Two of the UK’s most important art collections will form part of a landmark cultural project in the West Midlands – and a major celebration of contemporary art is giving audiences a first look.

Dozens of works from the Arts Council Collection and British Council Collection have gone on display as part of the Coventry Biennial 2025 – ahead of the launch of the City Centre Cultural Gateway, which will transform the city’s former Ikea building into a vibrant cultural hub.

The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum is hosting exhibitions featuring highlights from both collections as part of the fifth edition of the Biennial, which runs until January 26, with a series of exhibitions at four other Coventry and Warwickshire venues giving people across the region the chance to engage with groundbreaking art from across the globe.

Under its theme of Obsessions, Possessions, it will turn the spotlight on the powerful human impulse to collect, inviting audiences to explore what personal and shared collections reveal about identity, community, and society.

The Cultural Gateway aims to be a central hub for culture and community in the heart of the city centre, boasting national collection management facilities, dedicated spaces for research and teaching, and areas designed to host community and cultural activities.

Led by Coventry City Council, the project involves a number of organisations working in partnership including the British Council, which will move its collection to the city in 2027, Arts Council England, CV Life and Coventry University, with a new management organisation for the Arts Council Collection being established in Coventry.

Against the backdrop of this major cultural shift, the Coventry Biennial asks why we collect, what meaning collections hold, and how they shape our shared histories – showcasing newly co-created artworks alongside imaginative reworkings of collections and archives.

The programme will also examine questions of legacy, power, politics, and exclusion, opening up timely conversations about whose stories are included and whose remain absent – inviting audiences to reflect on the ways in which collections help us understand ourselves, and each other.

Simeon Barclay’s Kinda Blu, which showcases sculpture, film, paintings, photography and more from the Arts Council Collection, reflects on Coventry’s history as a city of transformation and highlights how an individual can use collections to explore and better understand themselves, their interests, and the world around them.

in transit under another sky, which is inspired by Zimbabwean novelist Yvonne Vera, has been co-curated by E.N. Mirembe and Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo using British Council Collection works alongside artists from across east Africa, exploring themes of migration, belonging and life “in the margins”.