Art galleries and museums

Most big cities in the UK have an art gallery and museum with permanent displays of paintings, sculpture and historical artefacts,and temporary exhibitions. While city galleries may not be crowded on a daily basis, a temporary exhibition often has the crowds flocking.

Depending where you are in the UK you will usually be reasonably close to an art exhibition or display of some description. You can visit the 24-Hour Museum online to see what exhibitions are taking place and also what is happening in different towns and cities. Visit Britain's Museums and Galleries section is another useful source of exhibitions.

Painting and drawing

Painting in the UK - especially portraits and landscape pieces - took off seriously during the 18th century with artists such as Thomas Gainsborough leading the way.

This tradition continues to this day. 20th century stars of British art include Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, L S Lowry, Stanley Spencer, Duncan Grant, Ben Nicholson, Bridget Riley and Peter Blake. The best-known contemporary British artists, dubbed the 'Young British Artists', include Tracey Emin, Damien Hurst, the Chapman Brothers, Chris Olfili, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread.

Some of the best places to see British art include the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the British Museum.

There are some amazing drawings in the British Museum, in London, which are also available online. The website also has usefull inks to other collections of drawings and print throughout the UK.

The Royal Collection - the prints and drawings owned by HM the Queen - is just as impressive. A good example is the Drawings Gallery at Windsor Castle, which shows changing exhibitions of material from the Castle's Royal Library. You can also look at many of these drawings, watercolours and pastels on the Royal Collection website.

Sculpture

Britain has produced a host of talented sculptors such as Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Elizabeth Frink, Eduardo Paolozzi, Antony Caro, Alexander Calder, Maggie Hambling, and Antony Gormley.

Visit the International Directory of Sculpture Parks for details of places in the UK you might go to see some of their work.

There are also some fine individual pieces of public sculpture which everyone can visit, such as Antony Gormley's Angel of the North, near Gateshead, in the north-east of England; the bronze Isaac Newton, after William Blake, by Eduardo Paolozzi in front of the British Library near St Pancras, London; and the Burghers of Calais by Rodin in Victoria Tower Gardens, London.

Architecture

The UK has never been short of gifted architects, with modern-day exponents such as Norman Foster and Richard Rodgers. Another is Quinlan Terry  who specialises in traditional building of classical designs.

Norman Foster, now Lord Foster of Thames Bank, was responsible for the new Wembley Stadium, in north London. He also designed the Gherkin - the 2nd-tallest building in the City of London.

Richard Rogers, a contemporary of Foster, has designed similar landmark modern buildings, including the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Lloyds building in London and the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff.

Quinlan Terry and his partners have restored the three State Drawing Rooms at 10 Downing Street and designed several buildings at Downing College, Cambridge.

Visitors to the UK can look at the work of past masters and modern practitioners in many towns and cities. As well as world-famous attractions like St Paul's Cathedral in London, there are many hidden gems to be found around the country.

Related links:

Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA)
Architectural Association

Ceramics

The Ceramic Collection and Archive at the University of Wales Abersytwyth and the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham, Surrey, house work by probably the best-known British potters, Bernard Leech and Lucy Rie.

There are also superb collections of ancient and modern ceramics from all over the world at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.

Wedgwood and Spode museums - which started making pottery, porcelain and ceramics in Britain in the 18th century - can both be found in Stoke-on-Trent in the East Midlands, an area which is also known as the Potteries.

Photography

The best-known British commercial photographers include the late Lord Snowdon, David Bailey, Terry O'Neill, Jane Brown, the late Norman Parkinson and Cecil Beaton.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London began acquiring photographs in 1852 and now owns one of the largest and most important collections in the world. For the best of contemporary photography visit the Photographers' Gallery, also in London.