Arcadia

Arcadia, a multi-screen film installation by Sir John Akomfrah, opens at the Natural History Museum on 6 November 2026 and runs until May 2027. It's showing in the Jerwood Gallery on the second floor of the museum in South Kensington, part of the free Jerwood Contemporary Arts Programme supported by the Jerwood Foundation.

The work plays on a loop across five screens and takes just under an hour to run through. It traces the global migration of people, nature and disease that followed the Columbian Exchange: from the 1400s onwards, the mass movement of plants, animals, people, commodities, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas, Afro-Eurasia and Europe, driven by migration, trade and colonialism. A soundtrack of nature sounds, opera and poetry runs alongside, and the whole thing asks what the lasting environmental and social impacts of that exchange have been.

Akomfrah is one of Britain's most influential contemporary artists. He was a founding member of the Black Audio Film Collective in London in 1982, and later co-founded Smoking Dogs Films with David Lawson. He made his debut film, Handsworth Songs, in 1986, which looked at the 1985 Birmingham and London riots. He was awarded the Artes Mundi Prize in 2017 and a knighthood in the 2023 New Year Honours.

Entry is free for all museum visitors, though you'll need to book a free ticket in advance online. Members, Patrons and Corporate Supporters don't need to book and get priority access. The installation stays in the Jerwood Gallery until May 2027, so there's plenty of time to fit it in.