New Open Eye Gallery Exhibition Explores Journeys, Identity and Home Across Liverpool City Region
A major new touring exhibition exploring stories of journeys, identity and home through photography, art and museum collections will open at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool this September.
New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share brings together artists, local communities and museums from across the UK, placing personal experiences at the heart of the exhibition.
Opening at Open Eye Gallery on 18 September 2026, the exhibition will run until 20 December, with related displays also taking place across Liverpool City Region at The Atkinson in Sefton, Kirkby Gallery in Knowsley and The World of Glass in St Helens.
A launch event will take place at Open Eye Gallery on 17 September from 6–8pm.
Liverpool City Region communities share their stories
New Faces, New Focus has been developed through creative residencies in Liverpool City Region, Armagh and Aberdeenshire, exploring how experiences including migration, displacement, traditions and major life milestones can shape our sense of identity and belonging.
At the centre of the project are communities whose experiences have not always been represented within traditional museum collections.
Across Liverpool City Region, three socially engaged photographers have worked directly with local communities to produce new work inspired by both museum collections and participants’ own experiences.
Anoosh Ariamehr has worked with communities in Knowsley in partnership with Kirkby Gallery, while Nina Karetska has collaborated with members of the displaced Ukrainian community in Sefton alongside The Atkinson.
In St Helens, Abdullrhman Hassona has worked with local communities supported by Cafe Laziz and in partnership with The World of Glass.
The resulting work will be brought together at Open Eye Gallery while also being exhibited within the communities and venues where the individual projects were developed.
Connecting personal experiences with museum collections
The Liverpool City Region projects form part of a wider collaboration with communities in Armagh and Aberdeenshire.
In Armagh, artists Rosalind Lowery and Catherine Willis, alongside mentee artists Maria McStay and Fionnula O’Gorman, worked with Polish, Ukrainian, Syrian and Lithuanian communities to explore objects held within local museum collections.
Everyday objects became starting points for conversations around family, heritage and home, with participants creating new work through sewing, sculpture and writing.
In Aberdeenshire, socially engaged photographer Nicole Gildea, with additional support from mentee photographer Max Creamer, worked with newly formed communities to explore local heritage through photography.
Participants considered what it means to make a home in a new place and discovered connections between their own experiences and objects within Aberdeenshire’s historic collections.
Across the three locations, the project asks how museums and galleries can better reflect the people and communities around them – and what happens when communities are given the opportunity to tell their own stories.
Sorcha Boyle, Open Eye Gallery’s New Faces New Focus Programme Manager, said:
“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 have had the opportunity to embed this work in local contexts and create a dynamic constellation of exhibitions.”
Part of a major UK touring programme
New Faces, New Focus has been created by Open Eye Gallery in partnership with Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council and Aberdeenshire Council’s Museums Service.
It forms part of Art Fund’s Going Places programme, which will see 12 exhibitions tour the UK, bringing museums together to share their collections and develop exhibitions in collaboration with local communities.
Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund, said:
“New Faces New Focus brings together photography, museum collections and personal stories to celebrate the many experiences that shape our communities today.
“I’d encourage people from Liverpool and beyond to visit the exhibition at Open Eye Gallery as it begins its journey across the UK, before travelling on to Aberdeenshire and Armagh.”
Going Places is made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust, alongside additional support from trusts, foundations and individuals.
More photography exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery this autumn
Coinciding with New Faces, New Focus, Open Eye Gallery will present Next Up-2026 from 18 September to 1 November.
The annual graduate exhibition showcases work from the MA in Socially Engaged Photography, a programme run jointly by Open Eye Gallery and the University of Salford since 2018.
This year’s exhibition features four early-career photographers – Yaqeen Amir, Ella Horniman, Jack Smith and Helen Constantinou – with the latter exhibiting in partnership with Homotopia’s Contemporary Fine Art MA.
Meanwhile, visitors to Kirkby Gallery will also be able to see the first UK exhibition of Comfort Work by Andrii Dostliev and Lia Dostlieva.
The work was commissioned for the Ukrainian National Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia and now sits within Open Eye Gallery’s Archive.
New Faces, New Focus: Stories We Share runs at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, from 18 September to 20 December 2026, with related exhibitions at The Atkinson, Kirkby Gallery and The World of Glass.
Following its Liverpool City Region programme, the exhibition will tour to Armagh County Museum from 17 January to 5 May 2027, before travelling to Aberdeenshire Farming Museum from June to September 2027.
For more information visit openeye.org.uk.
