The Pont Neuf might well be one of Paris’ most famous monuments, although thanks to its central location, many tourists cross without even noticing. Despite its name, which means as much as ‘New Bridge’, it is actually the oldest bridge in Paris, dating back to the start of the 17^th century.

In order to celebrate the bridge and its powerful heritage, earlier in 2026, it became clear that a large-scale art installation by street artist JR, often referred to as the French Banksy, was in the making. The project, called La Caverne du Pont Neuf or the Pont Neuf Cavern, was meant to be an homage to the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In 1985, the artistic duo used some 13 kilometres of rope and 12 tonnes of chains to wrap the bridge in a golden-like texture.

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The installation was meant to open on 6 June and those who happened to pass by the Pont Neuf over the last few weeks undoubtedly noticed the preparation works. Measuring some 120 by 20 by 18 meters, using 8,900 square meters worth of printed polyester fabric, and consisting of 10 interconnected modules, it is no surprise that the piece of art wasn’t installed in a day.

However, on 3 June, disaster struck and part of the structure was damaged due to strong winds. Reparations had to be carried out and the Pont Neuf Cavern was finally able to open its doors to the public on Monday 15 June 2026 at 6:00 pm.

A visit of the Pont Neuf Cavern already starts on the outside. While JR designed the piece of art in Paris, the fabric used for the installation was made at Air Toiles Concept in Brittany. The French company based in Plougoumelen specialises in textile and inflatable structures and JR’s design even led them to buy new large-format printers and open a second workshop. After the Cavern closes, the fabric will be reused and/or recycled.

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However, the real interest of the Cavern lies inside. Contrary to Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1985, JR chose to immerse the Pont Neuf and its visitors in darkness. The fabric was designed and printed in such a way as to create the illusion of a stone, textured cave and that feeling is being underlined by an olfactory experience, created by expert Sarah Bouasse. By using geosmin and isoborneol, she created a smell reminiscent of dampness and of dry earth being hit by rain.

“You enter into the darkness and emerge into the light on the other side,” JR said about the Pont Neuf Cavern.

The sound installation put together by Thomas Bangalter, known as one half of the electronic duo Daft Punk, uses all kinds of  rumbles and echoes to elevate the illusion. Tourists and locals who want to make the most of their visit can use the augmented-reality experience developed by tech company Snap. Meanwhile, the traditional Pont Neuf cobbles underneath their feet create the perfect cavern-like flooring.

The free immersive experience Pont Neuf Cavern will be open 24/7 until 28 June 2026, with a maximum of 700 visitors allowed inside at once.

L’article Free Pont Neuf Cavern attraction by French Banksy opens in Paris est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Titled “Chinese and European Youth: Moving Forward Together”, the contest invites participants aged 15 to 35 from across the European Union to submit original cartoons or short videos exploring their experiences of China, Chinese culture, travel, or the relationship between China and Europe.

The initiative is organised by the Chinese Mission to the EU with artistic support from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts (KoMASK). Organisers say the competition seeks to encourage young people to share stories, ideas and reflections through art and digital media while highlighting friendship and people-to-people exchanges between China and Europe.

Travel, culture and China-Europe relations at the heart of the competition

Participants are invited to create works inspired by themes such as “Experiencing Chinese Style”, “Visa-Free Travel to China” and “Youth Talking about China and Europe”.

Submissions may focus on Chinese culture, daily life, tourism experiences, study programmes, contemporary development, or broader reflections on the future of China-Europe relations.

According to the organisers, the competition aims to provide young Europeans with a platform to showcase their creativity while sharing personal perspectives on China and cross-cultural exchanges.

Selected works will be featured at major events organised by the Chinese Mission to the EU and may also be promoted through professional art institutions, media outlets and digital platforms.

Cartoons and short videos accepted

The contest is divided into two categories: cartoons and short videos.

Cartoon submissions may be hand-drawn or digitally created, with no restrictions on artistic style or technique. Both single-panel and multi-panel works are eligible.

For the video category, participants can submit vlogs, short films, micro-documentaries, music videos or other creative formats. Videos must not exceed five minutes in length and should be submitted in MP4 or MOV format.

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All entries must be original works and cannot have been previously submitted to other competitions or used for commercial purposes.

The organisers have also specified that works generated using artificial intelligence, including AI-assisted creations, are not eligible.

Trip to China among prizes on offer

The competition offers a range of prizes, including four first prizes, each of which includes a trip to China organised by the Chinese Mission to the EU.

If a winner is unable to take part in the visit, the prize will be replaced by a return flight ticket between Belgium and China.

Additional prizes include smartphones, smartwatches and a laptop computer for the winner of the Most Popular Online Entry Award.

All participants will receive a certificate of merit issued by the Chinese Mission to the EU and may be given priority consideration for future exchange programmes and visits to China organised by the Mission.

How to participate

The competition is open now and will accept submissions until 1 August 2026.

Participants must submit their entries by email to youthchinaeu@gmail.com. The subject line should follow the format: Chinese and European Youth: Moving Forward Together_Name of the Author_Title of the Work.

Each submission must be accompanied by a short description in Chinese, English or French, including the participant’s category (Amateur or Professional), name, title of the work, date and place of creation, a brief description of no more than 200 words, and any personal Instagram or TikTok accounts.

NOTICE
The cartoon and short video creative contest titled “Chinese and European Youth：Moving Forward Together,” under the host of the Chinese Mission to the EU and the artistic support from the Royal Society for Encouragement of the Fine Arts (KoMASK), is now in full swing. We… pic.twitter.com/XjIf06lKiT

— Mission of China to the EU (@ChinaEUMission) June 5, 2026

Organisers also encourage participants to share their entries on Instagram or TikTok using the hashtag #YouthChinaEU and to follow the official account of the Chinese Mission to the EU, @missionchinaeu.

The winners are expected to be announced in September 2026 following an evaluation by a panel of experts and professionals. Judging will take into account both artistic quality and online engagement, including audience interaction on social media.

Strengthening people-to-people exchanges

The launch comes at a time when China continues to promote cultural, educational and tourism exchanges with Europe, including through expanded visa facilitation measures and youth exchange programmes designed to encourage greater people-to-people connectivity between the two regions.

By encouraging young Europeans to share their experiences, perceptions and creative visions of China, the organisers hope to foster a deeper understanding between the two sides and highlight the role of youth in shaping the future of China-Europe relations.

L’article Young Europeans invited to win a trip to China through new creative contest est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Created in the early 1830s as part of his renowned Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, the woodblock print is one of the most recognisable works of Japanese art in the world.

This year’s floral composition will cover about 1,300 square metres in Brussels’ UNESCO-listed Grand-Place.

Japanese contemporary artist Hiro Sugiyama will participate in the creation of the carpet alongside his Tokyo-based artistic collective Enlightenment, which blends pop culture with contemporary Japanese aesthetics. Sugiyama explained that their reinterpretation of Hokusai’s famous wave aims to “connect past and future, Japanese culture and contemporary art”.

Japan’s ambassador to Belgium, Takeshi Osuga, highlighted the symbolic role that flowers play in both Japan and Belgium.

“The love of flowers is a universal language. In both Japan and Belgium, flowers hold a special place in our cultural and social lives,” he said.

It is the second collaboration between Belgium and Japan for the Flower Carpet. In 2016, the Grand-Place was transformed into a giant, Japanese-inspired landscape featuring traditional motifs, birds, koi fish, and the beauty of nature, in celebration of 150 years of friendship between the two countries.

Alongside the Grand-Place installation, Brussels will unveil a second floral carpet for the first time. Located at the Brussels Stock Exchange, this one will pay tribute to hops and Belgium’s brewing heritage.

The tradition of the Flower Carpet dates back to 1971, when the first floral display was created on the Grand-Place by landscape architect Etienne Stautemas. Since 1986, the event has been held every two years. Historic photographs from the first edition show smaller floral compositions than today’s monumental creations, which have grown progressively in scale and complexity over the decades.

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For decades, the carpets were primarily made using begonias, Stautemas’ favourite flower and a former symbol of Belgian horticultural expertise. However, the number of begonia growers in Belgium has declined sharply, with only a handful remaining today.

This year, organisers will instead rely largely on dahlias, offering a wider palette of colours and textures. Before construction begins, a full-scale design is traced onto a giant canvas spread across the cobblestones of the Grand-Place, whose guild houses and Gothic Town Hall largely date from the reconstruction of the square following the Great Fire of 1695.

Each flower is carefully inserted into rolls of turf, which are watered throughout the event, particularly during periods of extreme summer heat. The grass beneath can grow by up to five centimetres while the installation is on display.

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Visitors will be able to stroll around the Grand-Place throughout the busy 15 August holiday weekend. While the carpet can be admired from ground level, the best panoramic view is traditionally from the balcony of Brussels Town Hall. A live webcam will also broadcast both the construction process and the final result.

Every evening from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., sound and light shows will illuminate the square.

Tickets for access to the Town Hall balcony are available online. Visitors will be admitted from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm on 13 August and from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm on the following days.

L’article Brussels Flower Carpet to honour Japan with Hokusai-inspired wave est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Held on 23 April at the prestigious Cercle Royal Gaulois, the exhibition, titled The Colors of Azerbaijan: Land of Multiculturalism, showcases the work of Azerbaijani photographer Etibar Jafarov and offers visitors an insight into the traditions, lifestyles and coexistence of the many communities that make up the country.

“A lived reality”

Opening the evening, Vaqif Sadiqov, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Kingdom of Belgium said multiculturalism in Azerbaijan is not merely an idea, but an everyday reality.

“Azerbaijan has, for centuries, stood at the crossroads of civilisations,” he told guests. “Our geography has shaped our history, but it is our people who have shaped our identity, an identity built on coexistence, mutual respect, and openness.”

He added that representatives of different religions and ethnic groups continue to live together peacefully across the country, with mosques, churches and synagogues functioning side by side.

“This is a conscious choice, one that reflects our belief that diversity strengthens nations rather than divides them,” he said.

Photography as cultural diplomacy

The ambassador described the exhibition as part of Azerbaijan’s broader efforts to promote understanding through culture and international engagement.

“Through international forums, partnerships and cultural diplomacy, we seek to build bridges of understanding, trust and collaboration,” Sadiqov explained.

The photographs on display capture scenes of daily life, religious heritage, traditional customs and the human stories behind Azerbaijan’s multicultural society. According to organisers, the collection has previously been exhibited in Finland and Spain, including Barcelona.

Guests attending the opening included members of the diplomatic corps, cultural figures and representatives of Brussels’ international community. The evening also featured contributions from Azerbaijani musicians studying in Belgium.

Strengthening ties through culture

The exhibition reflects Azerbaijan’s continued use of cultural initiatives abroad to deepen people-to-people ties with European audiences.

By hosting the event in Brussels, home to the European institutions and one of the world’s most international cities, organisers placed dialogue, diversity, and mutual understanding at the centre of the conversation.

The evening offered visitors an opportunity to discover Azerbaijan’s story through photography, using culture as a universal language that connects communities across borders.

L’article Brussels hosts exhibition celebrating Azerbaijan’s multicultural heritage est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Since its creation in 2010, the Comic Strip Festival in Brussels has been a fixed value for fans of the genre. The 2025 edition was attended by some 63,000 visitors, and since the cancellation of the famous comic festival of Angoulême in France in January, expectations were high.

However, the new budget, as announced by the Brussels-Capital Regional Government, quickly changed the outlook. Funding for Visit.brussels, the agency responsible for promoting the region’s culture and tourism, was reduced by €5.7 million in 2026, out of a total budget of €22 million. By 2029, funding could be down to €9 million.

Due to the budget cut, Visit.brussels was forced to cancel the Comic Strip Festival.

“There was an opportunity to fill the gap after the cancellation of the Angoulême Festival, and now we’re being made to look like fools, incapable of organising the comic book festival that we ourselves created,” Vincent Tutino, head of human resources at Visit.brussels, told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

However, the Comic Strip Festival is not the only event to be affected by the revised budget. According to Visit.brussels CEO Patrick Bontinck, the Iris Festival in May will be smaller than usual and promotion for all other events, with the exception of Pride, will be frozen. The I Love Science festival, planned to take place in October, has also been cancelled. Overall, some 150 events are organised by the organisation on a yearly basis.

“We’re told it’s up to us to reinvent ourselves, but that’s not realistic. We also handle the promotion of conferences, trade shows and fairs, which generate significant economic benefits for the region. This is likely to have consequences for tourism and the hospitality sector,” Tutino continues.

A joint union front, including Setca, CNE, and CGSLB, has already condemned the budget cut, which could have severe consequences for Brussels’ economy, as the tourism sector currently generates €4.5 billion per year. According to staff, 90 jobs out of the 160 at visit.brussels are at risk, and a petition has been launched to protest the decision.

Whether or not the budget cuts will go through as planned in the future and what the impact of that might be, remains unclear.

L’article Brussels Comic Strip Festival cancelled as Visit Brussels budget cut by 25% est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Speaking to Dezeen, Mesura co-founder Carlos Dimas said: “It was an honour that they chose a Catalan architect from Barcelona, and that they considered us the right partners for this project — we are truly grateful.”

The inaugural exhibition, “Beyond the Façade,” by London-based collective United Visual Artists (UVA), led by Matt Clark, will run until 17 May 2026. This immersive installation will explore life cycles through light and movement, drawing inspiration from the ‘Ars’ system of 13th-century Mallorcan philosopher Ramon Llull, which sought to reveal “the hidden order” of the world through logic and geometry — a vision shared by Gaudí. The project reflects “a journey from natural light to darkness, exploring cycles of day and night, order and disorder.”

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“Ramon Llull was trying to rationalize the reason why God existed through rationalizing nature and understanding mathematically: if nature existed then God existed. And so did Gaudí with his work,” Maria Bernat, the Head of the Art Program at Casa Batlló, said to CatalanNews. 

Mesura’s design approach was to engage in a dialogue with Gaudí’s work rather than “mimicking him,” while still preserving the maestro’s language, atmosphere, and colour palettes. The gallery features a rippling metallic ceiling, inspired by a drop of water on a calm lake, and a microcement floor that, upon completion in May, will reflect the green hues of the building’s renowned mosaic façade. Original elements such as woodwork and stained glass have been carefully preserved, ensuring the space remains true to Gaudí’s spirit of innovation and craftsmanship.

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“Gaudí has always been a researcher and an innovator; he tried to get the latest technology and the latest material,” Dimas explained. “He had this prototyping system of trying to see where the structure was breaking out, trying to design it until the breaking point, and always innovating with shapes, geometries and materials,” he continued. “So it was absolutely a Gaudían attitude that inspired us on the project.”

Visitors can access the new gallery as part of the full Casa Batlló tour or with a standalone ticket. Casa Batlló Contemporary plans to host two exhibitions annually, fostering a dialogue between Gaudí’s legacy and contemporary artistic expression. This initiative positions Casa Batlló not only as a historical landmark but also as a dynamic cultural hub in Barcelona’s vibrant art scene. 

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The renowned building has also worked with other leading architects in recent years, including Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who previously designed a sculptural mesh curtain for a new staircase inside the historic building.

The opening of Casa Batlló Contemporary coincides with the centenary of Gaudí’s death and Barcelona’s designation as the 2026 World Capital of Architecture. This initiative is part of a broader program of events honouring Gaudí’s legacy throughout the year, including public projection mapping displays, alongside the recent completion of the Sagrada Familia, now the tallest church in the world.

Tickets for “Beyond the Façade” are available through Casa Batlló’s official website, with discounts for students, seniors, and children. The exhibition is open daily from 09:00 am to 08:45 pm.

L’article New contemporary art gallery opens inside Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Basquiat’s fascination with the human body began when his mother gave him an anatomy book after he was seriously injured in a car accident at the age of seven. This obsession, pursued with a “bulimic” appetite, is evident throughout his entire body of work. When asked at the age of 22 how he usually began a piece of work, Basquiat answered simply, “I suppose I would start with a head.”

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Basquiat: Headstrong focuses on the artist’s drawings, centred uniquely on this motif. Featuring work produced between 1981 and 1983, the exhibition showcases pieces created using dense, richly pigmented oil sticks. These depict heads, skulls, quasi-anatomical faces, or even helmets, with eyes and mouths appearing with raw intensity as gateways to inner emotions and psychological worlds.

While many of the heads face the viewer directly, subtle shifts in angle distort their internal structure, creating the impression that the faces are splitting, rotating, or collapsing under emotional pressure. Lines loop and spiral to form dense networks that evoke mental agitation and physical tension. Many sheets bear dust, footprints, and stains, physical evidence that Basquiat often worked on the floor of his studio.

Contemporary artist Dana Schutz noted that she was struck by the energy emanating from the drawings, which she attributes to “mental thoughts, heat, pain, or smells.” Fellow artist Alvaro Barrington adds that while some heads are formal experiments, others serve as “biological, biographical, geological or cultural explorations.” Similarly, Julie Mehretu describes how Basquiat captured the brain as a “psycho-computer” long before the digital era.

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Basquiat’s touch is as immediate and powerful in these drawings as in his paintings. The colours appear even more vivid, perhaps because there is nothing to distract from the heads placed squarely on the page. These drawings are strikingly devoid of the symbols and textual fragments often found in his larger works, with one notable exception: the artist’s signature crown.

Often seen hovering above black male figures, such as athletes, musicians, and writers, the crown – which can resemble a saint’s aureole – allowed Basquiat to elevate historically marginalised subjects to a royal, even saintly, status.

While one might wonder whether these drawings served as studies for later canvases, they stand as finished works in their own right rather than preparatory sketches, though the mystery remains as to why the artist chose not to show them during his lifetime.

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The only painting included in the exhibition is Untitled (1982), which features a large skull-like head surrounded by graffiti-style markings against a soft blue background. Often referred to as the artist’s iconic skull painting, it sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2017 for $110.5 million to Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa.

Louisiana curator Anders Kold writes that the heads are “characterised by shuddering dissonances between their anatomical parts,” ranging “from something close to the fullness of living flesh to the appearance of skulls, masks or mechanical, automaton-like figures.”

Some of these works were first introduced to the public in 1990, two years after Basquiat’s death, at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, but the Louisiana exhibition offers a more concentrated psychological study, inviting viewers to see the artist as a human presence among others rather than a myth, while also opening up the opportunity to reconsider questions of power, race and representation that remain central today.

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Early reactions have been enthusiastic. On Instagram, fashion historian Laird Borrelli-Persson described Basquiat as “the man of the moment – again – always,” while fellow artists emphasise the deep connection between Basquiat’s work and hip-hop culture, arguing that he remains more relevant today than almost any other late twentieth-century artist.

L’article New Basquiat exhibition makes Denmark a must for art lovers est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

With so many cultural gems in London, I would say that this has never been truer. For one, there is Dr Johnson’s House, which is close to Fleet Street, where so many British newspapers used to have their offices.

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If you’re booking a trip to London in 2026, here are a few ideas to learn more about famous British writers. Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie (the world’s best-selling fiction writer, with her 78 crime novels having sold an estimated 2 billion copies in 44 languages, according to guinnessworldrecords.com) will be the focus of exhibitions in 2026.

If you’re taking the Eurostar, as good a starting point as any is the British Library, which generally houses excellent exhibitions. Whilst an excellent one on ‘Secret Maps’ is about to finish, as of October you can see an exhibition about Agatha Christie, including her Remington typewriter from 1937, purported to have been used to compose And Then There Were None and other works, and personal letters from Christie to family members, including one to her second husband about her journey on the Orient Express.   It runs from 30 October 2026 to 20 July 2027. A hundred years ago, in 1926, Agathie Christie hit the headlines when she mysteriously disappeared. You can read more about that here and about her life in a very good book by historian Lucy Worsley, ‘Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman.’

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For families, an exhibition about Fairy Tales from 27 March to 23 August 2026 also sounds fun. “Take your family on a magical adventure in a new interactive exhibition! Explore enchanted lands, magical creatures, iconic characters, and timeless tales, brought to life through books, theatre costumes, puppets, pop-ups, artwork, and illustrations,” says the website.

A short walk south of St Pancras Station is the Charles Dickens Museum, which I visited for the first time in December. Apart from having a traditional cream tea (tea, scones, jam, and cream) in the cafeteria, this is a very good immersive audio experience. You’re taken from room to room of the house where Dickens lived, with actors’ voices putting you very much back in the time, with short explanations about the rooms. For one thing, I had no idea that Charles Dickens held full-on performances/readings to an audience, which were so demanding that they made him feel ill afterwards. If you want to learn about the female influences on Dickens, then find a date between 11 February and 6 September to see this exhibition.

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To finish your trip, I’d recommend a walk down Jermyn Street, famous for its tailors. You can also see the statue of an elegantly dressed dandy from the late 18^th century/early 19^th century, Beau Brummel. Not far away are St James’s Park and Hyde Park, as well as Fortnum & Mason department store. I still remember an elegantly dressed doorman in a top hat opening the door for me and trying ‘gin and tonic’ ice cream there!

Camden Town market, in north London, where you can find a statue of Amy Winehouse, is also well worth a visit. There’s also a beautifully decorated watch shop, an example of cross-cultural cooperation as the owner, Jerome, from Switzerland [with its well-known clockmaking traditions], has teamed up with a Brit, his wife, Anneke, to design the watches. If you’re looking for a fancy watch that’s not too expensive with, for example, Roman numerals (not always so easy to find), this is a good place to go. The motto on the crest of Camden has a nice Latin touch too: ‘Non Sibi Sed Toti’, or ‘Not For One But For All’.

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Another tip if you’re in the centre near the River Thames: From Waterloo station, drop down south to the River Thames and walk along the South Bank. You’ll pass the Millennium Bridge, the Golden Hind (Sir Francis Drake’s ship), cafés and pubs, the Clink (off a side street, this is a museum, with ‘clink’ meaning ‘prison’), Tower Bridge, and the Tate Modern art gallery. The Tower of London and a monument to the Great Fire of London are on the other side of the river.

L’article London exhibitions: Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie in the spotlight in 2026 est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Late winter: Paris, then Amsterdam

At the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Gerhard Richter (until 2 March 2026) presents a major survey of a career that has relentlessly questioned painting’s relationship to history, memory, and perception, moving between abstraction and realism with unmatched intellectual rigour.

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Paname by Bilal Hamdad, at the Petit Palais (until 8 February 2026), extends these concerns into the contemporary city, exploring how painting and photography engage with urban identity, political context, and lived experience.

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After Paris, Amsterdam feels like the natural way to close the winter chapter and anticipate spring with Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Favourite Colour (13 February–17 May 2026), at the Van Gogh Museum. The exhibition approaches Vincent Van Gogh through a chromatic lens rather than biography, exploring how yellow shaped art, fashion, music, and literature around 1900, and culminating in a light installation by Olafur Eliasson.

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Spring: northbound with Munch, south to Florence and Venice

With longer days returning north and spring flowering in the south, Germany and Norway offer two complementary perspectives on Edvard Munch, while a rare new angle on Mark Rothko emerges in Italy.

At Kunstsilo in Norway, the exhibition, Edvard Munch – Portraits at Kunstsilo (5 February–10 May 2026), explores Munch’s work through the lens of portraiture and social relationships. It reveals him to be an artist embedded in a wide network of friends and patrons, challenging the myth of the solitary genius. Meanwhile, in Hamburg at the Hamburger Kunsthalle (27 March–30 August 2026), Munch is paired with Maria Lassnig, shifting the focus to bodily sensation, emotional intensity, and lived experience.

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Tuscany, green and warm but not yet overcrowded, is at its most inviting in the spring.

At Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (14 March–23 August 2026), Rothko in Florence explores how the artist absorbed the city’s frescoes, architecture, and sacred spaces during his visits in the 1950s, particularly the influence of Fra Angelico and Michelangelo.

From Florence, the journey naturally extends east. The Venice Biennale (9 May–22 November 2026) offers a seamless continuation from spring to autumn and is a must-visit for anyone interested in the contemporary European art scene.

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Summer: Paris

Back in Paris for the summer, it is but a small step from Renaissance Italy to a Renaissance woman. Lee Miller is finally granted a well-deserved full-scale retrospective (3 April–26 July 2026) at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. The exhibition reframes the former model, who worked closely with Man Ray, before forging her own path as a fashion photographer and war correspondent, as a courageous artist who navigated the upheavals of the 20th century with an unflinching eye, from Vogue studios to the front lines of history.

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Autumn: London

The year concludes in London, with two exhibitions that explore identity, power, and cultural change. At Tate Britain, The 90s (from 1 October 2026 to 14 February 2027), curated by Edward Enninful, examines a decade marked by creative freedom and rebellion, when photography, fashion, art, and music converged to reshape British culture in the wake of political and social shifts. Nearby, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style at the King’s Gallery (10 April–18 October 2026) interprets fashion as a form of soft power. The exhibition brings together around 200 garments to trace Britain’s evolving identity over the course of the Queen’s 70-year reign. It showcases the work of court dressmakers and modern couturiers, highlighting continuity, symbolism, and restraint.

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Together, the exhibitions offer a layered snapshot of Britain and provide a fitting conclusion to a year spent travelling for art.

L’article European exhibitions worth travelling for in 2026 est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Strolling through historical villages while enjoying the sun and – if possible – the local food is probably one of the best ways to sum up an Italian holiday. However, discovering the country’s rich heritage is also an integral part of the experience, or should be in any case. But what if that heritage has become increasingly hard to visit?

For a long time, this was something many a local or tourist alike was confronted with when coming across churches, castles, or other historical remnants. Especially in the countryside, even if they were open to the public in principle, locating the keys to open the squeaking doors often was a challenge, proving too difficult to complete for many. A peek through the dirty glass windows or a cheeky look over the wall were, more often than not, the only ways to soak in some of that forgotten culture.

However, in 2018, things started to change for the Italian countryside heritage. The Chiese a porte aperte (Churches with Open Doors), an innovative project by the BCE Council and the CRT Foundation, slowly started to open the doors to those small churches with difficult-to-locate keys. Little by little, six sacred art itineraries throughout the North of Italy (Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta in particular) were born, allowing locals and tourists to open the doors through an app and QR code,  opening a world of wonder. As churches were often the highlight of small villages, the art found inside, going from frescoes to paintings to sculptures, is often both unique and breathtaking.

From churches to castles

In 2025, the project grew and became known as Cultura a porte aperte (Culture with Open Doors). Instead of focusing solely on churches, the project now also includes towers, castles, fortifications, and small archaeological parks in its ever-expanding offer. A new social enterprise called Comunità e Culture has been created in order to successfully develop and coordinate the project, which should soon be expanding towards other Italian regions.

At the moment of writing, seven itineraries spread across different regions are accessible to the public once they have downloaded the app: Valle di Susa-Via Francigena, Sabina-Teverina, Pinerolese e Saluzzese, Monregalese, Langhe Roero, Colline Torinese e Monferrato, and Canavese e Valle d’Aosta-Via Francigena. Contact has been made with the regions of Lombardy and Lazio to join the project in the near future.

The Cultura a Porte Aperte app can be downloaded free of charge and allows visitors to book and enter the sites 365 days a year from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Upon entering the site, visitors can launch a guided tour enhanced by background music and directional lighting.

L’article Discover the app that reopens Italian heritage to the public est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.