Our North, Open Eye Gallery 2018

A collaborative exhibition of photography led by young people from Sefton and Runcorn, exploring the fashion, heritage, and identity of the 'North' today. Featuring work from Stephanie Wynne, Sefton Youth Voice, Power in Partnership, Andy Yates, Hayleigh Longman and Scott Charlesworth. Heritage Lottery Fund supported the project Our North to give young people the opportunity to work alongside artists, researchers, and curators. Hayleigh Longman's independent brief as part of her Silver Art Award was to respond to the brief of 'What does the North mean to you'. Throughout the course of her project, recurring stereotypes about the identities of the North and South became more apparent, or in some cases were challenged. People were invited to respond to all things 'North' through a series of interviews. Her exhibition presents anonymised responses to these interviews, which sit alongside a body of domestic and portraiture photographs. The project involves disentangling the geographical background of these people and discovering what the North and their experiences mean to them. A lot of the people being photographed were young and within Hayleigh's culture. Here, she aims to give a truthful representation of what it is like for young people growing up in the North.