Official Opening of Alternative Futures Exhibition

The formal launch event will take place on 5th June 2026 from 2–4pm. The exhibition will be in the newly created Arts & Heritage venue for the town.

A major element of Alternative Futures has been the discovery and conservation of 35 original Skelmersdale Development Corporation architects, planners, and promotional models of various scales, materials—spanning over 30 years of model-making and ideas for the town’s development.

The models have not been seen in their entirety for over 50 years. This work has been made possible by the Lancashire Council Museum Service conservation team and the staff at Lancashire Archives and Libraries. SHARES – an educational charity that represents 27 local primary schools – was provided the opportunity to bring pupils to the Conservation Studios in Preston to see the conservation of the models firsthand and meet the conservators. This was a first for the staff at the Studios. Along with pupils, Glassball has arranged many free trips to Preston to view the Skelmersdale Corporation Development archives and models, whilst in storage.

Glassball Studio invites you to Skelmersdale Library to view this nationally significant collection presented on plinths co-produced with the architectural practice ‘Other People’s Dreams’. When you visit, you will see experimental housing schemes, town layout proposals, and a Tawd Valley Park bridge design that was proposed in 1974 for the European Year of Architecture, among many others.

The exhibition will be fully open to the public on the 18th May, 2026, and is free to view. The exhibition will continue to be re-curated and developed over the course of the next 18 months.