2020 - Ongoing

A long-term collaboration with Durham University and the communities of County Durham the Street series explored the idea that big art, museum artifacts and concepts like the universe shouldn’t just be held in institutions and traditional buildings like galleries and museums.

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The Street programme has spanned three main strands:

Street Gallery: In 2020 during the backdrop of the pandemic the initial project brought together art from Durham University’s collections to be hosted in the windows of houses in Dawdon in Seaham creating a Street Gallery trail that could be explored safely during walks out and about in Seaham.

Street Museum: Winner of the best culture and education partnership the initial Street Museum invited the community of Blackhall to explore the expanses of history and time to co-curate and collaboratively put together an exhibition of 3D printed objects from Durham University’s museums collections. Rather than choose a time period the community curators chose objects representing the different key strengths of their place including community, women and unity. This was launched in a trail that led people around Blackhall to find each object and explore it’s history and why it was chosen including in the windows of shops and local businesses, in people’s homes and in the local church and community centre. Now Blackhall is working together with Auckland Youth and Community Centre in Bishop Auckland and TCR Hub in Barnard Castle to develop projects rooted in periods of history across three distinct locations rather than just one village.

Street Cosmos: The project set up the collaboration between Blackhall Community Centre, Auckland Youth and Community Centre and the TCR Hub in Barnard Castle with each place collaborating with artists to explore the vastness of space and the universe in their own community settings, rather than as part of a traditional institute or museum setting. This included artists residencies to create fictional asteroid laboratories, moon landing portals and space themed zines. The project culminated in the Big Bang event at TCR Hub with hundreds of folks attending to explore space alongside cultural orgs, artists and the University experts.

Find out more by visiting https://www.streetmuseum.co.uk/