10 exhibitions and events you must visit in North East England in 2026

1. Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry at Laing Art Gallery – Newcastle upon Tyne
2. Treasure: Hidden, Lost, Found at Great North Museum: Hancock – Newcastle upon Tyne
3. Things That Go at Discovery Museum – Newcastle upon Tyne
4. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 at Laing Art Gallery – Newcastle upon Tyne
5. The Potter's Canvas at Hatton Gallery – Newcastle upon Tyne
6. Mignard: The Power of Posing at South Shields Museum & Art Gallery
7. Mik Critchlow: Coal Town Collection at Woodhorn Museum – Ashington, Northumberland
8. Following the Eagle at Segedunum Roman Fort – Wallsend
9. Guided Tours at Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort
10. Autumn Gala at Stephenson Steam Railway – North Shields

But wait. There's more...

• Why visit? See some of the most celebrated paintings of the Victorian era while discovering how poetry shaped the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
• Best for: Art lovers, literature enthusiasts, fans of Victorian culture.

This one's for people who appreciate beauty. 

The Laing Art Gallery team has created a major new exhibition about the Pre-Raphaelites. It's the first show (we know of) to explore the link between Pre-Raphaelite art and poetry in depth.

All the big names of the movement are represented: William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Ford Madox Brown, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Arthur Hughes. 

But they'll sit alongside work by women artists like Elizabeth Siddall, Kate Bunce and Julia Margaret Cameron.

Expect a visually stunning show with art on loan from museums, galleries and collectors right across the UK. We'll be publishing an exhibition catalogue as well - the perfect coffee table book for lovers of art and literature.

Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry | Laing Art Gallery | Newcastle upon Tyne | 17 October 2026 – 13 February 2027 | admission charges apply

• Why visit? Explore extraordinary objects buried across centuries and uncover the stories they reveal about life in the North East.
• Best for: Families, history enthusiasts, curious minds of all ages.

What links Roman coins, Viking Age silver, and a buried stash of Tudor coins?

They're all things you can see in this glittering new exhibition which shows why buried history matters.

What is Treasure, exactly? What makes something valuable? Who does the past belong to? The answers to these questions will be revealed to you!

This is a family-friendly exhibition that adults will love too, with loans from the British Museum, the National Museum of Scotland and the Roman Vindolanda.

Treasure: Hidden, Lost, Found | Great North Museum: Hancock | Newcastle upon Tyne | 28 March – 20 September 2026 | free entry

• Why visit? Experience the UK's leading portrait exhibition alongside highlights from the Laing, Shipley and Hatton collections.
• Best for: Art lovers, portrait enthusiasts, culture seekers.

The Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 is coming to Newcastle from the National Portrait Gallery, London. The exhibition has 46 portraits, including the overall winner, Moira Cameron's self-portrait.

If that wasn't enough, it's two exhibitions for the price of one. The ticket includes entry to Exploring Identity, a new curation of portraits from the Laing, Shipley and Hatton art collections. 

Exploring Identity provides historical context to the Portrait Award show and features some big-name artists: Francis Bacon, Christina Robertson, Frederic Leighton, Harold Knight and more.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025 and Exploring Identity | Laing Art Gallery | Newcastle upon Tyne | 28 March – 5 September 2026 | admission charges apply

• Why visit? A playful, hands-on exhibition designed especially for younger children who love vehicles, movement and imaginative play.
• Best for: Families with young children and preschoolers.

Discovery Museum is getting a new space for special exhibitions (we've said a fond farewell to the old Working Lives gallery).

The inaugural exhibition is especially for families with children aged 7 and under. Things That Go will be transport-themed, which is fitting given Tyneside's rich engineering, maritime and rail history.

From boats, buses and bicycles to tractors, trains and planes, get ready to explore the exciting world of transport through hands-on play and truckloads of toys. 

Sounds like fun!

Things That Go | Discovery Museum | Newcastle upon Tyne | 1 August 2026 – 28 February 2027 | free entry

• Why visit? Discover how some of Britain's most influential ceramic artists transformed clay into a surface for drawing, painting and artistic expression.
• Best for: Art lovers, makers and creatives, ceramics enthusiasts.

People often think of clay as something to sculpt - but many artists saw clay as their canvas.

This new exhibition explores how British ceramicists in the 20th century used drawing, painting and mark-making to transform their clay canvases.

The Potter's Canvas features over 70 works – a mix of ceramics, paintings and prints from the exceptional collections of the Hatton, Shipley and Laing art galleries. Artists include: Bernard Leach, Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Alison Britton, Elizabeth Fritsch, Patrick Heron, Victor Pasmore, and many others.

The Potter’s Canvas: Ceramics and Painting in the 20th Century | Hatton Gallery | Newcastle upon Tyne | 19 September 2026 - 16 January 2027 | free entry

• Why visit? Get up close to a remarkable 17th-century masterpiece and uncover the symbols of status, wealth and power hidden within the painting.
• Best for: Art lovers, history enthusiasts, fans of European painting.

Following on from Claude Monet's visit to South Shields Museum & Art Gallery, another masterpiece painting is on its way to South Tyneside, thanks to the National Gallery's Masterpiece Tour.

Pierre Mignard's The Marquise de Seignelay (1691) depicts a French noblewoman and her children as figures from classical mythology. The Marquise is the sea-goddess Thetis. Her sumptuous robe is painted using ultramarine, a highly expensive blue pigment, as a show of her fortune and power.

Meanwhile, her eight-year-old son appears as the Greek hero Achilles (Thetis' son by the mortal Peleus)

Mignard: The Power of Posing | South Shields Museum & Art Gallery | 29 August – 8 November 2026 | free entry

• Why visit? A moving portrait of Ashington and its people, captured over more than four decades by one of the North East's most important documentary photographers.
• Best for: Photography enthusiasts, local history lovers, anyone interested in North East stories.

Coal Town Collection presents photographs made by social documentary photographer Mik Critchlow (1955—2023). 

Mik documented his home town and community of Ashington over a 45-year period and personally selected these photographs for display at Woodhorn Museum. 

Mik began this extraordinary long term photography project in 1977, after seeing an exhibition by the Ashington Group of artists. 

Mik Critchlow: Coal Town Collection | Woodhorn Museum | Ashington, Northumberland | ongoing exhibition | admission charges apply

• Why visit? Follow the journeys of Roman soldiers across the Empire through rare military diplomas and fascinating archaeological discoveries.
• Best for: Roman history enthusiasts, archaeology fans, heritage explorers.

Find yourself thinking about the Roman Empire often? This exhibition could be for you. Following the Eagle features military diplomas alongside other archaeological artefacts.

A diploma was a document inscribed in bronze, a sort of 'honourable discharge' certificate given to members of the armed forces, usually after 25 years' service. It could also mean that the holder had been granted Roman citizenship.

A career in the Roman military often meant phenomenal amounts of travel, and that's one of the main themes here. Take for instance Statius Priscus, commander of the Fourth Cohort of Lingonians. His 18 different posts took him to seven provinces right across the Empire.

Following the Eagle | Segedunum Roman Fort | Wallsend, North Tyneside | 28 March – 3 October 2026 | admission charges apply

• Why visit? Gain a deeper understanding of one of Britain's most important Roman sites through expert-led stories and archaeological insights.
• Best for: History enthusiasts, lifelong learners, visitors seeking a deeper experience.

A guided tour is the best way to experience Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort.

Through the course of its history, Arbeia has taken on several guises: from the Roman Emperor's HQ for the Scottish invasion, to a busy cosmopolitan port. 

It has hosted dramatic tales of murder and fire, and holds the key to ancient love stories. A huge supply base for the Roman army, it housed 600 Roman troops and is said to be the birthplace of the Northumbrian King Oswin. 

Today, Arbeia is home to some of the finest full-scale Roman reconstructions and archaeological finds in the UK.

Guided Tours | Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort | Thursdays during the school summer holidays | £2, carers free

• Why visit? See historic steam and diesel locomotives in action during one of the biggest weekends in the North East railway calendar.
• Best for: Railway enthusiasts, families, engineering and transport fans.

Organised by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association, the Autumn Gala will see all available locomotives from the home fleet operating a packed timetable of steam and diesel-hauled passenger and freight trains.

Autumn Gala | Stephenson Steam Railway | North Shields | weekend of 24-25 October 2026 | admission charges apply

We have so much going on in 2026, we couldn't fit it all into a top 10 list. The best of the rest is listed below, and we'll keep adding more!

• See the After the Fire exhibition at Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort (30 March - 27 September 2026)
• Take a Heritage Train Ride at Stephenson Steam Railway (Sundays during the April - October running season)
• See the Sublime Landscapes exhibition at Laing Art Gallery (Monday - Saturday until 5 December 2026)
• See Chris Killip: The Last Ships at Laing Art Gallery (Monday - Saturday)
• See a Planetarium show at the Great North Museum: Hancock (daily)
• See the Steam to Green exhibition at Discovery Museum (daily)
• Join a Picture of the Month tour with the Friends of the Laing Art Gallery (every Saturday, 11am)
• Explore the Saltwell Towers collection at Shipley Art Gallery (Tuesday - Saturday).