Carlisle Gallery

New for April 2025, the ground-floor Carlisle Gallery is dedicated to the things that make our border city unique.

Co-curated with the local community, the gallery explores the city across six key themes and through a range of voices. Whether you’re born and bred in Carlisle or a visitor to the city, we hope the gallery will give you a greater understanding of how Carlisle has touched the world.

Entrance to the Carlisle Gallery is included with a Tullie annual pass, day ticket or Tullie Friendship.

Carlisle is Wild

People have lived in and around Carlisle for tens of thousands of years. For many years more, the area has been home to plants, animals and fungi to which we are all connected. From fossilised wood to Nicole Bishop’s 2024 artwork ‘Faunus’, objects from across the museum’s collections tell the story of Carlisle’s wildlife past and present.

Carlisle is Social

For as long as people have lived in Carlisle, they’ve spent time together. We asked people how they like to enjoy time in and around the city, and we used the results to put together the displays. User-submitted videos show how Carlisle is enjoyed in the present day, items relating to Carlisle United demonstrate the devotion and community built around football, and stories from Carlisle’s State Management Scheme look at efforts to curtail social drinking in wartime.

Carlisle is Industrial

Carlisle’s industry and invention have shaped the city and influenced further afield. From the oldest biscuit factory in the world, to its rich railway heritage, and even evidence of Roman imperial tile manufacture, this section sheds light on what Carlisle has produced over the years. Voices of workers are also represented, from Carlisle’s major Pirelli factory to a petition bearing the signatures of over 1,000 textile workers demanding fair pay and working conditions.

Carlisle is Resilient

With sieges, floods and reivers, the people of Carlisle have endured their fair share of hardship through history. This section of the gallery encourages a more contemplative experience, asking you what you might protect and how you might come together with those around you in the face of adversity. This section of the gallery also highlights those who have found sanctuary in Carlisle, with a series of portraits taken in the museum’s Secret Garden.

Carlisle is Revolutionary

Carlisle people do remarkable things. This interactive section of the gallery is split into totems, each highlighting different remarkable figures from Carlisle’s past, some you may be familiar with, others you might never have heard of. There’s a Roman emperor and empress, a Romantic Cumbrian poet that’s not Wordsworth but is a woman, a revolutionary factory owner’s care for his workforce, and a changing totem for present-day community heroes.

Carlisle is Changing

Developed together with volunteers from our Social History Group, this last section of the gallery presents visitors with an interactive map. Using photographs from the museum collection, you can chart the progress of change in the city.

Acknowledgements

Exhibition design by De Matos Ryan. Exhibition fit out by Raskl. Bespoke mounts by Dauphin. AV designed by New Angle and installed by Fusion LX. 2D graphics by LucienneRoberts+.

The Carlisle Gallery is part of Phase 2 of Project Tullie, made possible with funding by the UK Government, including support from the UK Government’s Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund. Further supported with public funding from HM Government administered by Arts Council England.