This special issue is dedicated to multimodality and museums. Across the world, museums in their diverse and constantly evolving social roles engage in multimodal communication and practices as they seek to make meaningful connections between their collections, fields of expertise, museum spaces and visitors, and contribute constructively to significant social issues and agendas. 'Multimodality' is fundamental to the work and the experience of museums, and increasingly so as museums embrace an ever-expanding range of communicative technologies and resources. Yet at the same time, 'multimodality' is not necessarily a term that museums use or are familiar with; more common in museum discourse are terms such as multimedia or multisensorial to refer to museum resources or experience.This special issue proposes multimodality as an integrated and versatile methodological and interpretative framework for museum research and practice, while showcasing innovative methods as a way of advancing multimodality research. As well as conversing with scholars in multimodality, this special issue seeks to introduce readers who are unfamiliar with 'multimodality' to its potential for interrogating, supporting and perhaps renewing museum research and practice. In presenting a selection of work from across the plurality of multimodal theories and methods, it aims to highlight the potential for new kinds of dialogue and interdisciplinarity through the lens of multimodality.