MI5: Official Secrets Exhibition Shortlisted For National Award

19 Mar 2026 11:55 AM

An exhibition co-curated by The National Archives and MI5 has been shortlisted in the category, Temporary or Touring Exhibition of the Year (Budget more than £80,000) by the Museums + Heritage Awards.

MI5: Official Secrets was a groundbreaking exhibition giving public access to 115 years of MI5 secrets. Visitors experienced once-classified documents, real spy artefacts and verbatim testimony from current Intelligence Officers. 

Emmajane Avery, Director of Curation and Engagement at The National Archives said:

"For us, this was a unique opportunity to bring new audiences to our growing exhibition programme and read about the powerful stories contained in our nation’s documentary heritage. The objective was to co-create an exhibition placing MI5’s registry – containing 115 years of meticulously archived documentary evidence - at the heart of the experience.

“With over 55 000 visitors and satisfaction at over 94% this exhibition has laid a strong foundation for our future programme of talks and exhibitions and has introduced many people to the amazing collection of records we hold.”

Sir Ken McCallum Director General MI5 said:

"I'd like to thank the National Archives for their partnership in bringing this exhibition into being, giving the public the opportunity to delve into MI5's story.  MI5 life is about ordinary human beings together doing extraordinary things to keep our country safe.  Some of their stories and their perspective comes through this exhibition"  

The plain, manila covers of the files that make up the MI5 archive hide the dramatic, fascinating stories they contain of what ordinary people do to keep the country safe. The exhibition opened these files to the public in an unprecedented way, creating an experience inspired by research into how the original MI5 registry was constructed, giving a sense of being led down corridors, through locked doors, and stepping back in time. 

Immersive elements conjured up scenes from MI5’s history, such as the interior of Anthony Blunt’s flat where he was interviewed multiple times in the Cold War. Filmed interviews with current and former Directors General allowed us to discuss more recent episodes of MI5’s history (where records have not yet been transferred) with insight and authority. This was amplified by various anonymised quotes from current Intelligence Officers through the exhibition, providing an up-to-date counterpoint to the historic documents. 

The exhibition – the first of its kind between the two organisations – attracted almost 2.5 times more visitors than any previous TNA exhibition with 11% of the visitors coming from overseas.