Gathering Landscapes: 150 Years of Collecting at Weston Park Museum

For 150 years, Weston Park Museum has reflected how people have gathered and treasured aspects of the world around them. This new exhibition, curated by Heavy Water Collective (artists Maud Haya-Baviera, Victoria Lucas and Joanna Whittle), examines the curious, beautiful, macabre and magical connections people have made to the land through over 400 objects from Sheffield’s eclectic museum collections.

Humans have long sought to make sense of the natural world through art, ritual and the act of collecting. Science, industry and farming have transformed our relationship with the land, with nature and culture often in opposition. Once a sacred place, this landscape is now a lucrative natural resource. Yet our spiritual connection to the land remains. 

Gathering Landscapes sees Heavy Water Collective explore our enduring, fundamental connections to the land. Bringing together artwork, artefacts and archival material, alongside work by the artists themselves, this playful treasure-trove invites visitors to consider the collection, and the historical stories it tells, in new and surprising ways.

Forming multiple and unexpected connections, the displays ask us to resist the idea of nature as static and separate. Instead, our evolving connection with the world around us is framed through ideas of ritual and meaning, exploitation and loss, and ultimately, joy, hope and resilience. 

Exhibition generously sponsored by

Growing, caring for and sharing the city’s collections is only possible thanks to you and your generosity – please donate £5 to ensure that the collections, and the stories they tell, can be enjoyed for generations to come.