Derby Museums Trust opens World Collection Gallery based on shared experiences

The new gallery is built on a foundation of shared experiences that are common to people across the world and these values, emotions and actions have shaped and informed every step of the project

Derby Museums Trust

Arranged into seven zones entitled: Consume; Believe; Create; Conflict; Furnish; Adorn and Communicate, the space allows the visitor, through its objects, to experience a history of human connection with the items that have been crafted, used, loved, lost, stolen, collected, stored or hidden.

The museum says objects are displayed with respect and will ‘connect to historic events full of horror, joy and everything in between’ with each zone offering a mixture of comfort and discomfort through talking drums, wooden pillows and weapons designed to torture enslaved workers.

Objects of Love, Hope and Fear: A World Collection has been built, say the museum, on a foundation of shared experiences that are common to people across the globe and these values, emotions and actions have shaped and informed every step of the project.

As a co-produced space, the museum has worked with thousands of people including co-production volunteers, people on the streets of Derby and ‘new friends’ across the globe have helped to clean, photograph, research, interpret and display this important collection.

“This project has encouraged the Museum to examine its own history and past prejudices as an institution, and will inform its behaviour moving forward as Derby Museums strives to be ever more inclusive in communicating with the diverse audiences of our city,” said Tony Butler, Executive Director of Derby Museums. “Some of these objects were bought, some were exchanged or commissioned and some were stolen. Never before has there been a gallery in Derby Museums dedicated to telling the stories of how these objects got here.”