A shout out to what may be the UK's newest Museum - Bodmin Jail - which re-opened this month, just in time for Halloween.

As well as boasting a multi-million pound refurbishment, Bodmin Jail also claims to be one of Britain's most haunted buildings. They run paranormal tours, and offer visitors the chance to stay overnight in their after dark experience. It's not for the faint-hearted (we've been told).

Image source, Bodmin Jail

From ghostly figures on the Tulip staircase in Greenwich, external to the Grey Lady of Hampton Court, external, many of the nation's museums have stories of supernatural visitors. If you've ever noticed anything spooky on a day out, let us know at #MuseumPassion.

You can see 492 artworks from the Towner's collection, external on the Art UK website.

Image source, Marc Atkins

The Art Fund's Museum of the Year award is the world's biggest museum prize. This year the panel took the unprecedented step of announcing not one but five winners. We'll be featuring them all on our live page today.

First up is the most colourful museum in the collection - the eye-catching Towner Gallery in Eastbourne, external.

Image source, Marc Atkins

Towner’s Collection is best known for its modern British art, including the largest and most significant body of work by Eric Ravilious (1903–1942), and a growing collection of international contemporary art including works by Dineo Seshee Bopape, John Akomfrah, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Tacita Dean, Grayson Perry and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Great to see entries coming in for today's #BestPartyObject challenge...

Artist Lachlan Goudie explores Paul Gauguin's painting Vision After the Sermon at the Scottish National Gallery. Lachlan grew up with the works in the gallery and considers them part of his family.

• Watch the full programme with Lachlan at the Scottish National Gallery on BBC iPlayer

We're glad you found it interesting Lucy!

Museum professionals have been sharing some of their behind-the-scenes experiences on social today:

And paper conservator Lucy Coakes is sharing images from her day in the office:

Art historian Dr. James Fox believes that art has a unique ability to depict human suffering, and can offer consolation during difficult times. Watch this moving and personal film as Fox tours Tate Britain. It could change the way you think about how we might triumph over adversity.

You can see highlights from Tate Britain, external online.

Our first live stream of the day is over, but don't go away: we have plenty more fantastic stories to share from organisations around the country.

Dan and Sacha will be back at 1.30pm with another live event: What Do Museums Do For Us?

We couldn't mention Gairloch Museum without reminding you of a certain award they picked up this week.

We'll be sharing more details of all the Museum of the Year winners later.

Archaeologist Dr Tom Gardener has chosen the week of #MuseumPassion to begin excavating an unstudied roundhouse from Iron Age Scotland (c.700BC to 500AD, according to, external the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum).A roundhouse is a prehistoric residence with a single entrance. Atlantic roundhouses are unique to Scotland and found mostly in the northern and western mainland, the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland) and the Hebrides.

The dig takes place not far from the Art Fund Museum of the Year-winning establishment, on the Achtercairn Archaeology Trail - a two-mile circuit nestled just behind Gairloch Museum that takes in the sites of ten roundhouses.

Tom and his team of local volunteers hope to uncover clues that will help explain what the building was used for - but in live archaeology, anything could happen.

• You can join the team on the Gairloch Museum Facebook page, external.
• Secrets of Wester Ross Iron Age to be probed in three-day roundhouse dig near Gairloch Museum as part of BBC week of events, external - Read more about the dig and #MuseumPassion at the Ross-Shire Journal.

Image source, Gairloch Museum

Image source, Gairloch Museum

Laura van Broekhoven has been discussing the role of the Pitt Rivers Museum - which holds lots of objects collected during the Victorian era:

Our panel have been discussing the challenges of 2020

Lots of the museums we're featuring today have been working with local communities to help them curate their own experiences.

From Covid-19 to colonialism and climate changes, there are many challenges facing museum curators in the 2020s. Our panel debate the issues:

• Melanie Keen is Director of the Wellcome collection. Prior to her curent role she had twenty years' experience as an independent curator and consultant. She is an Independent Advisor to the Government Art Collection, sits on the British Council’s Visual Arts Advisory Group and sat on the Mayor of London’s Suffrage Commission Group in 2018.
• Laura Van Broekhoven is Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. She previously led the curatorial department of the National Museum of World Cultures (Amsterdam, Leiden and Berg en Dal) and was a lecturer in archaeology, museum studies and indigenous heritage at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University. She currently serves on numerous advisory boards and panels.
• Sara Wajid and Zak Mensah are newly appointed joint directors of Birmingham Museums Trust. Sara was previously Head of Engagement for the Museum of London’s new museum capital project. Zak was Head of Transformation: Culture & Creative Industries at Bristol Museums.

Wiltshire museum have found a way to keep their team together:

And Barnsley Museums have set themselves what might be the most unusual challenge of the day so far - to celebrate exhibits that look like Brian Blessed.

Lots of museums around the country are running free online talks and events today. Keep an eye on #MuseumPassion on social media for details - and we'll be sharing some of the highlights here.

It's a challenging time to be running a museum - and not only because Covid-19 has forced many organisations to close their doors.

Debates about colonialism have prompted us to think about who currently has access to the world's cultural artifacts. Arguments have broken out about how we remember historical figures whose values were very different to our own. And as if that was not enough, Museums must also look to the future, and the impact our activities are having on the climate.

Our freelance museum consultants Dan and Sacha bring together a panel of museum directors to try and navigate some of the trickiest dilemmas facing museums today.

Ray Harryhausen was a pioneering stop motion artist, whose foot-high foam latex models featured in some the biggest movies of the mid-twentieth century.

This weekend, National Galleries Scotland are opening a new exhibition featuring his creations and the work that inspired them. You can see some of the exhibition highlights, captured by the Museums in Quarantine team, or read more about this extraordinary artist, external on the National Galleries Scotland website.