rebellion and Reaction in the Early 20th Century looked at how artists in Britain responded to these changes, and to the new creative ideas that were shifting how people made and experienced art across the whole of Europe.

This exhibition drew from the art collection at Museum & Art Swindon to demonstrate the impact of new art movements, new models of teaching art and collaborating, social change and the legacies of conflict.

Elisabeth Frink: A View From Within ran from 9 July to 2 November 2024.

Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) is one of the most significant sculptors of the 20th century.  This exhibition focused on an important body of work produced between 1976, when Frink moved to her studio in Woolland, Dorset, and her death in 1993.

The exhibition explored her artistic process, personal life and the influences that shaped her work.  Bringing together objects from public and private collections, celebrating the enduring legacy of Elisabeth Frink.

Hardy's Wessex ran from 26 October 2024 to 8 February 2025

Visitors were invitied to explore the landscapes that inspired Thomas Hardy, in this exciting touring exhibition which was developed by our partners at Wessex Museums. 

Thomas Hardy, an internationally acclaimed Victorian writer, was inspired by the Wessex landscape and its people.  The exhibition brought together objects and documents exploring important themes in Hardy’s work, including women’s rights, animal welfare, social structure, superstition, the realities of war, and altered relationships with the landscape.  His story was retold in exciting new ways, from period costumes to personal letters, and from art to archaeology

Art on Our Doorstep ran from 10 December 2024 to 5 April 2025.

Co-curated as part of our Arts Council England-funded Unlocking Collections project, this exhibition revealed research produced by a team of volunteers. Through art made primarily by local people, they told stories of Swindon, the places that define it, and the people who have lived here. Art on Our Doorstep: Unlocking Scenes of Wellbeing, Industry and Creativity in Swindon explored the ways in which themes of health, industry and creativity appear in artworks that have been in storage, or not previously displayed. These included new acquisitions by significant Swindon artists Harold Dearden and Paul Rudall.

Un/Common People: Folk Culture in Wessex ran from 30 November 2024 to 8 march 2025.

Un/Common People was a major exhibition that celebrated the vibrant folk art and seasonal customs of Wessex, both past and present. It redefined the traditional meaning of the term ‘commoner’ by showcasing the extraordinary creativity of folk art, crafted by self-taught artists and makers.

The exhibition featured a remarkable collection of more than 100 objects from Wessex Museums, the Museum of British Folklore and private lenders. Highlights included a handcrafted Wiltshire sweetheart pin cushion made by a World War I veteran, a rare ship crafted entirely from straw linking to Poole’s maritime heritage, and a poignant portrait by a Nigerian artist created while seeking asylum in Swindon.

Complementing the objects on display was a newly commissioned folk song and story map, films and photography that captured the Wessex folk calendar, from the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge to the May Day celebrations in Cerne Abbas. The exhibition showcased how Wessex’s folk traditions have been embraced, reimagined, and enriched over time, blending traditional crafts with modern customisations.

"Seriously..." ran from 25 February to 4 October 2025.

Whilst he was chairman of the Arts Council in the 1950s Sir Kenneth Clark said "They take art seriously in Swindon", and in this exhibition the Friends of Museum & Art Swindon were proud to present a selection of works from the collection that they thought illustrated his point.

Swindon council started collecting art as long ago as 1946 and with the help of generous gifts and benefactors is still adding new work. With the establishment of the new museum at the site of the council’s former offices the Friends were proud to have been asked to present an exhibition to showcase the length and breadth of the collection, from older works by well-known artists to pieces which have been more recently acquired. 

Meet the Romans ran from 8 April to 6 September 2025

Visitors were invited to step back in time and uncover the secrets of Swindon’s Roman past in Meet the Romans.

Meet the Romans explored life in the lost town of Durocornovium. Through archaeological discoveries made over the past 50 years, people were able to meet some of the people that called Swindon’s first town and the surrounding area home for over four centuries.

Some of the Romans::

• The legionaries who may have been stationed at an early fort.
• The traders that supplied the town.
• The potter that worked in the large pottery in West Swindon.
• The builder that created lavish villas at Blunsdon and Bishopstone.
• The Roman matron running her household in the town.

This exhibition enabled visitors to get up close to never-before-seen artefacts and even touch history with hands-on discoveries from real excavations. Whether you're a history enthusiast or just curious about Swindon's ancient past, this was your chance to walk in the footsteps of the Romans!