Launch: New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share and Next Up

Launch: Thursday 17 September / 6–8pm / Open Eye Gallery / free, RSVP

Join us for the launch of our new exhibitions: New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share and Next Up!

New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share is a collaborative touring exhibition bringing together new creative work by artists and community participants alongside objects and artworks from three museums collections across the UK.

Created by Open Eye Gallery in partnership with Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council and Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service, the exhibition is part of Art Fund’s Going Places programme – a series of 12 exhibitions touring the UK, created by museums working together to share and celebrate their collections in collaboration with local communities.

Developed through residencies in Liverpool City Region, Armagh and Aberdeenshire, the exhibition explores the theme of journeys, identity and home through the voices of local communities whose stories have not always been represented in museum collections – including those with lived experience of migration and displacement.

Across all three locations, participants have worked alongside artists, curators and museum teams to explore the theme of journeys – from migration and exile to the milestones, traditions and celebrations that shape our lives – creating new work inspired by museum collections and their own experiences of place, identity and home.

In our Gallery 3 (upstairs), we will be launching Next Up-2026, an annual graduate exhibition of work from the MA in Socially Engaged Photography course, a joint programme Open Eye Gallery runs with the University of Salford. This year, it features work by Yaqeen Amir, Ella Horniman, Jack Smith, and Helen Constantinou in partnership with Homotopia (Contemporary Fine Art MA).

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. Art Fund is continuing to fundraise to reach the full potential of the programme and make the biggest impact for museums and visitors across the UK.