Yale Center for British Art Reopens to Public on March 29, 2025

NEW HAVEN, CT (March 28, 2025) — The Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), designed by Louis I. Kahn, reopens to the public on March 29, 2025, ushering in a bold new era with the unveiling of a fully reconceived collection installation. Titled In a New Light: Five Centuries of British Art, the display sheds light on the surprising and complicated history of British art. The new presentation is complemented by two compelling solo exhibitions, J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality and Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until The Morning. Enhancing the experience even further, the Center introduces a fresh slate of new programming designed to engage visitors of all ages.

Reopening Weekend Celebration

On Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30, the Center will welcome back visitors with an art-filled weekend of creativity, wonder, and fun! Visitors of all ages are invited to rediscover the museum’s collection, building, and resources through free, family-friendly programming. Paul Mellon Director Martina Droth will be joined by Yale University president Maurie McInnis and New Haven mayor Justin Elicker for welcome remarks and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon on Saturday. Other featured offerings include talks by curators, conservators, and undergraduate Student Guides; story time with the New Haven Free Public Library; artmaking; drop-in gallery activities; musical performances; tasty treats, and more!

In a New Light: Five Centuries of British Art

The reinstalled collection at the YCBA redefines the museum’s presentation of British art by uniting its historic and contemporary works in an uninterrupted chronological sequence on the fourth floor. This new installation weaves a rich and nuanced narrative that mirrors the complexities of British art, culture, and society. By opening up interior vistas, the reconfigured galleries encourage visitors to forge their own paths through the collection, discovering connections across time and place and inviting both new and returning audiences to engage with British art in innovative ways.

In a New Light: Five Centuries of British Art sheds light on the surprising and complicated history of British art, bringing into focus the people and cultures that produced these artworks. From the sixteenth century to the present, Britain has attracted artists from all over the world, with their outputs as diverse as their origins. Many artists traveled or migrated to India, the Caribbean, and beyond. Individual and family portraits uncover the systems of class, gender, and race that undergirded societies around the globe and privileged the wealthy and influential. Other works depict landscapes, seascapes, manor houses, and cathedrals, often recording the industrialization of an agrarian world. Allegorical, historical, and religious subjects further enrich our understanding of the expansive culture of a changing nation.

Many highlights from the Paul Mellon Collection including Hadleigh Castle, The Mouth of the Thames—Morning after a Stormy Night by John Constable, Lion and Lioness by George Stubbs, and The Island of Barbados, attributed to Isaac Sailmaker, find new resonance with several recent acquisitions—such as Emma Soyer’s Young Mariner and Dog, Thomas Beach’s Four Servants of Ston Easton Estate, and Albert Huie’s Benjamin Dorrell. This display reflects not only the individual creators of these objects but also the societies that shaped them. 

2025 Exhibitions

The Yale Center for British Art celebrates its reopening with two landmark exhibitions: J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality and Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until The Morning. Although born almost two hundred years apart, J. M. W. Turner and Tracey Emin share a deep understanding of the expressive potential of paint. Their distinctive ways of looking at the world were shaped by the seaside town of Margate on England’s eastern coast, where both spent formative periods of their lives.

J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality marks the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth and offers a rare opportunity to explore the incredible range of Turner’s works in the Center’s collection, the largest holdings outside the United Kingdom. The exhibition traces the unique approach to landscape art that Turner (1775–1851) developed over his nearly sixty-year career, transforming the conventional naturalism of traditional painting into nearly abstract expressions of form and color. From his early topographical views to his later atmospheric works, rendered in delicate watercolors and loosely painted oils, Turner reinvented landscape traditions in ways that continue to resonate with audiences today. In addition to showcasing his skill in capturing brilliant light effects, the exhibition presents the full complexity of Turner’s output, with its mesmerizing combination of visionary Romanticism and deep awareness of the tragic realities of human life.

I Loved You Until The Morning is the first major presentation of Tracey Emin’s work in a North American museum and the first ever solo museum exhibition to foreground her paintings. Shaped through ongoing dialogue with the artist, the exhibition emphasizes her primary medium over the last two decades. Emin (b. 1963) explores deeply personal experiences to confront timely issues about female sexuality and women’s bodies. Her paintings lay bare an intimate autobiography of trauma and resilience to reclaim her agency in the face of bodily dispossession. The exhibition’s immersive design draws visitors into the emotional world of Emin’s art before they even enter the museum. Created for this show, a bold new neon work in the Entrance Court is visible from the street to passersby twenty-four hours a day. By contextualizing Emin’s work within the Center, the exhibition invites audiences to see her as a pioneering artist, distinct from her well-known public persona in Britain. 

Two additional exhibitions will open at the Center in fall 2025. Hew Locke: Passages surveys Locke’s career from the late 1990s to today, bringing together distinct bodies of work that examine the historical processes of colonialism through the present-day legacies of global market capitalism, migration, and diaspora. Key themes—including public statuary, portraiture, boats, and architecture—are expressed through Locke’s constantly evolving use of materials and their symbolic status and meanings. Working across sculpture, photography, drawing, and found objects, Locke (b. 1959) deconstructs and reimagines deeply entrenched iconographies of British sovereignty. His rich, dense, highly textured, and multilayered attention to materiality fuses vernacular and formal traditions influenced by his British and Guyanese heritage

William Blake: Burning Bright showcases the YCBA’s remarkable collection of works by one of the most compelling figures in the history of British art and poetry. The exhibition features illuminated books, watercolors, and paintings by Blake (1757–1827), with special focus on the inventive hand-printed publications that bring to life his poetry and prophecies. Highlights include innovative and celebrated books such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience and The First Book of Urizen, alongside the masterful, phenomenally imaginative illustrations for The Poems of Thomas Gray and the only fully hand-colored version of Jerusalem. This stunning presentation highlights the artist’s ambitious vision and skill, as well as his unparalleled contributions to art, literature, and spirituality.

Also on View

In celebration of the museum’s reopening, the YCBA and the Yale University Art Gallery jointly present Romney: Brilliant Contrasts in Georgian England. On view at the Gallery, the exhibition brings together paintings and drawings by the British portraitist George Romney (1734–1802) from both museums’ collections, alongside selections from Yale’s Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments. Unveiling contrasts in Romney’s artistic practice, the exhibition presents a forceful vision that has resonated with admirers through the centuries. 

The View from Here highlights the work of thirteen student-photographers from Greater New Haven who participated in “The View from Here: Accessing Art Through Photography” in fall 2024 and winter 2025. Now in its fourth year, the program brings together young people to learn about the history, materials, and practice of photography through direct engagement with museum educators, curators, museum staff, faculty, and photography professionals. The students’ work is on view in the High Street windows of the museum. A complementary installation will be on view at Yale Schwarzman Center. 

A Modernist Icon Preserved

The Center reopens after a two-year closure during which the museum carried out crucial conservation work to preserve Louis I. Kahn’s architectural masterpiece for future generations. As the final building designed by Kahn, the Center demonstrates his distinctive modernist style and his singular architectural philosophy that interior space is defined by the interplay of structure and light. With this project, the museum replaced many original building materials, taking advantage of new advances in technology since the 1970s while preserving Kahn’s aesthetic. Exterior improvements include a new liquid membrane roof and the replacement of the 224 original acrylic skylights with more resilient polycarbonate domes that maintain Kahn’s iconic design and improve durability, weather resistance, and energy efficiency.

Additionally, the museum installed new laylight cassettes fabricated to match the original design. Positioned below the skylight domes, these cassettes diffuse sunlight into the gallery space to protect the collection and create an environment responsive to the changing nature of daylight. Following thorough analysis while remaining true to Kahn’s vision, the Center incorporated a removable light-reducing film into the cassette systems to reduce light exposure levels in line with modern art conservation standards. The Center also invested in a more energy-efficient lighting system, made possible in part by generous funding from the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative. The original halogen system was converted to LED by replacing more than 6,500 linear feet of track and retrofitting more than six hundred fixtures. New lights were carefully selected to match the design of the original fixtures.

Conservation Project Background

The project builds upon more than a decade of research on the history of the design, construction, and renovation of the museum’s landmark building, which was published in 2011 as Louis Kahn and the Yale Center for British Art: A Conservation Plan. The book was authored by Peter Inskip and Stephen Gee, in association with Constance Clement, former deputy director of the museum, and was published by the Yale Center for British Art in association with Yale University Press.

The Center has benefited from the expertise and dedication of its partners in the Yale Office of Facilities; C-White Electric; EwingCole; Knight Architecture, LLC; Lighting Services Inc; Southport Engineering Associates; Turner Construction Company; and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc, as well as numerous other collaborators.

Public Programming

At the YCBA, public programming is being reimagined as a dynamic bridge between academic inquiry and community engagement. Building on relationships fostered in New Haven’s libraries, community centers, and classrooms during the closure, the Center is launching educational initiatives that integrate the perspectives of multiple communities into the museum space and reinvigorate the in-gallery experience. This approach is designed to demonstrate the multiplicity of meanings inherent in the history of British art.

New initiatives include hands-on art-making workshops, immersive family programs, and interactive discussion forums that invite audiences of all ages to explore art from diverse perspectives. By leveraging its rich collection as a catalyst for creative exploration and dialogue, the Center reinforces its commitment to fostering an intellectually vibrant space that supports lifelong learning and meaningful community connections. A list of the Center’s upcoming programming follows. 

Talks and Discussions

Artist Talk | Tracey Emin 
Thursday, April 3, 12–1 pm

Tracey Emin speaks with Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director, Yale Center for British Art.

Tracey Emin | Video Works
Monday, April 7, 5:30–6:45 pm

A rare screening of Tracey Emin’s short films. Screenings will be followed by a panel discussion with Johanna Burton, Maurice Marciano Director of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Kymberly Pinder, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean, Yale School of Art. Moderated by Martina Droth, Paul Mellon Director.

Norma Lytton Lecture | From Subjects of Capital to Makers of Culture: The Black Presence in Western European Art
Thursday, April 10, 5:30–6:30 pm

Cultural historian Michael Ohajuru explores how Black figures, once positioned as exotic, subservient, or symbolic, have moved toward the center of artistic representation. 

Revealing J. M. W. Turner at the Yale Center for British Art
Wednesday, April 23, 5:30–6:30 pm

On the artist’s 250th birthday, Lucinda Lax, Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, discusses the museum’s collection of Turner artworks, the most comprehensive outside Britain.

Symposia

Art, Museum, Nation
Friday, April 25, 9:30 am – 5 pm

Through a series of roundtable conversations, art historians, curators, and museum leaders critically interrogate the concept of nationhood in contemporary practices of art acquisition, exhibition, and interpretation. 

Turner Today
Friday, May 9, 10:15 am – 3:30 pm

Scholars and curators from Canada, the US, and the UK explore the multiple ways Turner’s oeuvre speaks to our present moment, from its relationship to contemporary visual art to its role in framing conversations about climate change and resource extraction.

Arts in Dialogue

Create Community 
Select Thursdays, 6–7:30 pm 

Makers and creative thinkers are invited to explore how artistic processes can help us look closely and spark our creativity in these hands-on workshops. Adults of all artistic abilities are welcome. All materials are supplied. Advance registration required. 

April 10 and 24, May 8: Drawing as Seeing in Tracey Emin: I Loved You Until The Morning 
May 15 and 22, June 12: Turner’s Vision: Creating Light, Color, and Atmosphere with Watercolor

My Architect (2003)
Thursday, April 17, 2–4:30 pm

Director Nathaniel Kahn’s film documents his search to know his elusive father, American architect Louis I. Kahn. Screening followed by a panel discussion with Nathaniel Kahn and Thomas Allen Harris, Yale professor in the practice in film & media studies and African American studies.

The Sublime in Art and Music
Thursday, May 1, 5:30–6:30 pm

Tim Barringer, Paul Mellon Professor in the History of Art, discusses the sublime in J. M. W. Turner’s work and in music composed during the artist’s lifetime, with a performance by the Yale School of Music’s quartet-in-residence, the Brentano String Quartet. 

The Art of Verse: Turner and Poetry
Thursday, June 12, 5:30–6:30 pm

Award-winning poets read original compositions inspired by works on view in the exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality.

Programs for Families and Teens

Make Time! 

Select Saturdays, 2–4 pm

Make time to connect and create together during this drop-in program. Hands-on activities designed and led by YCBA educators encourage you to playfully explore artworks in the galleries and express your own creativity. No registration required.

April 26: Explore the YCBA Building 
May 24: Draw Ocean Waves 
June 28: Look! Wild Animals in Art 

Exploring-art-ism 

Select Saturdays, 10:30 am – 12 pm 

Children aged 5–12 with autism or other sensory processing differences and their families and caregivers are invited to join a welcoming and inclusive learning experience in the museum. Participants have opportunities to socialize and sustain focus by exploring works of art and engaging in no-fail follow-up activities. A quiet space with sensory toys is available. Advance registration encouraged (except for April 26).

April 26: Welcome Back Open House
May 10: Build a Shadow Box 
May 24: Draw Ocean Waves 
June 7: Stamp It Up

Teen Thursdays

Select Thursdays, 6–8 pm

Teens aged 12–17 are invited to the YCBA for fun, refreshments, and creativity! Join us in our galleries to build community, make art, and explore our collection in exciting ways. Bus passes available to participants. 

May 1: Zine Scene
June 5: Night at the Museum
June 26: Print, Stamp, Press!

Teen-to-Teen Conversations: Tracey Emin’s Autobiographical Art

Thursdays, April 17 and 24, May 1 and 8, 4–5:30 pm

Join us to discuss autobiographical paintings by Tracey Emin, led by members of the STARS teen peer educator program at Planned Parenthood of Greater New Haven and trained students from New Haven high schools. A community adolescent psychiatrist will take part in each conversation. 

Art in Context

Select Tuesdays, 12:30–1 pm

These in-gallery talks by thinkers from across disciplines encourage close consideration of one or two artworks. 

April 15: J. M. W. Turner’s Staffa, Fingal’s Cave: Painting the Energy Sublime
April 29: Look Without Touching
May 6: Birds in British Art: Movement and Migration
May 20: Memory and Paint: A Therapeutic Encounter Between Artist and Observer
June 3: Staffa, the “Indistinct” 
June 24: Materials in Miniature: William Hay’s Seamstresses, St. Kitts, Caribbean and Global Material Culture
July 1: “Motherland”: Tracey Emin and Margate
July 15: Swimming with Turner
July 29: Women in Country Houses
August 5: The Body is Not a Fact: Memory and the Construction of the Self

About the Yale Center for British Art

The Yale Center for British Art (YCBA) houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom, encompassing works from the fifteenth century to the present in a range of media. The museum offers a vibrant, year-round program of events and exhibitions in person and online. Presented to the university by collector and philanthropist Paul Mellon (Yale College, Class of 1929), the museum opened to the public in 1977. Visit the YCBA at britishart.yale.edu, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube @yalebritishart.

Download our media kit.