Aberdeenshire Museums Service creates new exhibition links with Liverpool and Northern Ireland

Aberdeenshire Museums Service has been selected to participate in an innovative UK-wide programme that will share world-leading collections with local communities through collaborative touring exhibitions.

Led by Art Fund, Going Places will establish new touring networks between museums and galleries across the nation. Aberdeenshire Museums Service, part of Live Life Aberdeenshire, is one of four participants in Scotland to join 22 other arts and heritage organisations in this innovative project.

The Aberdeenshire team has formed a new partnership with Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council in Northern Ireland. The collaboration seeks to create innovative opportunities for local communities to connect with museum collections, reaching across geographical and ethnical boundaries.

At the heart of the programme will be the creation of two high quality, collaborative touring exhibitions and public outreach programmes. These will be inspired and informed by local communities to ensure diverse voices are heard and represented. By reinterpreting the collections, it is hoped that new narratives will emerge, offering new perspectives on history, heritage and identity.

Going Places is led by Art Fund, the national charity for art, with funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and additional support from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Following an initial development phase, Art Fund will seek further funding to enable the programme to progress to the touring exhibitions stage.

Cllr Anne Stirling, chair of the council’s Communities Committee said, "We are delighted to be part of Art Fund’s new Going Places programme, alongside an inspiring cohort of arts and heritage organisations. Our collaboration with Open Eye Gallery and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, will provide an invaluable opportunity to work with and learn from some of the best colleagues in the sector. It is also a demonstration of our commitment to support the needs of our diverse audiences, open our collections to many more people in a more impactful way and represent the stories that matter most.”

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