New Exhibition: Gathered, Here
Gathered, Here is an artist-led collaborative exhibition developed by Zya Community as part of the Delivering Change: Community Catalysts programme. Delivering Change is a Museums Galleries Scotland programme that seeks to address the exclusion of the histories and lived experiences of many of Scotland’s people and communities from museum spaces.
Curated by Zya Community in partnership with Shetland Museum and Archives and Inlet Studio (Edinburgh), a local fine art printer that supports and documents the artists’ creative journey, the project brings together five artists of colour to explore themes of systemic exclusion, belonging, and how landscape and place shape lived and living experience.
Through workshops, archive research, field visits, and collaborative reflection, the artists explored how personal histories intersect with local heritage, and how migration, cultural inheritance, and experiences of navigating layered identities shape connections to place.
Central to Gathered, Here is the question of what it means to belong. Through textiles, poetry, installation, sound, drawing, and printmaking, the artists engage with Shetland’s museum and archive collections alongside the islands’ landscapes and communities. Connected to and outside of the islands in different ways, each artist encounters Shetland’s heritage and histories through the lens of their own lived experiences, cultural histories, and creative practice.
Gathered, Here has developed through dialogue, reflection and shared experience. Visitors are invited to contribute to a community response installation, adding their own thoughts, memories, and reflections. As the exhibition progresses, these contributions will gather together to create a collective record of the stories, questions, and experiences that connect us.
The project explores how community-led organisations, artists, and heritage partners can work together to create space for a wider range of lived experiences and relationships with archives, collections, and heritage spaces. Bringing the artists’ individual and collective histories into conversation with Shetland’s histories, collections, and landscapes allows multiple perspectives on heritage, place, and belonging to sit alongside one another.
Through collective curation and shared authorship, Gathered, Here reflects on what it means to be “gathered” in a place while continually navigating where and how we find belonging.
Nikki Kilburn and Lesa Ng of Zya Community said “Gathered, Here has been about creating space for artists to respond to the heritage and culture of Shetland through a process of immersion, spending time in Shetland’s landscapes, with communities, and in the museum and archives. The artists have brought their own lived experiences, cultural histories and creative practices into conversation with their research, creating work that explores heritage, identity, belonging and place through reflective and personal perspectives. At the centre of the project is a commitment to making space for different voices and experiences through the sharing and exploration of cultural heritage.”
Collections Manager, Tracey Hawkins, added: “One of the most significant aspects of this project has been seeing the artists engage with Shetland, and with our museum and archives collections in ways that are both thoughtful and deeply personal. Gathered, Here demonstrates how collections can inspire new conversations, helping museums connect heritage with contemporary experiences and new perspectives."
Gathered, Here will be on display at Da Gadderie, Shetland Museum and Archives, from 17 October to 19 December 2026.
