Many people had wanted to attend our previous exhibition but couldn't, for many reasons: mobility issues, anxiety, travel costs and more.
"Metasteps change people's minds about the benefits of virtual exhibitions."
How The Other Collective CIC built a national neurodivergent exhibition, built entirely from digital files and accessible to everyone who couldn't travel.
THE CHALLENGE
An exhibition that shouldn't depend on who can travel
An exhibition that shouldn't depend on who can travel
The Other Collective CIC is a neurodivergent-led community based in North East Lincolnshire, working across the North of England. Incorporated in March 2025 and run by three directors — Lucy Mager, Steve Folkes and Rosemarie Cawkwell — it exists to support artists who have been ‘othered’: neurodivergent creatives, LGBTQIA+ artists, people facing disadvantage, and anyone who has struggled to find a place in traditional creative spaces.
Its virtual exhibition, NOT JUST A WEEK, was curated by Lucy Mager in partnership with Lizz Brady of Broken Grey Wires. The show grew out of frustration with how organisations treat neurodivergence: visible attention during Autism Awareness Week or Neurodiversity Celebration Week, then silence for the rest of the year. The Collective wanted neurodivergent artists to have meaningful, visible opportunities to show work, particularly during those periods of so-called awareness.
The Collective already knew who it was missing. People had wanted to attend its previous exhibition but couldn't due to issues such as mobility challenges, anxiety, and the cost of travel. Whatever came next had to be something people could explore in their own time, from home, and it had to reach further than one building in one town.
The build constraints were just as firm. The exhibition had to be assembled entirely from digital files while there was no budget for paying a developer to code a custom space. Finally, the curation had to stay completely in the Collective's hands.
THE SOLUTION
Complete control of the curation, on budget
Metasteps became the clear choice quickly. It was cost-effective, it left curation entirely with the Collective, and it offered customisation the team was interested in using. Seeing what other organisations had already built on the platform confirmed the decision.
The Collective got a paid plan straight away and learned the platform inside a premade template space. The team is small by design: Lucy handled the bulk of the input, Lizz supported the curation, and Jack Johnson of Eternal SFX carried out the 3D scanning of the sculptural pieces.
Getting works positioned accurately on the walls was the first step. After that, the build ran on its own momentum.
Work shown at any scale
Longer video pieces that wouldn't otherwise have fitted the show went in as Web Views drawing on YouTube. Scale stopped being a budget line and became a curatorial decision: Lizz scaled Stanley Bostwick's Food Faces around one of the black cubes, and works by Sophie Dickinson and Senny Burgess appear at a size they have never reached in physical form.
For artists without the money to fabricate at that scale, that is the difference between exhibiting an ambition and only imagining one. External links carry visitors from a work straight to the artist's own website, so attention that starts in the exhibition doesn't stop there.
Metasteps has been wonderful to use. Overall, it's very self-explanatory.
THE RESULT
A show that changed what people expect from a virtual exhibition
NOT JUST A WEEK opened to an audience that included the people the Collective had been losing, that is, anyone for whom a physical show in North East Lincolnshire was never a realistic proposition. The exhibition can be explored in full, at any hour, from anywhere.
The response the Collective measured was reputational as much as practical. Repeated comments came back about how professional the show looked, from people who had not previously experienced virtual exhibitions.
The economics held too. An exhibition built entirely from digital files, assembled by three people and a scanner, gave disadvantaged artists a room the size of their ideas without the fabrication and freight costs that usually decide what gets made.
The Collective now intends to work with the Metasteps team on a bespoke space of its own. Beyond that, it wants to push further into interactivity and digital video and sound installation, and to use the platform as a proof of concept for installation ideas it is seeking grant funding for.
The Other Collective CIC's Space
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