A first look at a major new arts collaboration between craft and design centre and museum

Through contemporary art and community participation, this ambitious programme of exhibitions and events aims to unearth and reinterpret objects from the Museum’s collection, offering a fresh perspective on local heritage.

Across both buildings, contemporary artworks will be displayed alongside historical objects and artefacts from Sleaford Museum – admission free.

Through themes of industry, agriculture, migration, and class, participating artists respond to local histories in Common Ground, offering new and diverse perspectives on Sleaford’s heritage from July 18 to November 8. Central to the project is the question: who and what has historically been excluded from regional heritage and cultural spaces, and how can this be actively changed? The exhibition will highlight a rare group of watercolours by Gainsborough artist, Karl Salsbury Wood (1888–1958), who set out to document every windmill in Britain. Wood’s career ended when he was convicted and imprisoned for gross indecency in 1951. On loan from the Lincoln Museum, the works have not been shown publicly since entering the collection in the 1970s. The works will be presented alongside a new photographic commission by Emily Andersen, offering a reappraisal of Wood’s work in light of the discrimination he faced for his homosexuality. Dan Coopey’s prints capturing the surface textures of Iron Age coins will sit alongside a display of original coin moulds. A new series of striking black and white photographs by Nicola Davison-Reed will reinterpret objects from the collection through a contemporary lens. Other participating artists include John Beck and Matthew Cornford, Andrew Bracey, Liz Kelleher, Kelly Large, Danica Maier, Madhu Manipatruni, Harriet Plewis, Madara Vimba and Dino Zhang.

Joshua Lockwood, Curator at the Hub, said: “I’m incredibly excited to work with the commissioned artists on this project, and to see how they respond to and reinterpret the rich and complex histories of Sleaford. By bringing contemporary art into dialogue with heritage objects, we hope to open up new perspectives on the town’s past, while deepening our collaboration with Sleaford Museum. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how audiences engage with these stories and discover new ways of understanding Sleaford’s heritage.” Mark Bamford, Chair of Sleaford Museum, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for the Museum and its collection to be presented in new and innovative ways. We are excited and privileged to work with the creative team at the Hub alongside the chosen artists to reframe the historic narrative of our artefacts. Together, we will mount a major dual-site exhibition which will allow us to “share our stories” from very different and exciting angles.”

The project is made possible by an award of £39,122 from Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries, through Art Fund’s Reimagine programme, supporting innovative collections projects across the UK. The exhibition loans are supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund. Created by the Garfield Weston Foundation and Art Fund, the Weston Loan Programme is the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable smaller and local authority museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.