LONDON — Sir John Akomfrah's five-screen film installation Arcadia makes its London debut at the Natural History Museum on Friday, 6 November 2026, bringing one of the most acclaimed moving-image works of recent years to the heart of the capital for the first time.
The free exhibition, staged in the Jerwood Gallery, runs until May 2027 and offers visitors the chance to experience the film, which lasts just under an hour and plays on a continuous loop, in the museum's grand South Kensington setting. The museum advises visitors to book a free ticket in advance, although entry to the exhibition itself is free.
Arcadia is the fourth exhibition in the museum's free contemporary art programme, the Jerwood Contemporary Arts Programme, part of the museum's wider "Fixing Our Broken Planet" initiative and supported by the Jerwood Foundation.
Illustration: John Akomfrah's five-screen Arcadia installation glowing in a darkened gallery at the Natural History Museum, London.
What Happened
From Friday 6 November 2026, visitors to the Natural History Museum in London can see Arcadia, the five-screen installation by Sir John Akomfrah, on show in the Jerwood Gallery. It is the first time the work has been exhibited in London, three years after it was first created, and the museum is presenting it as a major highlight of its autumn programme.
The installation unfolds across five large screens, which play simultaneously to create a single, immersive cinematic journey. The film runs for just under an hour and is shown on a continuous loop, so visitors can join at any point and stay for as long as they wish.
According to the Natural History Museum, Arcadia explores the lasting environmental and social impacts of the Columbian Exchange, the widespread transfer of plants, people, animals, precious metals, commodities, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia from the 1400s onwards. The film weaves together images from the past and the present, moving between migration, trade, colonialism and the natural world in a sweeping meditation on how the modern world was made.
The exhibition is free to visit, in line with the museum's policy for its contemporary art programme, and it will remain on display until May 2027, giving Londoners and visitors to the capital several months to see it. The museum has advised visitors to book a free museum ticket in advance, as entry to the building is timed, and the gallery is expected to be popular in its opening weeks.
The museum's own exhibition page, published on its official website, sets out the practical details of the show and the ideas behind it.
For the Natural History Museum, the exhibition is a natural fit. The institution, founded on the study of the natural world, has in recent years used its contemporary art programme to open up conversations about the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and the human relationship with nature, and Arcadia, with its roots in the history of global trade and environmental change, speaks directly to those themes.
Background
Arcadia was first shown in 2023 at the Sharjah Biennial, one of the most important contemporary art events in the Middle East, where it was unveiled as a new commission. From there it travelled to the United Kingdom, where it had its UK premiere at The Box in Plymouth, the museum and gallery in the Devon port city, remaining on show there until 2 June 2024. Its arrival in London therefore completes a journey that has taken the work from the Gulf to the south-west of England and finally to the capital.
The film takes its subject from one of the great turning points in world history. The Columbian Exchange, named after Christopher Columbus and the voyages that connected Europe with the Americas from the late fifteenth century onwards, describes the vast movement of living things and materials between the two hemispheres. Crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, maize and chillies travelled from the Americas to Europe, Africa and Asia, transforming diets and agriculture around the world, while wheat, sugar, horses, cattle and many other species made the journey in the opposite direction.
But the exchange was far more than a transfer of plants and animals. It also involved the movement of people, often by force, through the transatlantic slave trade and colonial settlement, the spread of diseases that devastated Indigenous populations in the Americas, and the flow of precious metals such as silver from mines in the Americas to Europe and Asia.
Akomfrah's film does not present this history as a conventional documentary. Instead, it uses his signature style, a layered, poetic form of essay film-making in which archive footage, newly shot material, music and text are woven together across multiple screens, to create an experience that is as much emotional as informational. Images of ships, harbours, plantations, forests and cities appear and dissolve alongside scenes of migration and everyday life, inviting viewers to make their own connections between the past and the present.
The artist behind the work is one of Britain's most celebrated film-makers. John Akomfrah, who was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the arts, co-founded the Black Audio Film Collective in 1982, a group of artists and film-makers who set out to explore questions of race, identity and post-colonial Britain through experimental film. His debut film, Handsworth Songs (1986), examined the riots that had shaken Birmingham and London in the mid-1980s and remains a landmark of British documentary film-making.
Since then, Akomfrah has built an international career with a series of major installations, including The Unfinished Conversation (2012), a portrait of the cultural theorist Stuart Hall; Vertigo Sea (2015), a meditation on the ocean, migration and the slave trade; Purple (2017), a six-screen work on climate change; Mimesis: African Soldier (2018); and Four Nocturnes, which was shown at the Ghana Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
His standing in the art world was recognised in 2017 when he won the Artes Mundi Prize, one of the UK's leading contemporary art awards. In 2024, he represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale, the world's most prestigious art exhibition, with Listening All Night to the Rain, a new work for the British Pavilion commissioned by the British Council. His recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and the National Museum Cardiff.
Illustration: Sailing ships, plants and migration imagery evoking the Columbian Exchange explored in Arcadia.
Why It Matters
The London debut of Arcadia matters for several reasons, and the first is simply that it gives audiences in the capital their first chance to see a major work that has already been praised wherever it has been shown. The Sharjah Biennial and The Box in Plymouth introduced the film to audiences in the Middle East and the south-west of England, but London, as the home of many of the institutions and collections connected to the history the film explores, is a particularly fitting setting.
The choice of venue is also significant. The Natural History Museum is not a conventional gallery for contemporary art, and its decision to host a work of this scale says something about how museums themselves are changing. Rather than presenting natural history as a story that ends with the specimens in its galleries, the museum is using contemporary art to show how the natural world and human history are bound together.
The subject of the film could hardly be more relevant to the present moment. The Columbian Exchange was, in effect, the first great episode of globalisation, and the world it created is the world we still inhabit. The foods we eat, the plants that grow in our gardens, the diseases that shape public health and the patterns of trade and migration that define modern life can all be traced, at least in part, to the exchanges that began in the 1400s.
By tracing those connections, Arcadia invites viewers to think differently about the climate and biodiversity crises that dominate the news today. The film suggests that the environmental emergency is not a recent accident but the outcome of a long history of extraction, exploitation and movement, and that understanding that history is a necessary step towards addressing the problems it has left behind. That message sits at the heart of the museum's "Fixing Our Broken Planet" programme, which aims to show how science, history and culture can combine to explain the challenges facing the Earth.
There is also a broader cultural significance. Akomfrah is one of a generation of Black British artists who have transformed the way British history and identity are represented in art, and his work at the Venice Biennale in 2024 confirmed his status as one of the country's leading cultural figures.
Illustration: Visitors watching the large five-screen Arcadia film installation in a London museum gallery.
What Happens Next
Arcadia will remain on display at the Natural History Museum until May 2027, giving visitors several months to see the work. Because the film plays on a continuous loop and lasts just under an hour, visitors can plan their visit around a full viewing or drop in for part of the film as part of a wider trip to the museum.
The museum has advised visitors to book a free ticket in advance, and demand is expected to be strong in the opening weeks, particularly at weekends and during school holidays. Those who want to see the film in full should allow at least an hour for the exhibition itself, in addition to time for the museum's permanent galleries.
Details of the exhibition, including opening hours and booking information, are available on the museum's official website.
For Akomfrah, the London opening comes as his international reputation continues to grow following his representation of Great Britain at the 2024 Venice Biennale. The Natural History Museum exhibition is the latest in a series of major presentations of his work in recent years, and it is likely to be followed by further exhibitions as museums and galleries around the world continue to engage with his films.
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FAQ
What is John Akomfrah's Arcadia?
Arcadia (2023) is a five-screen film installation by Sir John Akomfrah that explores the lasting environmental and social impacts of the Columbian Exchange, the transfer of plants, people, animals, precious metals, commodities, technology, diseases and ideas between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia from the 1400s onwards. It weaves past and present images into a cinematic journey through migration, trade, colonialism and the natural world.
Where and when can I see Arcadia in London?
Arcadia is on show at the Natural History Museum in London, in the Jerwood Gallery, from Friday 6 November 2026 until May 2027. It is the first time the work has been shown in London. Entry is free, but the museum advises visitors to book a free museum ticket in advance.
How long is the film, and do I need to watch it all?
The film lasts just under an hour and plays on a continuous loop across five screens. Visitors can join at any point and stay for as long as they like, whether that means watching a few minutes or settling in for the full film.
Where has Arcadia been shown before?
Arcadia debuted in 2023 at the Sharjah Biennial and then had its UK premiere at The Box in Plymouth, where it was on show until 2 June 2024. The Natural History Museum exhibition is its London debut and its first showing in the capital.
Who is John Akomfrah?
Sir John Akomfrah is a British artist and film-maker who co-founded the Black Audio Film Collective in 1982. His debut film, Handsworth Songs (1986), examined the Birmingham and London riots, and his later works include Vertigo Sea (2015) and Purple (2017). He represented Great Britain at the 2024 Venice Biennale, won the Artes Mundi Prize in 2017, and was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to the arts.
Sources
- Natural History Museum, London — "Arcadia" exhibition page, nhm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/arcadia.html (accessed 6 November 2026).
- London Post — report on the London debut of Arcadia, 5 November 2026.
- ATV Today — report on the London debut of Arcadia, 6 November 2026.
- eye-on-london.com — coverage of the Arcadia exhibition at the Natural History Museum, November 2026.
- The Box, Plymouth — Arcadia UK premiere exhibition information, on show until 2 June 2024.
- Wikipedia — "John Akomfrah", background facts on the artist's career and honours (accessed 6 November 2026).
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