Where we are... programme

How it works

Running from 2021–2025, Where we are... will be delivered through a collaborative partnership between the British Museum, a local museum (or cultural organisation), a third sector organisation (charity, community group, social enterprise etc.) and young people.

The programme will annually invite museums and third sector organisations from all over the UK to pair together and apply to become a Key Partner.

Each year, these Key Partners will shape the development and delivery of local arts and cultural projects and will be critical to the recruitment of young people into the programme. These co-designed projects will be unique to their locality, responding to a community need identified by the young people.

The programme aims to:

• Remove some of the barriers to engagement that young people face within the cultural sector.
• Create a sense of agency in young people that can be reflected into their communities.

Tyneside Cinema and NE Youth

Tyneside Cinema is an arts hub and registered charity that provides a platform for marginalised members of the community. It aims to enrich people's lives by thinking differently about film and its potential to connect, reward, celebrate and educate.

NE Youth is a leading regional youth organisation which provides services to young people and infrastructure support to the wider youth sector. They believe that all young people deserve to get involved in their communities and achieve their potential, working collaboratively with them to support them to grow and develop.

Metal and The Kite Trust

Metal is an arts centre that brings artists and communities together to inspire positive change, through a wide range of events, exhibitions and participatory projects. It works deeply within communities and on a national and international scale, with sites in Liverpool, Peterborough and Southend-on-Sea. They have supported over 11,000 artists, hosted over 110,000 participants and welcomed over eight million audience members.

The Kite Trust supports the wellbeing and creativity of LGBTQ+ young people in Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and surrounding areas through information, support and groups. It builds inclusive communities to tackle inequalities through consultancy, training and education to all sectors.

The programme aims to engage a total of 30 young people each year to lead on the development and delivery of local arts or cultural projects. Where we are... provides young people with a range of experiences including project management, communication, creative problem-solving and networking. It also connects young people to a network of creative youth across the UK.

We're looking for young people who:

• Are aged 16–24 of any background or experience. ​
• Live anywhere in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). ​  
• Are willing and able to commit to approximately six months (an approximate participation time of 40 hours) for the co-production of local arts or cultural projects. There'll be flexibility in this time commitment depending on the young people and partner organisations.
• Are under-served in the museum sector. This includes, but is not limited to, young people who identify themselves as: LGBTQIA+; from working class backgrounds; neurodivergent; disabled; having a migrant or refugee experience; from African Diaspora; from South, East and South East Asian diaspora; and/or ethnically diverse.

Those with no prior knowledge, interest, or experience in museums, galleries or the arts will be warmly welcomed.

The fifth cohort of young people will be recruited through our Key Partners from June to August 2025. You will be expected to be able to commit to participating in 16 sessions over approximately six months, with each session lasting from two to three hours. Young people's time and expenses will be fully covered, with a £30 stipend per session plus up to £10 for expenses. Please visit our webpage in May 2025 for more information on how to apply.

In January 2024, an end-of-year celebration event took place at the British Museum which brought together the Key Partners, session facilitators and young people from all 2023 creative projects. Explorative sessions designed in consultation with young people formed a combination of gallery and workshop-based activities which reflected their interests, curiosity and excitement about visiting the Museum and exploring the collection. 

Two gallery trails were also organised based on the young people's interests. One titled 'Desire, Love, and Identity' highlighted queer collections on display while the other titled 'Collecting and Empire' explored the colonial legacy of the collection.

Art and Stories

In partnership with Swindon Museum and Art Gallery and Prime Theatre, 13 young people were brought together to explore culture, art and heritage in Swindon and beyond. The project has focused on the aspects of placemaking in the British Isles and how art and heritage work together. The young people have brought their own ideas and identities to shaping the project to explore, why and what we collect and display in museums, art galleries and heritage spaces and how artists have influenced them. They have explored the likes of Grayson Perry, Virgina Bell and Kelmscott Manor with William Morris, STEAM, Lydiard Park and the vast collection of art and heritage that Swindon holds. Explorer's notebooks, collectors boxes – houses, galleries and museums – along with expressions of a varied multicultural inclusive community that makes up Swindon, have been the starting points for new Art and Stories that will be displayed in Swindon's new Museum and Art Gallery when it opens in April.

Our Journey

In partnership with The Youth Association and Wakefield Museums and Castles, 14 young people went on a journey together in Wakefield, exploring what arts and culture meant to them and sharing their diverse experiences with one another. It allowed young people aged 16–25 to explore themes and ideas of identity, home, family, community and solidarity through creative exploration and discussion. The young people learned new skills in ceramics, screen and lino printing, framing and photography workshops. They found their voices through a drama workshop and built their confidence as they established a new community of friendship together. They heard from professionals in curation and conservation, learning what goes on behind the scenes in museums and together they created a final exhibition in Wakefield Museum, entitled 'Our Journey'.

Watch a film showing the young people's creative responses.

Dreams 

In partnership with Barnsley Museums and Jolly Good Communities, eight people from Barnsley worked individually and together on a variety of artistic approaches, mediums, and conversations exploring their experience of Barnsley. By embedding identity, culture and creative play into the sessions, they produced a range of artistic outputs. They plan to curate a collection of the pieces they made in a dedicated area of the museum, with information about their group and what they did during the project.

View the young people's creative responses.

Where I am...

In partnership with Bury Art Museum and The Sunnywood Project, eight young people came together over 12 weeks. They explored their relationship with Bury, each other and themselves, through a series of sessions with a facilitator and a number of guest artists. They curated their responses in an exhibition at Bury Art Museum. The group continued to work together during 2023 on an animation project about the power of art as protest.

Hackney: Where we are...

This project was based at the Museum of the Home in Hackney in partnership with Voyage Youth. Nine young people who identify as being either from African or ethnically diverse backgrounds engaged with the legacy of the English merchant and investor in the transatlantic slave trade, Robert Geffrye. They decided to decentralise Robert Geffrye and honour the stories of nurses and other workers instead. The unravelling of time and truth were recurring themes, as they examined how issues of the past – such as systemic racism, displacement and workers rights – connect to our lives today.

View the young people's creative responses.

Edinburgh is Not the Royal Mile

Ten young people in partnership with Edinburgh Young Carers and Museums & Galleries Edinburgh spent three months working on a creative response to their experience of Edinburgh city centre. The group created a virtual reality experience that took the viewer on a journey from a spot on the Royal Mile, a historic street at the heart of the Scottish capital, to a part of Edinburgh special to each young person. As a legacy, the project created 10 postcards that present an image of the young people's favourite places.

See Me As Me

In partnership with Attenborough Arts Centre and Pedestrian, 12 young people from Leicester who identify as LGBTQ+ explored activism and social justice through making art. Their creative responses spanned poetry, drawing, music, ceramics, photography, filmmaking and performance. These were presented in a multidisciplinary display titled See Me As Me at the Attenborough Arts Centre on 4 December 2021.

Not My House

In Leeds, 13 young people who identify as being from the African diaspora were invited to reflect on Harewood House's history of slavery and colonisation and bring new perspectives. In partnership with Harewood House Trust and Geraldine Connor Foundation and supported by Sable Radio, the group produced a film titled Not My House and wrote a collective poem on their reactions to Harewood House.