Nationhood: Exhibition Walk & Talk and Reception

Exhibition Walk & Talk and Reception: Saturday 1st November 2025, 2 - 5pm.

Free and all welcome. With Miriam Ali, Haneen Hadiy, Grace Springer, Chad Alexander, Shaun Connell, Robin Chaddah-Dukeand, and Roz Doherty, who will give introductions to their work in the show.

Nationhood: Memory and Hope is a new exhibition of powerful and poignant photography celebrating the diversity of the UK today. It is a love letter to all that is good in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, and offers a wealth of insights on how we each try and shape both our identities and communities to make the world a better place.

The cornerstone is The Necessity of Seeing, a major new collection of constructed images by the acclaimed Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh. This images are shown alongside new photographic portraits by seven rising stars in UK photography explore issues of history, identity, race, gender, and religion.

Miriam Ali spotlights grassroots activists from community organisations in Glasgow, while the photographs of Haneen Hadiy view the beauty of Scottish landscapes through the lens of Islamic symbolism. Shaun Connell pays tribute to his Jamaican mother and Christian faith believers in Bradford, while fellow Bradford photographer Roz Doherty captures both the energy and uncertainty of youth in a new set of studio portraits. Chad Alexander explores the transformation of the Tropicana in Dungannon, from an Irish National Foresters club into a vibrant multicultural community hub. Robin Chaddah-Duke reunites 1970s stalwarts of The Parade Community Education Centre in Cardiff to recreate a group portrait, and Grace Springer showcases the vibrancy of community game changers from the city’s African and Caribbean diasporas.

Shot through the artist’s surrealist lens at iconic locations in Glasgow, Bradford, Belfast, and Cardiff, these layered and complex images reveal the overlooked stories, forgotten histories and quiet moments that shape who we are.