British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers opened to the public at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum on October 2 and runs until 10 January 2027.

The exhibition also takes place across the Mead Gallery at Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick and Coventry University’s Delia Derbyshire Building, before travelling to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield and Newcastle Gateshead through 2028.

Writer and curator Ekow Eshun has brought together 37 artists for the 10th edition, around a third of whom have created new works for the show.

The exhibition asks ‘how art can foster empathy in divided times?’, inviting visitors to look through the eyes of others rather than treat difference as a threat.

Works on show in Coventry include Alvaro Barrington’s The City Is Mines/You Belong BAS 2026, which turns metal shop shutters covered in online memes into a celebration of the music, fashion and energy of city streets.

Coventry will also keep a lasting legacy from the show, as Turner Prize-winning artist Jasleen Kaur’s new commission, Peace and, is acquired for the city with support from Art Fund.

The work draws on Coventry’s status as a city of peace and reconciliation following the 1940 Blitz, using scaffolding, courtroom benches, a postcard and a gold necklace to explore how we live with histories of destruction and renewal.

The launch builds on the Herbert’s record of bringing major exhibitions to the city, including the Turner Prize in 2021.

Marguerite Nugent, cultural director at CV Life, which operates the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, said: “Opening British Art Show 10 in Coventry is a proud moment for everyone at the Herbert, as well as our partner venues. 

“Five years after hosting the Turner Prize, our city is once again the venue for a major national contemporary art exhibition. 

“We hope people from across the country will come and discover these works, as it embarks on its two-year tour across the UK.”

Ekow Eshun, curator of British Art Show 10, said: “Some works address the social fractures and the environmental fragility of the present, others offer more intimate gestures of kinship.

“Together, they illuminate art’s ability to cross boundaries: between ourselves and others, the human and the natural world, the past and futures yet to unfold.”

Brian Cass, head of Hayward Gallery Touring, said: “The 10th edition of Hayward Gallery Touring’s British Art Show is an invitation to shift perspective and see the world from multiple positions at once. 

"The exhibition celebrates artists who navigate the complexities of contemporary life with richness, beauty and a profound commitment to human connection.”

British Art Show 10 forms part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary national programme, which aims to reach one million people across more than 40 UK towns and cities.

Entry to British Art Show 10 at the Herbert is included with admission, and more information is available at theherbert.org.