New works by Lubaina Himid, Manon Awst and Dylan Huw, and Bugarin + Castle to be shared UK-wide
Art Fund, the UK’s national charity for museums and galleries, today announces a major UK-wide programme bringing three landmark commissions from the 61st Venice Biennale (9 May – 22 November 2026) to audiences across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Developed for the world’s most influential contemporary art exhibition, the three supported presentations by British artists are:
- Predicting History: Testing Translation by Lubaina Himid, a British Council commission representing Great Britain – touring to The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry (12 February – 23 May 2027), The MAC, Belfast (11 June – 22 August 2027), and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea (24 September 2027 – 9 January 2028).
- Sownd by Manon Awst and Dylan Huw (Wales), with three parallel events in Cors Bodeilio, Anglesey (June 2026), Cors Caron, Ceredigion (July 2026), and Cors Crymlyn, Swansea (September 2026)
- Shame Parade by Bugarin + Castle (Scotland) will be presented at Mount Stuart on Bute in summer 2027, before touring to venues throughout the UK
Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund said, “From Belfast to the Welsh peatlands, from Coventry to the Isle of Bute, we are delighted once again to offer audiences across all four nations of the UK the opportunity to experience the remarkable works created by British artists for the Venice Biennale. And we are particularly delighted that Art Fund’s support will help a significant work from Lubaina Himid’s commission enter the British Council’s public collection and inspire future generations across the UK and around the world.”
Art Fund has previously supported UK tours of Venice Biennale commissions by Sonia Boyce and Alberta Whittle and continues to support the tour of John Akomfrah’s Listening All Night To The Rain, opening next month at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (16 May – 31 August). The work, commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion in 2024, continues the artist and filmmaker’s investigation into themes of memory, migration, racial injustice and climate.
Bugarin + Castle, Davide Bugarin and Angel Cohn Castle, at Mount Stuart. Photo by Charlotte Cullen, courtesy Scotland + Venice.
Shame Parade – Bugarin + Castle
Curated by Mount Stuart Trust and commissioned by Scotland + Venice, Bugarin + Castle’s Shame Parade is a multi-layered new project that uses the concept of the parade as a lens to explore complex emotional legacies of shame, pride and celebration. Working across architecture, moving image, sculpture, and performance, the artists, Davide Bugarin and Angel Cohn Castle, draw vibrant connections between queer and trans lives in Scotland and internationally, including diasporic connections to the Philippines. Across multiple artworks, the exhibition reimagines centuries-old European shaming rituals – bringing together fourteenth-century court transcripts, satirical eighteenth-century engravings, karaoke ballads, medieval armour and Filipino vehicle art. By mapping shame and transformation across continents and through time, they create a politically charged space where power and identity remain in motion. Following Venice, the exhibition will return to Mount Stuart on Bute in summer 2027, before touring to venues throughout the UK supported by Art Fund.
Alastair Evans, Chair, Scotland + Venice Partnership said “Scotland + Venice is committed to supporting artists whose work speaks to our times. Bugarin + Castle’s deeply moving, inventive, and expansive project offers a vivid and generous exploration of how shame, pride and celebration shape collective identities. It’s a project rooted in Scotland that also resonates globally. We are grateful to the Art Fund for helping us share this important work with communities after its presentation in Venice, beginning at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, in Scotland, and then touring.”
La Biennale di Venezia will run from 9 May – 22 November 2026 Preview dates: Wednesday 6 – Friday 8 May 2026
Lubaina Himid – Photographer credit: Adama Jalloh
Predicting History: Testing Translation – Lubaina Himid
Commissioned by the British Council for the British Pavilion in 2026, Lubaina Himid’s Predicting History: Testing Translation explores the nature of belonging and how to make a home in the new place. Himid is celebrated for her pioneering practice, which addresses themes of race, history, feminism, cultural memory and identity.
Art Fund is supporting a tour of Himid’s new installation of large, multipaneled paintings, alongside a surreal soundscape created in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska, to major venues in England, Northern Ireland and Wales including The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum (12 February – 23 May 2027), The MAC Belfast (11 June – 22 August 2027), and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery (24 September 2027 – 9 January 2028). With Art Fund’s support, a significant work from Himid’s Predicting History: Testing Translation will permanently enter the British Council collection.
Lubaina Himid said, “It is wonderful that the installation will tour to venues in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It means a great deal to me for it to be encountered by a wide range of audiences and I look forward to the new opportunities it may open up for reflection, dialogue and connection in each of the cities on the tour.”
Emma Dexter, Director of Visual Arts and the British Council Collection, said: “We are delighted to work with Art Fund to bring Predicting History: Testing Translation to audiences across the UK. Lubaina Himid’s work inspires new ways of seeing the world with remarkable clarity and beauty, which is core to the British Council’s mission. She weaves together personal and global histories to explore home, migration and memory.”
Manon+Dylan by Dewi Tannatt Lloyd
Sownd – Manon Awst and Dylan Huw
Manon Awst and Dylan Huw’s Sownd, commissioned by Arts Council of Wales for the official Collateral Event Cymru yn Fenis/Wales in Venice and jointly led by Oriel Myrddin (Carmarthen) and Oriel Davies (Newtown), is a collaborative sculptural installation exploring language and landscape.
Alongside the Venice presentation, Art Fund and the Colwinston Charitable Trust are supporting Sownd [ar safle / on site], a series of concurrent site-specific events in 2026 across three Welsh peatland sites – Cors Bodeilio, Anglesey (June), Cors Caron, Ceredigion (July), and Cors Crymlyn, Swansea (September). A mobile structure echoing the architecture of the Venice exhibition will be activated by Awst and Huw at each event alongside newly-commissioned live work by artists including Eddie Ladd, Anushiye Yarnell, Becca Voelcker and Naomi Pearce.
Informed by Wales’ celebrated history of site-specific collective practice and its oral poetic tradition, the peatland sites become terrains for artists and audiences to navigate layered histories of language and ecology.
Curator and Co-Creative Director Steffan Jones-Hughes of Oriel Davies said “I’m delighted to be involved in a project that brings together intersecting questions of language, change, climate and ecology—concerns that feel increasingly vital as we navigate uncertain times. Dylan and Manon’s practice is quiet and nuanced, demonstrating how subtlety can be one of the most powerful forces in art. Thanks to Art Fund’s support, we are able to work directly with communities across Wales at the same time as presenting the exhibition in Venice.”
Background
Art Fund
Art Fund is the national charity for museums and galleries. For over 120 years, it has helped institutions across the UK to develop and share their collections, invest in people and expertise, grow their audiences and inspire the next generation.
Art Fund connects museums and people with great art and culture through funding, advocacy and initiatives, because access to art is vital for a healthy society. It champions the sector through the prestigious Art Fund Museum of the Year award – the world’s largest museum prize – and supports museum professionals through dedicated training and grant programmes.
Independent and people-powered, Art Fund is supported by 148,000 members who buy a National Art Pass, as well as generous contributions from individuals, trusts and foundations. The National Art Pass offers free or discounted entry to over 1,000 museums, galleries and historic places in the UK, 50% off major exhibitions, a subscription to Art Quarterly magazine and Art In Your Inbox newsletter.
Scotland + Venice
Scotland + Venice is a partnership between Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Architecture and Design Scotland, V&A Dundee and the Scottish Government.
Cymru yn Fenis/Wales in Venice
Cymru yn Fenis/Wales in Venice is commissioned and managed by Arts Council of Wales and Wales Arts International with support and collaboration from the Welsh Government and British Council.
British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2023–24, we reached 589 million people.
