A major retrospective of early works by David Hockney has been confirmed as the inaugural show for Nottingham Contemporary, when the £19.4m new gallery opens its doors to the public in November 2009.

As part of the Festival of Archaeology the Smithy Heritage centre in Eccleston St Helens has been holding a series of Big Digs to see what lies beneath the soil in the museum's grounds.

Culture24's Learners and Teachers' Editor Rachel Hayward gives the lowdown on why English Heritage's Festival of History is a no-brainer when it comes to summer fun that all the family will enjoy.

The revamped Bexhill Museum will open its doors to the public on Friday July 31 following a £2million refurbishment and extension.

Culture24's Learners and Teachers' Editor, Rachel Hayward goes to English Heritage's Festival of History 2009 to meet family re-enactors and find out the appeal of stepping back in time.

Reenactors gathered from around the country for a lively weekend at the English Heritage Festival of History 2009. Rosie Clarke went along to Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire to join in the fun.

The market watcher's preliminary figures for 2009's second quarter revealedUK PC shipments fell seven per cent year on year to 2.5 million.

Last month NokiaSiemens Networks signed a $650m stalkinghorse agreement with the embattled Canadian vendor to buy its CDMA and LTEaccess assets. The bidding process kicked off by that agreement also saw venturecapital firm MatlinPatterson tabling a bid.

The pan-European partnership hands Tech Data-owned Azlan access to Tandberg'sfull range of telepresence, high-definition videoconferencing and mobile videosolutions.

Codework became part of Symantec's distribution stable following the securitygiant's acquisitionof IT management software specialist Altiris in 2007. The distributor claimsis performance over the last year has earmarked it as one of Symantec'sfastest-growing distributors.

Civica is the prime ICT contractor for a £270m, 10-year contract won by QEDWales consortium.

Revenue for the three months to the end of June was up 12 per cent year onyear and 15 per cent sequentially to $223.6m. Operating profit based ongenerally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $86.7m, up four per cent onQ2 2008.

Costs of taking on an apprentice can be off-putting for smaller businesses,the FSB claims. With this in mind, it has launched a four-point plan toencourage more firms to get involved, ahead of a government meeting tomorrow todiscuss the employment of

Using the might of its Avaya Financial Services (AFS) arm, the vendor isallowing firms that purchase its unified communications, call centre equipmentand services to defer the first payment until January 2010.

Guildford-based Microsoft, Citrix, DoubleTake and HP partner ArcomIT said theunion will boost its networking, data hosting and storage capabilities.

The firm questioned 1,500 companies in the UK, France and Germany, askingabout the average replacement periods for technology, preferred financingmethods and the main motivations for replacing equipment and software.

The life and times of notorious Italian politician Guilio Andreotti.

An adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel in which self-proclaimed heroes fight for the good of humanity - or for what they interpret as such.

Biopic centring on the life and loves of Alexander Kolchak.

A team of special agent guinea pigs whose funding is cut by the FBI must go it alone to try and save the world from an evil genius.