Creative Connections Coventry

Declan, 13 years old, loves Radford Common in Coventry City, by Maryam Wahid.

This exhibition celebrates Coventry - the current UK City of Culture - and the people that call it home. Spotlighting local heroes with works from our Gallery's Collection and the Collection of the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, the exhibition includes new acquisitions to our Collection, such as portraits of comedian and actor Guz Khan and the band The Specials. 

Maryam Wahid is an award-winning artist who has worked with students from Barr’s Hill School in Coventry to explore identity and representation in relation to their own experiences. A series of collaborative portraits by Maryam are being displayed alongside paintings and photographs from the National Portrait Gallery and the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum collections that inspired them. The exhibition presents portraits and inspirational stories of people associated with Coventry including Ira Aldridge, Ellen Terry, Philip Larkin, Graham Sutherland, Mo Mowlam, The Specials, Billie Whitelaw, George Eliot and Guz Khan. 

Creative Connections Coventry is a National Portrait Gallery project in partnership with the Herbert Gallery & Museum. The project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund with the generous support of the Palley family and additional support from the 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust. 

Find out more about Creative Connections

NPG X Herbert Art Gallery

Hear Coventry students share their experience of being involved in the Creative Connections Coventry exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery.