Collaborative touring exhibition in which socially engaged artists work with local, refugee and displaced communities to co-create work inspired by museum collections, with public co-curation.
New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share is at Open Eye Gallery from 18 September to 20 December 2026, and it's a collaborative touring exhibition that brings together new creative work by artists and community participants. It's produced by Open Eye in partnership with Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council and Aberdeenshire Council's Museums Service, and it forms part of Art Fund's Going Places programme, a series of twelve exhibitions touring the UK.
Each residency in the programme centres on the theme of journeys — from migration and exile to the milestones and traditions of life — and gives voice to communities whose stories haven't always been represented in museum collections, including those with lived experience of migration and displacement. Socially engaged photographers and artists worked with local, refugee and displaced communities to co-create work inspired by the collections and by participants' own experiences, and the public is invited to co-curate the results. The exhibition combines this new work with objects and archives from three UK museum collections, so you'll see the new pieces alongside the older material that helped spark them.
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The programme is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust. After its run at Open Eye, the exhibition continues at The Atkinson from 19 September 2026 to 27 February 2027. Open Eye Gallery is at 19 Mann Island, L3 1BP, and it's open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. Entry is free to all.
