A new exhibition featuring portraits of inspirational figures from Sheffield has opened at the Millennium Gallery

The good news is that Sheffield Museums is one of the lucky recipients and they will be displaying NPG artworks throughout the summer and into the autumn in a new exhibition at the Millennium Gallery.

Creative Connections Sheffield was developed in collaboration with the NPG and celebrates the pioneers, performers, sportspeople and artists who have a connection with the Steel City. The show features more than 30 works from the NPG in a range of media – photographs, paintings, prints and busts – alongside some pieces from Sheffield’s own collection. It includes portraits of the actor Sean Bean, the athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, the first British astronaut, Helen Sharman, Mary Queen of Scots, who was imprisoned in Sheffield, and writer and broadcaster Michael Palin.

“The exhibition came out of a participatory project that the National Portrait Gallery were embarking on called Creative Connections which is part of a bigger group of projects they are doing while they are closed,” says Sian Brown, head of collections at Sheffield Museums. “They wanted to get their collections out across the country and to work with young people. They approached us about this project which is about place, people and inspiration and, crucially, about engaging young people with art.”

As well as in Sheffield, exhibitions have been installed in galleries in Coventry and Newlyn, with another scheduled for Southampton next year, each focusing on those places. The idea is that each gallery borrows works from the NPG collection that relate to their particular location, and that they also facilitate a creative engagement project between a group of young people and a local artist to explore notions of place, identity, community and inspirational people.

“The artist we have been working with is Conor Rogers – he has been amazing,” says Brown. “Since November last year he has been working with a group of around 16 Year 10 students from Sheffield Park Academy who are all doing a BTEC in Art and Design. He has been to talk to them at the school and he has also brought them into the gallery; for some of them it was their first time visiting a gallery.”

There is a lovely extra connection in that Rogers, an award-winning Sheffield-based contemporary artist, studied at the school’s sixth form as a teenager. “That puts the project onto a whole different level for the students he has been working with,” says Brown. “Seeing someone who went to their school who has been really successful in a creative career is so inspiring and he has opened a door to creativity for them. Conor had the idea that they would create an installation together which would be on display in the gallery. We were really keen from the outset that whatever they produced would be an important part of the exhibition.”

In fact, it is the centrepiece of the show and quite an eye-catching one at that, based as it is around a decommissioned bus shelter. “Conor said to us that he would like to use a bus shelter because for him it was a symbol of place, of getting somewhere in life – and it was relatable too, as all the young people involved in the project will have waited at a bus shelter at some time. We trusted his vision – and it looks fantastic.” The work of the students, which relates to people who have inspired them, is showcased in the shelter and it includes poetry as well as visual artwork. “They have produced some really amazing, thoughtful pieces,” says Brown. “Work that is about someone who is really important in their lives. Conor was keen that it wasn’t just about famous people, so it could be about their mum or their grandad.”

Among the key works on display in the exhibition are three contemporary portraits of inspirational Sheffield figures. One of them is of singer-songwriter Self Esteem (Rebecca Lucy Taylor) who was born in Rotherham and was formerly a member of Sheffield indie duo Slow Club. Her 2021 album Prioritise Pleasure was named as best of the year by The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Gigwise.

The other two portraits are of hip-hop and spoken word artist Otis Mensah, appointed Poet Laureate of Sheffield in 2018, and of Magid Magid, a Somali-British activist and politician who came to Sheffield in 1994 as a child refugee and served as the city’s Lord Mayor from 2018 to 2019. All three portraits are new additions to the NPG’s collection and have joined it as a result of the project. “They were purchased by the National Portrait Gallery specifically in consultation with us,” says Brown. “We felt that as we were working with young people, those would reference contemporary Sheffield more. I am so pleased they will now become part of a national collection; it has been wonderful to be able to help shape what the NPG are collecting.”

The exhibition also highlights some lesser-known links to Sheffield including those of aviation pioneer Amy Johnson, who studied at the University of Sheffield; the founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale who regularly visited her wealthy grandparents in Sheffield when she was a child; and award-winning novelist AS Byatt who, with her sister and fellow writer Margaret Drabble, went to school and visited the central library in the city.

“It has been fascinating doing some of the research,” adds Brown. “We have included people not just born and brought up in Sheffield but also those who studied here or were born here and moved away soon after. It raises some interesting questions around how you define where you are from and how people feel about the place they call home, regardless of where you are from originally.”

There is an events programme running alongside the exhibition, including a conversation between photographer Chris Saunders and Magid Magid about the striking image that features in the show, plus an evening of music and poetry curated by Otis Mensah. “I really hope the project has had a beneficial impact on the confidence of the young people involved,” says Brown. “Of course, we would like people to come and enjoy the exhibition, but what we really want is for the young people to feel positive about the whole experience – that would be a brilliant outcome for us.”

Creative Connections Sheffield continues at the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, until October 2. Entry is free. sheffieldmuseums.org.uk