For The Object is Alive, artists Matthew Darbyshire and Mike Cooter, were commissioned to respond to the collections of Nottingham Castle Gallery and Leicester's New Walk Museum through the prism of the Polish artist and theatre maker Tadeusz Kantor. Kantor was interested in the role and status of the object, and the artists were invited to respond to his legacy via an engagement with the research of Dr Dan Watt, Programme Leader for Drama at Loughborough University. 

Working across fine art, natural history, industrial design, military history, decorative arts and material cultures, the exhibitions considered the reproduction of objects within institutional contexts.