Going Places: Get involved with these exhibitions
Over the next five years, museums across the UK are coming together to create 12 touring exhibitions in collaboration with their local communities. Find out how you can get involved and what you can see.
Going Places is a major new programme of exhibitions touring the UK. The exhibitions are being created by museums working with each other and with their local communities, who’ll handpick items from the museums’ collections to include.
Museums and communities will also collaborate with artists and craftspeople to create new works inspired by local histories and landscapes.
Read on to find out which museums are taking part, the themes for the exhibitions and how you can get involved.
Who's taking part?
Six networks of museums are creating two touring exhibitions each – so, 12 exhibitions in total.
And each time an exhibition is presented at a new location, it will look different, as it will have been co-created with local people, contributing stories and personal items. All in all, that makes 40 unique displays, from Edinburgh to Penzance, Lisburn to Carmarthen.
Here are the six networks:
Communities of Making
Participating museums:
CofGâr – Carmarthenshire Museums & Arts Service
High Life Highland – Highland Folk Museum and Inverness Museum & Art Gallery
The Communities of Making network are exploring how local heritage and traditions of making have evolved in their respective regions (for example: Irish linen weaving, Scottish wool, Welsh basketry).
In collaboration with hard-to-reach 16-24-year-olds, the three partner museums will bring together objects and works of art from their collections to explore how these craft practices relate to young people and their communities today.
Founding the Future
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth
The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
Watts Gallery, Guildford
The Founding the Future network comprises three museums which were all founded by couples with a passion for art, culture and collecting.
In the spirit of these three couples, the museums will work with with their local communities to consider the dynamics of collaboration and connection, as well as uncover new stories and narratives.
Four Lanterns
Blackwell – The Arts & Crafts house (Lakeland Arts), Windermere
Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh
Tŷ Pawb, Wrexham
William Morris Gallery, London
The Four Lanterns network will explore ideas of productivity and making, and the civic and social values of art – taking the Arts and Crafts movement as a starting point.
They will feature ‘makers in residence’ and invite local communities to integrate personal objects within the exhibitions.
Green Spaces Shared Places
Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum, Exmoor
Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes
Sunderland Culture – Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire
The Green Spaces, Shared Places network will explore the positive impact that nature and the outdoors can have on mental and physical health.
They will collect oral testimonies to capture the lived experiences of these places and landscapes, and young people’s voices will be at the heart of the conversation, making the issues of climate change, environmental sustainability, unequal access to green spaces and food production feel tangible and relevant.
Long Distance Connections
The Long Distance Connections network will explore the stories of female artists represented in each of their collections, through research, community engagement and a youth exchange programme.
For their second touring exhibition, they will explore play-based ways to engage under-5s.
New Faces New Focus
Aberdeenshire Council (Aberdeenshire Museums Service)
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council (Armagh County Museum; FE McWilliam Gallery; The Market Place Theatre & Arts Centre)
Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
The New Faces New Focus network will use socially engaged practice to connect newly formed and isolated communities with their collections, focusing on the theme of journeys.
They will use their heritage collections to enable underrepresented communities to explore and share their own stories.
Coming soon: Exhibitions near you
The museums are currently developing their exhibitions. Bookmark this page and check back for details of the exhibitions when they are announced.
The largest project of its kind
Taking place across five years, 2025-30, Going Places is the largest collaborative touring project of its kind.
The project follows on from research Art Fund commissioned in partnership with Creative Scotland in 2022, which explored how museums doing more to share their collections with each other – and working together on touring exhibitions – could increase access to high-quality exhibitions across the UK.
The Going Places project also aims to support a more sustainable approach to making exhibitions, with museums making the most of each other’s collections, sharing resources and making them go further.
Going Places, an Art Fund programme made possible with generous support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust.
