Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.
This initiative matters because it addresses the chronic underfunding and regional disparity in UK museum exhibitions, enabling smaller institutions to share collections and resources on an ambitious scale. By involving local communities—such as care-experienced young people in Penzance—the programme aims to widen access and make museum collections more relevant and inclusive. It also demonstrates a sustainable model for touring exhibitions that could reshape how museums collaborate across the UK, bringing rarely seen works to new audiences and empowering communities to co-curate their cultural experiences.