Territories

Territories: welcoming local community groups

Territories is for people who might never have been to a gallery before.

Territories will help you to:

• feel that you belong
• learn about art
• meet and work with real artists
• tell us what you think about the art around you

Territories is York Art Gallery’s community arts programme, and has been funded by the Arts Council.  We work with around 10 different community groups each year, offering each group a series of 6 or more practical workshop sessions in the gallery, lead by a professional artist.  The content of the sessions relates directly to art in the collection and on display in the Gallery.

Each year’s programme reflects an overall theme. The theme for year 1 (2007-08) was Touch. The theme in year 2 (2008-09) was Sound, allowing participants to explore: storytelling, poetry and music. The theme for year 3 (2009-10) was Vision. Year 4 (2010-11) has the theme of Partnership and will celebrate the future of Territories beyond Arts Council funding.

Territories has become a vital part of the Gallery’s work.  In spring 2009, Territories groups worked with creative writers to curate an exhibition of art from the gallery collection.  This project received additional funding from the MLA through ‘Their Past Your Future’ and resulted in the exhibition Reflections on War.  The success of this project has encouraged the gallery to embed community involvement into its exhibition planning. Territories will be coordinating a new, community led exhibition due to go on display in October 2011.

 

A number of Territories groups have produced books. These are available from:

www.lulu.com/territories

 

Territories has been identified as best practice by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and is featured on their best practice website:

www.mla.gov.uk/what/raising_standards/best_practice/York_Museum_Trust