New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share is a collaborative touring exhibition by Open Eye Gallery, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, and Aberdeenshire Museums Service.
Exploring themes of journeys, identity and belonging, the exhibition brings together new creative work, museum collections and archives to celebrate the stories of communities across Liverpool City Region, Armagh and Aberdeenshire.
Through collaboration with socially engaged artists, community members have reflected on migration, heritage and identity, to play with perceptions of self and others and create new connections through storytelling.
In New Faces, New Focus, Anoosh Ariamehr engaged with people in Knowsley, who share memories of the area through the years and reflect on how it has changed. Visits to Open Eye Gallery’s archive and the collection at Prescot Museum sparked an exploration of life journeys through personal archives – from community work, caring professions and industry, to creative pursuits, travel and moments in time. The project reflects on the life experiences that form our sense of self, and the shifting nature of identity. Anoosh Ariamehr, Socially Engaged Photographer, Knowsley, said:“This project has been a profound exploration of journeys, archive, absence, and identity. Through tactile processes like collage-making and intentional portraiture, the participants have given physical shape to fragmented memories and personal journeys. Seeing them transition from learning technical skills to co-curating their own stories with such creative ownership highlights the true power of community-led art.
“This project reminded me that photographs do not only hold images; they also hold time, silence, memory and the possibility of another story. The archive gave us a place to begin, but the community members carried those images somewhere new. Through their photographs, collages and words, the past entered into conversation with the present. For me, the most powerful part has been watching people discover that their everyday experiences, memories and local places are not small stories; they are part of the history that deserves to be seen and remembered.”
Alongside New Faces, New Focus, is the first UK exhibition of Comfort Work by Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva. Comfort Work sits within Open Eye Gallery’s Archive. It was commissioned for the Ukrainian National Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Viktoria Bavykina and Max Gorbatskyi, and acquired with the generous support from Art Friends Merseyside. In the video installation, ten actors from the EU and the UK are hired to perform in front of the camera the roles of those types of Ukrainian refugees, which are preferred by various communities in their own countries. Jack Rennick‑Welsh, Culture Development and Events Officer, Knowsley Council, said:
“The group visited Prescot Museum in April to explore the collection displays. They were particularly inspired by the local archival photographs exhibited as part of the ‘Know Your Knowsley’ digitisation project of the Prescot Museum collection, as funded by Arts Council England’s ‘Unlocking Collections’ fund. This collections-based project includes training local volunteers in the digitising of the museum’s collection of over 15,000 objects, as well as collections care and conservation. This visit sparked new ideas and creative conversations, introducing the group to how archival photographs could work within their own photo stories.”
More New Faces, New Focus exhibitions in the Liverpool City Region can be visited at Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool, 17 September – 20 December), The Atkinson (Sefton, 17 September – 27 February), and The World of Glass (St Helens, 17 September – 20 December).
New Faces, New Focus is part of Going Places, an Art Fund programme where museums and galleries from all four nations share their collections in the largest collaborative touring project of its kind. Six museum networks spanning the breadth of the country have been co-creating 12 major touring exhibitions, taking the UK’s collections on an epic journey that will result in 40 unique exhibitions made with and for local communities. Going Places is a celebration of UK collections and the people who bring them to life.
Going Places is an Art Fund programme made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust, with additional support from a generous group of trusts, foundations and individuals.
Kirkby Gallery is part of Knowsley Council and presents a broad and ambitious exhibition programme, drawing upon collections from the Arts Council Collection, Hayward Touring, National Trust and multiple regional partners and galleries.