From Georgian architecture and Roman baths to world-famous bridges and Victorian steamships, there's plenty for everyone in Bath and Bristol. And there's no shortage of museums in the South West. The best way to discover these, and the range of exhibitions on offer, is via the Bloomberg Connects app, a free digital guide to cultural organisations featuring exclusive content and behind-the-scenes commentary.

The Bloomberg Connects guide at M Shed, Bristol

A number of Bath and Bristol museums have recently launched their own unique guides – keep reading to discover some of the best exhibitions from across the region this Easter and let Bloomberg Connects show you around!

BATH

'The Botanical World of Mary Delany and Georgie Hopton', No.1 Royal Crescent (until 15th June 2025)

This fascinating exhibition pairs the intricate floral collages of Mary Delany (1700–1788) – what she described as 'paper mosaiks' – with newly commissioned artworks, wallpaper and fabric by contemporary artist Georgie Hopton.

Delany's collages, painstakingly made in her later life to imitate botanical illustrations, are extremely fragile and so 30 works (she made more than 900!) are displayed here as high-resolution digital prints.

Installation view, 'The botanical world of Mary Delany and Georgie Hopton'

Hopton's handprinted wallpaper and furnishings serve as a complementary backdrop to Delany's collages, in fact highlighting their seeming modernity. Hopton is interested in nature and texture and she has long been fascinated by the Georgian world and Delany more specifically; she chose the selection of 30 Delany works from the British Museum, where they are normally held.

The exhibition is displayed in the Withdrawing Room of the historic house at No.1 Royal Crescent, which also features John Opie's 1782 portrait of Delany, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery.

You can find out more about this painting (and the house) on their Bloomberg Connects guide, as well as reading about an upcoming talk on Delany's pioneering botanical art by the artist Deborah Lambkin on 3rd May 2025.

'Mirror of Mirth: Satire in Georgian Bath', Victoria Art Gallery (until 21st April 2025)

The turbulent politics of the late eighteenth century left a taste for political satire – the chance to poke fun at British society. One of the most well-known satirists in Georgian Britain was draughtsman and printmaker Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) and this exhibition draws attention to his relationship with Bath.

Heading to the spa resort with his friend and fellow artist John Nixon, Rowlandson set about capturing (or sending up) the inhabitants of the city, detailing their activities such as dining, bathing and dancing.

The Bloomberg Connects guide to the exhibition picks out a small part of the show – which includes more than 200 works drawn from the Victoria Art Gallery's collection – looking more closely at works by Rowlandson and Nixon, as well as the caricatures of Mary and Matthew Darly.

The Bloomberg Connects app at Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

The guide allows you to view a selection of Rowlandson's Comforts of Bath series of prints – one of the highlights of the show – and to read how 'In each picture, we see the figure of the rotund visitor… a traveller keen to enjoy the delights of Georgian Britain'. You can read more about Georgian satire in this story.

'Myths and Memories: Renaissance Maps', American Museum & Gardens (until 22nd June 2025)

The American Museums and Gardens is home to an impressive collection of Renaissance maps and this exhibition is its first major display in more than 10 years. As the museum's Bloomberg Connects guide explains, the museum has been home to founder Dallas Pratt's map collection since 1988 – one of the greatest in the world.

The exhibition guide on Bloomberg Connects includes a number of installation views of the show to give you some idea what to expect.

It also makes clear how this exhibition launches the museum's 'Year of Exploration', which will include special events, a pop-up planetarium and family trails.

And if you're wondering why there's an American museum in Bath, you can find out by reading this story! The Connects guide will also help you answer this question thanks to its detailed introduction to the museum's founders, Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn.

'Joshua Donkor: I have more souls than one', Holburne Museum (until 5th May 2025)

If contemporary art is more your thing, then look no further than the Holburne Museum. British-Ghanian artist Joshua Donkor (b.1997), who was born and raised in Bath, uses portraiture to diversify depictions of Black figures.

2023, oil paint, image transfers and graphite on canvas by Joshua Donkor (b.1997)

His approach is deeply personal and he often incorporates layered visual references to objects, photos or furnishings that are important to his sitters.

Installation view, 'Joshua Donkor: I have more souls than one', Holburne Museum, Bath, 2025

As well as featuring a selection of highlights from the exhibition, there's a fantastic audio guide on Bloomberg Connects which reflects the personal nature of Donkor's paintings. Further exploring ideas around identity and belonging across generations, the guide includes recordings from the artist's parents: his mother reading a letter describing life in Ghana, and his father reflecting on a photograph of his own parents.

The Bloomberg Connects app at Holburne Museum, Bath

BRISTOL

Art and the Public Realm Bristol and public art at University of Bristol

First of all, Bristol is full of interesting public sculpture that's well worth exploring if you're in the city. Art and the Public Realm Bristol (APRB) has created a handy range of tours which you can access on Bloomberg Connects, including one in the city centre which takes in sculptures by Rana Begum, Giles Round, and Alex Chinneck.

It's also worth heading to the University of Bristol to soak up the campus' permanent collection of public art, located around the Royal Fort Gardens at the Clifton campus.

The university's Bloomberg Connects guide usefully points out some highlights, including Hollow by Katie Paterson (be sure to watch the video of Paterson talking about her work), Follow Me by Jeppe Hein and Palm Temple by Luke Jerram (the guide includes a mesmerising timelapse of this sculpture being installed).

'Jessica Ashman – Those that do not smile will kill me: Decolonising Jamaican Flora', Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (until 27th July 2025)

This exhibition by Jessica Ashman takes as its starting point the collections of two eighteenth-century biologists, Arthur Broughton and John Lindsay, whose herbaria and archives are held at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Both Broughton and Lindsay worked in Jamaica and Ashman interrogates the wider exploitation at the heart of such scientific discovery during the Enlightenment.

Installation view, 'Jessica Ashman: Those that do not smile will kill me'

The project emerged from the University of the Art's Decolonising Arts Institute's 20/20 programme. The Bloomberg Connects exhibition guide tells us that since summer 2023, Ashman has been exploring specimens in the museum's natural history collection, alongside tracing colonial connections by 'researching archives from the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection'. Ashman's multimedia installation instead tries to show how enslaved or indigenous people themselves connected to the land as a form of resistance.

The Bloomberg Connects app at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

New protest gallery and 'Bristol Photo Festival: Dreamlines', M Shed (until 20th April 2025)

M Shed tells the story of Bristol and its people, with galleries dedicated to the city and its inhabitants. The museum has also just launched a display – part of the People Gallery – about the history of protest in Bristol, paying particular attention to the Black Lives Matter march in 2020 which resulted in the toppling of the statue of slave owner Edward Colston. The bronze part of the statue, now part of M Shed's permanent collection, will feature at the centre of this wider examination into racial injustice.

Installation view of the Protest display, M Shed, Bristol, 2025

As the Bloomberg Connects guide to this protest display states, 'Bristol people from all walks of life have challenged the authorities'.

The Bloomberg Connects app at M Shed, Bristol

In 2023, Bristol Photo Festival asked 14 photographers to work with local communities to produce a portrait of Bristol – 'Dreamlines' is the result of this commission. Highlights include Chris Hoare's portrait of Shirehampton Men's Social Club, Esther May-Campbell's images of all the businesses located on Church Road, and Jade Carr-Daley's examination of Black motherhood.

Dr Jenner's House and Museum

If you're after something a little more niche this Easter, then look no further than Dr Jenner's House and Museum, which has just reopened for this year. The house focuses on the Gloucestershire scientist Edward Jenner (1749–1823) and his discovery of the smallpox vaccine – a legacy which takes on renewed resonance in light of the Covid pandemic. A short video on their Bloomberg Connects guide introduces Jenner and the home in more detail.

New for this year is 'Jenner in Ten', which narrows down the museum's collection to just 10 key objects. You can find out more about this selection on Bloomberg Connects, which includes Jenner's will, a whalebone, and the smallpox elephants – there's a video about these statues, emblems of the global smallpox struggle, that's worth checking out. You can also read more about Jenner and the smallpox vaccine in this story.

The statues were found in India by Donald Francis in 1972 and represent Shitala Mata, the goddess of smallpox

The Jenner Sculpture Exhibition will also open in April, for which members of the Cotswolds Sculptors Association will produce works inspired by the house and garden (13th April – 13th September 2025).

Georgian House Museum and Blaise Museum

And if you're keen to learn about how past Bristol people lived or what their homes looked like, then be sure to stop by the Georgian House Museum and Blaise Museum. Part of Bristol Museums, both venues have just reopened for the summer season.

Blaise Castle House was built in the 1790s as a family home for John Scandrett Harford, a wealthy Bristol merchant and banker. Alongside the sumptuous Picture Room, which was added in 1832–1833, you can also spend time in the dairy and orangery, designed by celebrated architect John Nash. The museum's Bloomberg Connects guide introduces the house, alongside a portrait of the Harford family.

The Bloomberg Connects app at Blaise Museum, Bristol

Like Blaise Castle, the Georgian House was built in 1790, this time for John Pinney, a slave plantation owner and sugar merchant.

The house is also where enslaved man Pero Jones lived. 'Pero's Bridge', located on narrow Quay in Bristol, is named after Pinney's servant – a wider symbol of the city's role in transatlantic slavery.

You can find out more about this on the Georgian House's Bloomberg Connects guide, which gives a short history of the plight of Africans forcibly transported on slave ships.

Imelda Barnard, Commissioning Editor – Exhibitions and Bloomberg Connects, Art UK

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This content was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies