Museum of London - Docklands

Programming our exhibitions and displays

The Museum has a number of objectives and priorities for its ongoing programme of exhibitions and displays.

The Museum strives to create a balanced programme that:

• Is innovative and inspiring and will attract critical acclaim, media interest and popular enthusiasm
• Is of interest to a wide range of audiences
• Develops and promotes the Museum’s extraordinary collections and expertise
• Enhances and shares our understanding of London’s history and the city today
• Enables us to work in partnership with others
• Can be supported by a strong events programme

In addition to its programme of lead exhibitions, the Museum has a number of strands of smaller, faster-moving displays. Proposals for smaller displays need to support one of the following strands:

• Capital concerns (Museum of London): displays that engage with contemporary debates about the city
• Inspiring London (Museum of London): displays that promote the London-inspired creativity of artists, cultural producers and ordinary Londoners; reflect London’s global creative influence; and provide opportunities for Londoners to engage imaginatively with collections
• Foyer commissions (Museum of London): displays of artists’s commissions in the foyer at the Museum of London
• Focus East (Museum of London Docklands): displays that explore the recent history and contemporary physical, social and cultural landscapes of East London
• Reinterpretations: London, Sugar and Slavery (Museum of London Docklands): displays that respond to the Museum’s London, Sugar and Slavery Gallery concerning the history of slavery and abolition

Larger exhibitions are usually programmed two to three years in advance, while smaller displays are programmed between six months and a year in advance.