Open Eye Gallery has a New Focus this Autumn

A major new touring exhibition which lets communities across the UK share their stories through photography, art and museum collections is set to be launched at Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery this month.

New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share will be at the waterfront venue from September 18 until December 20.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Open Eye Gallery and partners in Aberdeenshire and Armagh, and is part of the 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 the 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.

In the Liverpool City Region, three socially engaged photographers have worked with communities to create new work inspired by local collections and participants’ own experiences.

Anoosh Ariamehr worked with communities in Knowsley, Nina Karetska with displaced Ukrainian community in Sefton and Abdullrhman Hassona with communities in St Helen's supported by Cafe Laziz.

Their projects have been developed in partnership with Kirkby Gallery (Knowsley), The Atkinson (Sefton), and The World of Glass (St Helen’s), where the work will also be exhibited.

Photographer Nina Karetska says: “As a Ukrainian, this project became much more for me; it became an opportunity to tell a story that I know from the inside. When people speak about Ukrainians who arrived in the UK, they often speak in numbers, statistics, or headlines. I wanted to move beyond that. I wanted people to see the individuals behind those stories – their strength, creativity, humour, resilience, fears, memories, and hopes.

“What I found was an extraordinary community of talented, creative, intelligent and inspiring people living here in the UK. Artists, engineers, teachers, musicians, entrepreneurs, mothers, volunteers — people whose identities are far richer than the label of ‘refugee’.”

Sorcha Boyle, Open Eye Gallery’s New Faces New Focus Programme Manager, adds: “The socially engaged approach that underpins this project is an innovative way to interpret and build on the collections of our galleries and museums. By placing the voices of the communities at the forefront, New Faces New Focus asks questions about the stories we are telling, and importantly, who is telling them.

“We hope that this project offers a new approach to engaging with cultural heritage that brings new voices into the fore. Working closely with communities and partners across Liverpool City Region, we’ve had the opportunity to embed this work in local contexts and create a dynamic constellation of exhibitions.”

After Liverpool the exhibition will travel on to its partner areas in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share is on show at the Open Eye Gallery from September 18 until December 20. More details HERE

Top: A part of the image Home Carried With Us by Nina Karetska.