Masterpieces taken on tour to make great art accessible, foundation says

A Tate representative said it was expected that the tour would "offer a first encounter with art" to a variety of groups

Masterpieces by Turner and Constable are to be taken on a 10-week tour of town halls, museums and libraries in an effort to "make great art accessible to everyone", a foundation has said.

The Art Explora (AE) Mobile Museum will see part of Tate Liverpool's Radical Landscapes exhibition tour Merseyside.

Founder Frederic Jousset said he wanted to bridge the "divide between those who go to museums and those who do not".

The works will be on the road and visiting venues until 29 April.

A Tate representative said it was expected that the tour would "offer a first encounter with art to groups of schoolchildren and young people across the region as well as community groups, care home residents and adults from all backgrounds".

They said groups would be given a tour and then "invited to join creative workshops, to participate themselves in this artistic adventure and share a memento with their families".

The exhibition will be housed in a specially-modified trailer for its 10-week tour

The groups will be invited to "participate themselves in this artistic adventure", Tate Liverpool said

The touring show will include works by Turner, Constable, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, John Nash and Jeremy Deller.

Jousset said AE's mission was "to make art accessible to all".

"Despite the best efforts of museums everywhere, there remains a social divide between those who go to museums and those who do not," he said.

"Art Explora is trying to bridge this divide by taking arts out to new communities and by creating encounters with art in unexpected places."

He added that the mobile museum was "a wonderful way to present our national collections to new audiences [and] show that art can be discovered on your own doorstep".

Tate Liverpool's director Helen Legg said the gallery was excited to work with AE "on this UK first, that will enable us to continue to engage with people across the Liverpool City Region... in an innovative way".

"This project will reach more than 5,000 schoolchildren... and continues Tate's mission to expand the possibilities of museum spaces as sites of learning and promoting the importance of creative learning and access to the arts for young people," she added.