Leading Devon museums part of national artist commissioning scheme

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter are to be part of a national programme of pioneering collaborations between artists, museums and audiences.

Thanks to major funding support from Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme, New Expressions 3 (NE3) will bring together 15 museums from across England in partnership with the National Trust and the Contemporary Visual Arts Network.

As part of the programme each museum or heritage site will commission and work with an artist who will produce new work in response to the historic collections and environments they find themselves in.

NE3 aims to build on the momentum established by previous New Expressions programmes in 2009 and 2011-12. As part of New Expressions 2 in 2011-12, nine major new commissions were created in the South West in Plymouth, Bristol, Cheltenham, Exeter, Barnstaple and Falmouth. The commissions were enjoyed by over 800,000 museum visitors – many of whom were new to contemporary art.

“The New Expressions programme has already proved that it can inspire powerful artworks, unlock the creative potential of museum and heritage collections, encourage participation and enrich the experience of visitors,” said Susie O’Reilly, NE3 Project Director. “NE3 will take the ambition of the programme to a new level by extending it to other regions across England and bringing in national partners like the National Trust and the Contemporary Visual Arts Network to all work together. I’m sure the end results will be amazing.”

The museums and heritage providers involved in NE3 will select, commission and work with their chosen artists throughout 2014. The programme will culminate in early summer 2015 with ‘New Expressions LIVE’ – a season of events and activities during which the artist commissions will be on public display. The museums and heritage providers are:

• Birmingham Museums Trust
• Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
• Cumbria Museum Consortium
• Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery (lead partner)
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter
• York Museums Trust
• The National Trust
(one venue each from the South West, Midlands and North)
• Contemporary Visual Arts Network

“New Expressions already has a considerable track record of delivering high-profile new art inspired by museum collections in the South West and we are delighted to be investing £150,000 from our National Lottery-funded Grants for the Arts scheme to see the initiative develop,” said Phil Gibby, Area Director, South West, Arts Council England. “We believe this has the potential to become a very exciting new national partnership that will develop the skills of both artists and museums and have a significant long-term impact.”

Further information about each of the NE3 partners is available at www.newexpressions.org