We have a new structure in our Atrium. A purpose-built gallery houses a brand new immersive exhibition called Us & Them. Looking is complicated. Looking is political. Looking can be uncomfortable. Yet that is exactly what the Freewheelers Theatre and Media Company invite you to do through their provocative new immersive project, Us & Them.
One hundred and fifty years ago, photography was still in its infancy, yet it played a central role in the diagnosis and categorisation of people who would now be described as having learning disabilities or mental illness. Those same photography techniques used to capture the earliest photographs of people with disabilities have been brought into the modern day for fifty Freewheelers artists. Through the practice of making the image, the Freewheelers have been able to gain fascinating insights into the experience of those from the past.
Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Freewheelers have collaborated with Surrey History Centre, Professor Alana Harris of King’s College London and On The Record, and photographic artist Emma Brown to create a collection of nearly 100 tintype portraits. Modern day Freewheelers portraits are displayed alongside historical asylum patients to ask: what has changed in the understanding and support of people with mental health challenges and physical and learning disabilities over the last 150 years? What has stayed the same? What has been brought to light? What remains obscured?
Us & Them collides the past and present in an immersive, co-produced heritage and photography exhibition that explores these questions through image-making, and acts of looking.
The Freewheelers are a diverse and creative company of people with disabilities based in Leatherhead, Surrey. For over 30 years they have worked alongside directors, producers, composers, artists and writers, to co-create and produce engaging, thought-provoking, funny, joyous and highly entertaining theatre, dance, film, and music. Their mission is to be a force for change and artistic excellence in the world of Disability Arts. Us & Them represents their next step in achieving this mission.
Us & Them – Immersive Photographic Exhibition
3rd – 26th September 2026,
Tuesday to Saturday 9.15am to 4.30pm plus specific event evenings 7-10pm
See more about this exhibition: Click Here
See more upcoming exhibitions: Click Here
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