Media release: 17 June 2025

  • I Grew Up 90s arrives at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum on 5 July until 7 September 2025
  • Exhibition includes over two-hundred treasures from the 1990s
  • From the same collector, Matt Fox, who brought to Worcester the exhibitions I Grew Up 80s and May the Toys Be With You
  • For tickets and events information visit museumsworcestershire.org.uk

An entire generation has a chance to revel in nostalgia when the fantastic new exhibition I Grew Up 90s arrives at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum on 5 July until 7 September 2025.

Visitors can revisit the days of Britpop and Cool Britannia, from the Spice Girls to Lara Croft, Power Rangers to Pokémon, Trainspotting to Teletubbies, through more than 200 iconic objects and artworks which bring the 90s to vivid life and will inspire memories and moments for families to share.

I Grew Up 90s showcases a wide array of wonderfully preserved objects and encompasses toys, technology, sport, fashion, food, film, books, TV, and more. Visitors can dress up in cool 90s fashions for selfies and play a 90s arcade machine including Sonic the Hedgehog. They can throw some 90s shapes on dance mats and chill in the reading corner with 90s magazines and books. To really get in the spirit visitors can purchase their own 90s bucket hat when they arrive.

Exhibition curator Matt Fox comments: “The Nineties have been described as the decade where ‘history took a holiday’, with ten years of relative peace, prosperity, and progress for our planet. In Britain, the economy was doing well, arts and culture were flourishing, and an air of optimism prevailed – we even thought football might be coming home! Those of us who grew up during those peaceful years may not have realised how fortunate we were, but with today’s hindsight we recognise the Nineties as a golden age for UK youth. It was the decade of Girl Power and Cool Britannia, of the internet and innovation, and it belonged to the young.”

Journey back in time to the days when Everything I Do, Love Is All Around, and I Will Always Love You set up camp at the top of the singles chart and refused to leave. In cinemas, Pretty Woman set the decade on a romcom course that ended with the Titanic sinking, and the British film industry reinvigorated by Four Weddings, Lock Stock, and Trainspotting. Beanie Babies, Polly Pockets, Super Soakers and Tamagotchis kept us entertained, while Harry Potter, Horrible Histories and Tracy Beaker kept us reading. There were no smart phones, social media or reality TV to distract us, but we might occasionally have returned a tape late to Blockbuster.

So, pump up your Reeboks, pull up your cargo trousers, put on your bucket hat, and join us for I Grew Up 90s.

This exhibition has been curated by collector and cultural commentator Matt Fox.

Check out www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk and our social media channels for up-to-date news and information on the exhibition and a fun 90s-themed programme of events and activities.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 5 July. For ticket and events information, please visit www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk Worcester city residents enjoy free entry to the exhibition when they show their Council Tax bill payable to Worcester City Council.

This year’s Worcester Show is also following the 90s theme, so grab your bucket hat and prepare for a day of family fun, entertainment, food and community competitions when the Worcester Show is back at Pitchcroft on Sunday 10 August. Book your tickets now and find out more at www.worcestershow.org.uk.

ENDS

Press contact:

For further information contact:

Helen Large, at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, email Helen.Large@worcester.gov.uk

Image Credit: All images © Matt Fox

 

There will be a photo opportunity on Thursday 3 July, 11am. 90s collector Matt Fox is available for interviews from Tuesday 1 – Friday 4 July. Please contact Helen to arrange.

 

Exhibition Details:

I Grew Up 90s

Saturday 5 July – Saturday 7 September 2025 | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm, Sunday 10am – 3pm

For tickets see www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk

Revisit the days of Britpop and Cool Britannia, from the Spice Girls to Lara Croft, Power Rangers to Pokemon, Trainspotting to Teletubbies, through more than 200 iconic objects and artworks which bring the 90s to vivid life and will inspire memories and moments for families to share.

I Grew Up 90s events and activities:

Family fun in the summer holidays:

  • Family trail (£1 from the museum shop) – Saturday 5 July – Sunday 7 September
  • 90s Bags of Fun (£2.50 from the museum shop) – Saturday 19 July – Sunday 31 August
  • 90s Get Arty! (£5, weekly family workshops) – Thursdays from 24 July – 28 August
  • Feels like the 90s party! (£7.50 per child, adults free) – Thursday 7 and Thursday 28 August

While tickets are required to visit the exhibition, these family activities can be enjoyed without going into the exhibition.