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Every Sunday and Monday
Open Questions: Spotlight Exhibition
Go to Nottingham City Museums
Open Questions
Community-Powered Perspectives on the Nottingham City Museums and Galleries Stores
With Streetwise Opera, Pamoja, Forever Young and Fearless Youth Association
Produced by StoryArcs Fellow, Dr Anna Ball, with the Museum’s Art Curators
Photography by Reem Takriti
21st March to 4th October 2026
BOOK CASTLE ADMISSION
There is much more to Nottingham City’s Museums and Galleries than meets the eye…
Beyond its galleries, there lie extensive stores containing many more items of art, craft and textiles.
These have been amassed since 1878, when the Museum & Art Gallery originally opened at Nottingham Castle, as a resource intended to expand the appreciation of art among the public and inspire innovation among local machine-lace workers.
Every box opened, every item, raises a question.
What do these objects mean to Nottingham’s communities today? What do they tell us about the past, and how might they guide us into the future? Who should tell their stories – and how?
These are questions that are not easy to answer – but as Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery heads towards its 150th anniversary in 2028, it’s an ideal moment to open them up to discussion.
Over the past several months, the Museum’s Visual Arts curators have worked in collaboration with StoryArcs Fellow, Dr. Anna Ball, to enable a range of community groups from across Nottingham to explore the objects in the stores and the questions that they raise.
This exhibition shares the powerful perspectives that community members shared during those visits – and invites you to join the discussion.
Included in your Standard Admission to Nottingham Castle – pay once, visit all year round!
BOOK CASTLE ADMISSION
Open Questions has been developed in collaboration with StoryArcs: a Programme led by The Story Society at Bath Spa University, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
StoryArcs explores Story as a transformative skill across life, work and learning, and is building an evidence base for Story as a cultural and organisational capability of national importance. Through its application at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, this research demonstrates how local storytelling can be used in practice to advance knowledge, improve lives and give communities greater agency in cultural decision-making and representation.
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