Spot the L.S. Lowry’s, Turner or Hockney and surround yourself with some of the best ceramic art in the world at one of the UK’s best regional galleries. An £8 million development in 2015 saw it shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year and the European Museum of the Year as the whole building was transformed. The gallery has three exhibition spaces on the ground floor, displaying the best of national and international exhibitions, and four on the first floor, including two galleries which are home to the Centre of Ceramic Art (CoCA), which showcases our internationally significant collection of British Studio Ceramics.

At the rear of the building, walk down into the Artists Garden and the Edible Wood before exploring the rest of the beautiful York Museum Gardens.

Exhibitions:

Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary

24 June - 18 September

A new special exhibition curated and conceived by Dr Jareh Das in partnership with Two Temple Place, explores artworks by three generations of Black women artists working with clay. Clay is one of the oldest forms of making, with indigenous pottery traditions existing in almost every location in the world, marked by technical variations from culture to culture.

Aesthetica Art Prize 2022

24 June - 18 September

The Aesthetica Art Prize is an annual celebration of contemporary art. The exhibition, which brings together this year’s talented finalists, invites you to explore, discover and engage with themes from our rapidly changing world – wide-ranging topics that include the ethics of representation, mass digitisation, globalisation, diasporic identities and the continuing threats posed by the climate crisis.

Pictures of a Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints

A new display featuring rarely seen Japanese Ukiyo-e prints alongside much-loved paintings from our collection.

‘Pictures of the Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints’ features prints by prominent Ukiyo-e artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, along with works by those influenced by Japanese art, such as public favourites Albert Moore and Walter Greaves. This unique display highlights the significant impact of Japanese art on the western world and the consequential rise of artistic movements such as Aestheticism and Art Nouveau.