The Solway Hoard

by Jo Hodges 2022

The Solway Hoard workshops and exhibition were created by The Museums of the FutureNow (Jo Hodges, Robbie Coleman, Dr. Mike Bonaventura) in collaboration with the Solway Firth Partnership.

The Solway Hoard considers the legacy of our time: The Plastic Age (1950-2050). By travelling to a museum set 1,000 years into the future, visitors and participants can reflect on this period through the exhibits and their stories.

The stories are based on the imaginings of people across Dumfries and Galloway, who participated in The Museum of the FutureNow workshops between October and December 2022. The Museums of the FutureNow is a participatory process designed to explore the web of factors that combine to create complex challenges for society and environment.

The museum process invited participants to create the fictional provenance of the artefacts presented in the exhibition (All the exhibits were collected from beach cleans along the Solway Firth) The process allowed for the imagining of many alternative futures which are rich, varied and full of detail. Many include themes of ecological loss and mourning, conflict, crime, technological innovation and spiritual salvation, the roots of which may lie in the anxieties of the present.

Images: Mike Bolam

Above: Museum Workshops at The Mill on the Fleet (Gatehouse of Fleet), Logan Botanic Gardens (Port Logan) and Dumfries Museum. 2022. Workshops led by Mike Bonaventura, Robbie Coleman, Jo Hodges.

The Solway Hoard Exhibition

The stories created by workshop participants feature in the Solway Hoard Exhibition. (Kirkcudbright Galleries 26th March 2023 -16th April 2023) The exhibition invites visitors to journey forward in time to the year 3023 when a hoard of rare and valuable plastic objects has been discovered, and through the stories explore the many possible futures of plastic.

Visit The Solway Hoard

The Solway Hoard exhibition is part of the Positive Action for a Cleaner Solway Project created by the Solway Firth Partnership in collaboration with The Museums of the FutureNow and Waste Stories. This project was supported by the Scottish Government’s Marine Fund Scotland.

Categories: 2022, 2023, Art/Science, Collaboration, Community Engagement, Environmental, Exhibition, Participatory, Research

Jo Hodges

Jo Hodges is a multidisciplinary public artist based in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
with a background in Human Ecology, community development and social justice.

Her work investigates ecological and socio-cultural systems, processes and relationships, and explores new strategies for working in public. Her practice takes many forms; temporary and permanent works, site specific installations and socially engaged projects and processes. She is often led by context, where the outcome is determined as a result of process.

She is interested in research, experimentation and collaboration at the intersection of environment, culture and technology and exploring the role of art in social change. She is joint Director-Curator of Sanctuary Lab, a public art laboratory in the Galloway Forest Dark Skies Park.