Cobby, H (2026) Drawing together: place-based exhibition-making and the public lives of regional collections. In: Regional Collections Histories on Display, 11 September 2026, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.
Abstract
This paper examines how collaborative touring exhibitions can operate as forms of public research and civic impact across regional cultural partnerships. Developed through an experimental collaboration between Bath Spa University (BSU), Salisbury’s Young Gallery and Chippenham Museum, the case study Drawing Together uses the 80th anniversary of the Bath Academy of Art (BAA) at Corsham Court to explore how regional collections histories might be reinterpreted and made publicly meaningful through place-based and socially engaged approaches. Across three partners with different audiences, institutional priorities and community contexts, the project asks whether touring exhibitions can become vehicles for social connection and community engagement, rather than mechanisms for scale or income generation. Taking its cue from the BAA’s 1946 prospectus, which states that ‘It is hoped that Art will not be yet another “school subject” but a way of learning, a way of teaching and, indeed, a way of living’, the exhibition examines the development and significance of post-war art education and collections, the role of artists as teachers, and the continuing relevance of experimental pedagogies within current debates around arts education and public value. Drawing on the BAA’s own tradition of experimental exhibition-making, the project has involved BSU students as collaborators in researching and interpreting each collection, while rethinking traditional display methods and institutional processes. This includes the use of photogrammetry as a method of reinterpretation or reactivation and creative knowledge exchange. The paper reflects on what can happen when regional and largely under-studied collections and their pedagogic histories are co-authored with young people, and considers tensions around labour, sustainability, institutional capacity and the rhetoric of ‘impact’ within regional cross-sector cultural partnerships. In doing so, the project responds to wider pressures facing both universities and regional museums, including questions of civic responsibility, public value and the sustainability of collections-based practice.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Note: | Presented as part of the 'Reinterpreting Regional Collections Histories: Collaboration, Care and Belonging’ panel. |
| Divisions: | Professional Services |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Nov 2026 18:33 |
| Last Modified: | 04 Nov 2026 18:33 |
| URN: | https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/18052 |
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