Plymouth’s Flagship Arts Festival Returns to Celebrate Culture and Creativity
Plymouth is launching its revamped Art Weekender festival this weekend (18 October), offering a vibrant opportunity to celebrate the work of artists from the city, across the UK, and beyond.
The Plymouth Art Weekender (PAW) will showcase Britain’s Ocean City’s rich cultural landscape through a diverse array of installations, exhibitions, and events held in outdoor spaces around the city as well as in galleries, venues, and museums.
Organised by Visual Arts Plymouth, PAW first launched in 2015 but has been on hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic. Its return reaffirms Plymouth's status as a centre for contemporary art and innovation, both nationally and internationally. This year’s theme, ‘Do It Yourself’, emphasises the collaborative and supportive spirit among artists in the city and beyond. Over the weekend, a lively mix of visual art, hands-on workshops, and dynamic events will fill Plymouth with creativity.
Highlights include:
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Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024 at KARST, The Levinsky Gallery, and MIRROR.
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Anything You Can Think Of / Everything You Can Imagine, a new work by LOW PROFILE in partnership with Plymouth Scrapstore and Big Ups. we-are-low-profile.com
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RAMP (Real Art Make Print) Artist Showcase at Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard
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DIY Digital at Grow Plymouth
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Immersive Art Gallery - Plymouth Art Weekender Special at Market Hall
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Free screening of Jeremy Deller's Everybody in the Place with a talk by artist and curator Rhys Morgan, part of The Box Plymouth / National Gallery The Triumph of Art commission.
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DIY DIGITAL at Grow Plymouth.
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Unexpected Crossings with Cylena Simonds, Simone Marconi, and Siena Venturino-Malcherczyk
The Art Weekender also features Artober, a free art festival at Royal William Yard, showcasing a constantly evolving exhibition of both local and national artists, some of whom will be in residence during the event, while others will present pop-up shows. Highlights include the South West Coast Path Photographer of the Year exhibition, featuring images of England’s longest national trail, spanning 630 miles.
Hannah Harris, CEO of Plymouth Culture, said: “Plymouth Art Weekender offers artists a unique platform to showcase work, test ideas, and engage with audiences. There is nothing else like it that celebrates art and creativity of all kinds in such an inclusive way. It is crucial that it is artist-led, powered by the energy from the creative community, which is abundant in Plymouth. PAW embodies several goals from the Culture Plan for Plymouth, including the use of outdoor and unconventional spaces for art and cultural experiences, making it accessible to everyone.”
Rhys Morgan, Plymouth-based artist and PAW Co-director, highlights how the festival has supported countless artists to realise exhibitions and events, providing a platform for their work across the city and opportunities to develop skills.
“Plymouth Art Weekender is a fantastic chance for Plymouth’s broad cultural scene to unite and showcase the diversity of artistic practices within the city.
“The DIY spirit of the festival, combined with Plymouth’s artists’ commitment to delivering a huge array of events in diverse spaces, demonstrates why Plymouth is such an exciting and welcoming place to visit and live. We’re delighted to bring back the festival after a brief hiatus and look forward to its future evolution.”
Artists Hannah Rose and Rachel Dobbs—known collectively as Low Profile—who live and work in Plymouth, also expressed their excitement about the event’s return. Hannah said: “We’re thrilled to see Plymouth Art Weekender back. It has become a real focal point on the creative calendar for artists and for people curious about experiencing art in the city.
“There are otherwise limited opportunities and spaces for artists to experiment and showcase their work to audiences. PAW facilitates this on a large scale by opening up underused and empty spaces, creating a platform for artists to share their ideas with wider audiences.”
Running alongside the Weekender, a series of national and international exhibitions will be hosted in Plymouth’s art galleries. The Box archive and gallery will feature an impressive line-up of historical and contemporary exhibitions, including Land Sea Sky, showcasing works by Turner Prize nominee Ingrid Pollard MBE, celebrated landscape artist JMW Turner, and New York-based photorealistic painter Vija Celmins, reflecting the city’s broad artistic and cultural offerings.
A key event in The Box’s collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery is Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass & Afterparty, an evening of music and dance. The festival also offers the opportunity to experience Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024, an annual exhibition showcasing emerging and early-career artists from UK art schools and learning programmes. Returning to Plymouth for the first time in 60 years, this exhibition will be displayed across three venues—KARST, The Levinsky Gallery, and MIRROR.
One of the artists featured in New Contemporaries is multi-disciplinary artist, designer, and folklorist Libby Bove, whose work repositions folk customs and magical practices at the forefront of everyday life. She remarked, “Seeing my work presented alongside such exceptional pieces, the depth and diversity of the project truly struck me—it’s a benchmark.”
Libby is also presenting The Museum of Roadside Magic, a travelling archive in the back of a Luton van, featuring ceramics, textiles, sound, and photographic works all related to the theme of Roadside Magic.
Ben Borthwick, Head of Programme at KARST, views PAW as a critical element in Plymouth’s rise as a national and international hub for contemporary art: “It creates a moment of intensity when individual artists, grassroots DIY projects, and established institutions all come together to animate our city.
“This is the ideal time for PAW to return, coinciding with New Contemporaries, where the most promising graduates from across the UK begin their artistic journeys at KARST, MIRROR, and the Levinsky Gallery, amidst all the brilliant, unpredictable activities PAW has to offer."
Destination Plymouth’s Chief Executive, Amanda Lumley, added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen Britain’s Ocean City’s position as a centre for contemporary art and innovation. The Art Weekender will highlight the richness of our cultural scene, and we are thrilled to see so many events and exhibitions taking place across such diverse spaces.”
For more information on Plymouth Art Weekender, please visit: Plymouth Art Weekender Returns for 2024.