Yorkshire Museums Selected for Meeting Point Arts Programme
Six museums in the North East, Yorkshire and the North West of England have been selected to take part in Meeting Point, an Arts Council England funded programme that partners museums and artists, resulting in the creation of new artworks, each inspired by an individual venue and its collections.
The programme, which is led by contemporary arts agency Arts&Heritage, aims to attract new audiences to the participating venues by placing contemporary artwork in unexpected spaces, and also helps museum staff to gain skills in commissioning and working with artists.
The six participating venues are Colne Valley Museum in Huddersfield; Grace Darling Museum in Bamburgh, Northumberland; Port Sunlight Village Trust in Merseyside; Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust; Warrington Museum and Arts Gallery; and Washington Old Hall in Tyne and Wear.
Melanie Williams, Trustee at Colne Valley Museum, said: “We are delighted Colne Valley Museum has been chosen as one of six museums to take part in the project. This gives us a fantastic opportunity to commission contemporary artists to produce new work inspired by the experience of visiting the museum and its setting. Building on the museum’s recent redevelopment, we hope to take full advantage of our great new exhibition space and allow the community to experience the museum and its collections in new and exciting ways.”
Helen Featherstone, director of Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust said: “Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust is thrilled to be part of Meeting Point. We’re really excited about the prospect of being able to commission contemporary art in our heritage setting, and we hope this will delight our regular visitors whilst also appealing to those who may not ordinarily think that we are a place for them.”
Steph Allen, Executive Director from Arts&Heritage added: “We have a group of absolutely fascinating museums, ranging from converted 19th century weavers’ cottages at Colne Valley, through to an entire village and its residents at Port Sunlight. In previous years’ we have seen venues and artists work together to create a huge floating sculpture, film installations and even a beer brewed using elements of a local recipe, so I can’t wait to see what this group of museums will inspire.”
This is the third Meeting Point programme, building on the success of two previous programmes which have seen a total of 19 museums working with 24 curators to create 19 new artworks and over 100 workshops.
Arts&Heritage is funded by Arts Council England.
Find out more at www.artsandheritage.org.uk
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