Postgraduate Researcher Michelle Duxbury creates new soundscape for exhibition at Wakefield Museum
A new exhibition at Wakefield Museum celebrating the life and work of local artist Cynthia Kenny (1929-2021) includes work by artist and Postgraduate Researcher Michelle Duxbury.
Open to June 2026, Cynthia Kenny: A City Framed explores Wakefield as a changing 20th century city through the artist’s eyes.
Cynthia Kenny was one of Wakefield’s most important artists. She painted places in Britain and beyond and exhibited around the world, but Wakefield always held a special place in her heart. From the 1960s to 2000s, Kenny documented Wakefield’s changing landscape.
The exhibition features cityscapes, rural scenes, and detailed studies of buildings. Visitors can admire iconic views and well-known landmarks and discover Wakefield’s hidden gems.
As well as producing her own intricate works, Cynthia was a founding member of Wakefield Art Club, in addition to being a trustee for the Friends of Wakefield Art Gallery and Museum for many years.
City Landscape at Flanshaw, Wakefield (1998) © The Estate of Cynthia Kenny, Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield). Image courtesy of Wakefield Museum.
Cynthia Kenny’s artworks are brought to life by a new soundscape, created by artist, Michelle Duxbury. Her recordings from the city evoke a day in the life of Cynthia’s Wakefield. Duxbury has also recorded creative audio descriptions for several of the exhibition’s feature works.
Michelle Duxbury is an artist and postgraduate researcher from Leeds with a studio practice based in Wakefield. She is currently undertaking a PhD by Practice across the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies and the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds.
Michelle works with embroidery, moving image, sound and immersive installation work. Her work explores how our individual and collective (dis)connection to landscape can impact on feelings of (not) belonging.
Drawing on her lived experience, as a disabled, neurodivergent woman from a working-class background, she works with fictional narratives and speculative thinking to radically reimagine how disabled people might interact with landscapes they cannot be physically present in.
Visitor to the Cynthia Kenny exhibition at Wakefield Museum listens to the audio descriptions created by Michelle Duxbury, using an RNIB PenFriend. Image courtesy of Wakefield Museum.
Michelle said:
“It was a real honour to work with the team at Wakefield Museum on developing creative access for the Cynthia Kenny exhibition and to bring the works to life with audio descriptions and an immersive soundscape.
“As a disabled person, and an artist, it is always an absolute joy for me to find ways to make artwork more accessible to visitors and to explore ways in which art can be a more multi-sensory experience.”
Cynthia Kenny: A City Framed exhibition at Wakefield Museum. Image courtesy of Wakefield Museum.
Visitors to the exhibition can find out more about Kenny’s influence and legacy. With an exclusive new film by UK based filmmaker and photographer Nick Singleton featuring interviews with Kenny’s friends, colleagues and contemporaries.
The exhibition also reveals how Cynthia Kenny continues to inspire artists today, showcasing new photography by members of the Wakefield Museums and Castles Youth Forum.
Exhibition visitors are encouraged to borrow sketching materials and get artistic themselves, and have a go at creating their own cityscape.
Visitors at the Cynthia Kenny exhibition. Image courtesy of Wakefield Museum.
Councillor Hannah Appleyard, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said:
“Cynthia Kenny was a champion for art and culture in Wakefield. And a leader in the local artistic community.
“I’m so pleased that her life and legacy is being celebrated in this beautiful new exhibition. I hope lots of people will visit the museum to immerse themselves in Cynthia’s Wakefield.
“I can’t wait to see what memories her paintings spark for people and I’m sure they will inspire visitors to re-explore our city and see it in a new light.”
For full details including opening hours and visitor information, see Cynthia Kenny: A City Framed and the Wakefield Museum website.
Feature image
Visitor to the Cynthia Kenny: A City Framed exhibition at Wakefield Museum listens to the audio descriptions created by Michelle Duxbury, using an RNIB PenFriend. Image courtesy of Wakefield Museum.
