A collaboration between The Bowes Museum and Deerbolt Prison has culminated in an award.
The Unheard Voices project which saw museum officers working with prisoners to interpret the Kith and Kinship exhibition received the Partnership accolade at the 2025 North East Prison Group Awards.
The project has now moved into a second phase which will see prisoners creating their own exhibition using objects from the museum’s collection.
Speaking at Barnard Castle Town Council’s partnerships committee meeting, Vicky Sturrs of the museum said the first phase had been a success.
She added: “They were doing a lot of literacy work with an artist and our curators, and they produced a zine (magazine).
“It was fab. There was some real uptake in terms of their confidence, in terms of the way they apply themselves and some of their behaviours around those pieces of work.
“One of the things that worked really well was the skills acquisition, so we wanted to explore that more with the prison staff.”
The project was carried out in collaboration with prison education provider Novus.
This time prisoners are being challenged to go through the entire process of putting an exhibition together.
Ms Sturrs said: “They are selecting artwork, writing interpretation for it, conserving it, curating it, putting it on show, installing it and then they will be arranging private views for it and they will be hosting some tours within the prison system for it.”
She added that the theme of the exhibition is the passage of time.
The museum officer said: “They have put together some thought-provoking and moving pieces.
“This is a project we hope will continue to grow. That skills exchange is great.”
