LONDON.- Today a landmark UK-wide touring programme from Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries, launches at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance with the opening of Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art (until 27 September 2026). The collaborative exhibition explores the barriers women artists have faced over the last 150 years and celebrates the lasting impact of their work today.

Bringing together over 60 works from the collections of Penlee House Gallery & Museum, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Galleries, Making Her Mark is the first of a series of 12 major touring shows that will travel to museums and galleries across the UK over the next five years as part of Art Fund’s Going Places programme, made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust.

One of the most ambitious touring programmes of its kind, the £5.36m Going Places initiative brings together 20 museums from all four nations – spanning Penzance to Edinburgh, Lisburn to Carmarthen - to share and celebrate the UK's collections in ways that are rooted in place and shaped by local people. Each unique exhibition is developed in collaboration with local communities, opening up collections in new ways, and enabling more people to see their own lives and stories reflected in museums.

Local people are selecting works for display, contributing personal objects and stories, and working with artists to create new responses to collections. At Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, migrant and asylum-seeking communities are exploring the theme of journeys with socially engaged photographers. At Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum and Carmarthenshire Museum, local craft experts – from loom weavers to basket makers – are sharing endangered heritage skills with young people. Meanwhile, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, young people are working across generations to explore changing relationships with landscape through oral history.

Responding directly to museums’ needs for more sustainable and collaborative ways of exhibiting, Going Places enables collections to travel across the country, reach more people and take on new relevance in different places. Works that have rarely – and in some cases never – left their home collections will be seen by new audiences across the country, including Peille, A Hillside Village (1959) by Anne Redpath, the first woman painter elected to the Royal Scottish Academy, from OnFife’s collection, and Midland Landscape II by Prunella Clough (1919–1999), known for her distinctive post-war work focusing on industrial landscapes, from Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens’ collection.

Jenny Waldman, Director, Art Fund, said: “Going Places is a truly UK-wide collaboration on an ambitious scale. It will bring outstanding works from museum collections to new audiences across the country, with many objects travelling beyond their home institutions for the very first time. Going Places demonstrates what’s possible when museums come together to share collections, resources and expertise – forging a more sustainable future for exhibitions and empowering communities across the UK.

“We’re hugely grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust for their generous support in making this possible, and to the partner museums and communities whose creativity and commitment are at its heart. We encourage everyone, wherever they are in the country, to visit a Going Places exhibition near them and discover something new.”

Making Her Mark highlights the creativity, innovation and determination of women who have shaped British art over the last 150 years - exploring the challenges faced by women artists, celebrating their achievements, and looking to the future. Exhibition highlights include works by Caroline Walker, Elizabeth Forbes, Laura Knight, Tracey Emin, Paula Rego, Barbara Hepworth and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.

Anna Renton, Director, Penlee House Gallery & Museum said: “The collaboration between Penlee, Worcester and Fife has created an opportunity for all our audiences to see great artworks right on their doorstep. Bringing together historic and contemporary artworks, Making Her Mark traces how women have pushed – and often broken through – the boundaries that have long restricted their opportunities for visibility and success and we look forward to celebrating all the women artists featured.”

At Penlee House Gallery & Museum, care-experienced young people, supported by local charity Carefree Cornwall, have responded to the artworks and themes of the exhibition. Their work will be displayed within the exhibition alongside some of the world’s best-known artists, brought together in a large-scale textile banner.

Through a series of artist-led workshops with Elizabeth Howell and Kate Turner, participants explored a range of artistic techniques in response to the exhibition and discussed issues around gender equality. As part of the programme, the group also travelled to partner museums across the UK – for some, leaving Cornwall for the first time – opening up new perspectives and cultural experiences.