CHESTER’S Grosvenor Museum has started the New Year with a bang by winning a coveted Artist in Residence award from the Leverhulme Trust.

The award will fund international art star duo Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio to work with the museum over a year to produce seven new artworks that bring together objects from the museum’s social history collection and items either discovered through the social networks of contemporary Chester or commissioned by the artists.

The artists will also present a series of four public lectures at the museum over the year.

Simon, who lives near Wrexham, and Chris, who is based in Houston, Texas, have become well known over the last 20 years for bringing the daily lives of people they meet into the museum and gallery world, in artworks ranging from a new chocolate bar to comic books and television shows.

The artists, who have worked with some of the largest museums in the UK, Europe and America, said: “The Grosvenor Museum is a key part of Chester life, past and present. It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to work closely with them to produce new work that takes the city, past and present, as its subject.”

Hannah Crowdy, collections and interpretation officer at the museum, ädded: “The Grosvenor Museum is delighted with the Artist in Residence award from the Leverhulme Trust.

“The award will give local people the opportunity to look at our social history collection in a different way and also to see what artists can bring to the experience of history.

“This is a ground-breaking development and we’re really looking forward to working with Grennan & Sperandio and the public over the coming year.”

The seven new artworks will be displayed as they are made, one every six weeks or so, in the museum foyer. The artists will give four public lectures about the making of the new work in the museum Lecture Theatre, over the course of the year.