Through June 30, The Grand Tour Series 2 brings together cultural institutions and contemporary artists across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the UK. Nottingham Contemporary, Chatsworth, Derby Museums and The Harley Gallery Welbeck have collaborated with leading contemporary artists and curators to offer visitors a varied and richly layered cultural program inspired by historical and modern travel, art and industry.
At Nottingham Contemporary, Turner Prize winner Simon Starling presents his largest exhibition to date. Starling’s show features installations and works that explore themes of industry and technological transformation, tracing connections from the Industrial Revolution to contemporary manufacturing in China. Highlights include Blue Boat Black (2009), La Source (2009), The Nanjing Particles (2008) and D1‑Z1 (2009), all displayed to emphasize processes of production, material histories and the movement of objects across time and place.
Chatsworth approaches the Grand Tour from a continental perspective, showcasing artworks and historical objects that reflect the practice of travel and the influence of Europe on British collections. The display includes pieces by Canaletto, Domenichino’s Madonna della Rosa, Inigo Jones’s sketchbooks, works by Van Dyck, and Sebastian Vrancx’s Rome in Ruins. Together these works map artistic responses to travel and the cultural exchange that shaped aristocratic taste.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery presents Joseph Wright and the Lure of Italy, an exhibition that examines how 18th- and 19th-century travelers used the European Grand Tour to shape artistic identity. The show assembles rare works from private collections to illuminate Wright’s fascination with Italian light, landscape and classical heritage, and to place his practice in the wider context of artists who journeyed to Italy in search of inspiration.
At The Harley Gallery, Welbeck, the two-part Sir Peter Blake, Rose English exhibition explores portraiture, collage and equestrian themes. The presentation includes Peter Blake’s original collages alongside equestrian and equine paintings by both artists, enriched by historic equestrian objects and manuscripts connected to the Welbeck estate. This juxtaposition of contemporary art and local history highlights the ongoing dialogue between place, heritage and creative practice.
Together, the participating venues offer a coherent but diverse Grand Tour experience that pairs historical material with contemporary responses. Visitors can follow threads of industry, travel, artistic exchange and regional heritage across sites, encountering major historical works, recent installations and rarely seen items from private collections. The program invites audiences to consider how travel—historical and modern—shapes artistic production and the meaning of objects within museum and gallery contexts.
The Grand Tour Series 2 is designed for a wide range of visitors: art lovers, history enthusiasts and those curious about the intersections of industry, travel and culture. Each exhibition complements the others while retaining its own focus, so visitors can explore the series as a unified route or select individual shows according to interest. Exhibition dates and visitor information are available from the institutions involved.