Everything stops for Teatopia

Exhibits for the Teatopia show include a everyday tea urn, pictured with curator Rowena Hamilton, which has been transformed by Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.

As a nation, we drink 165 million of cups of tea a day, and the event aims to explore how designers and craftspeople through the centuries have transformed the taking of tea into an art form and how it is linked with cultures around the world.

Other items on display at the Millennium Galleries in Arundel Gate will include historic ceramics and metalwork from Sheffield's own collections to iconic examples of contemporary art, craft and design.

A gallery spokesman said: "A porcelain tea bush, newly commissioned from rising star of UK ceramics Hitomi Hosono, will go on display. The exhibition will also feature a host of tea-related textiles, including a contemporary tea towel designed exclusively for the exhibition by Sheffield illustrator Geo Law."

Teatopia will run from July 1 to October 24 and admission is free.