Art Fund Museum of the Year

Working with Artists

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The contemporary visual arts are embedded in the fabric, policies, programmes and collections of The Box.

Through working with artists, we aim to innovate and offer fresh perspectives and connections between history and contemporary life.

Collaboration is key, and we frequently work in partnership with other city organisations including The Arts Institute at the University of Plymouth, Arts University Plymouth, Plymouth Culture and KARST.

As an Arts Council England Band 3 NPO, we have a leadership role in bringing visual arts to the city. Our first success was securing British Art Show 9 for Plymouth. This major multi-site exhibition came to the city in autumn 2022 and was visited by over 80,000 people.

We have also showcased the work of a number of international and national artists through our exhibition programme since we opened, including Leonor Antunes, Eva Grubinger, Alexandre da Cunha, Christopher Baker, Camille Walala, Maurizio Anzeri, George Shaw, Zadie Xa, Sue Williamson, Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings, John Akomfrah, Yinka Shonibare, Ingrid Pollard, Vija Celmins, John Lyons, Osman Yousefzada, Jyll Bradley, Goshka Macuga and Grayson Perry.

Alongside this, we regularly support artist-led activity in the city and region, through bursaries, residencies and micro-commissions. Take a look at our Past Projects and Reimagining the Archives section for more information about some of these.

We also contribute to policies and engage with the wider city strategic plans, such as the Plymouth Principles for Public Art and Visual Arts Plan – Go Beyond.

Current projects

We have partnered on the national 20/20 programme led by UAL Decolonising Arts Institute, the Imperial War Museums’ national art commissioning programme and were one of four UK partners for the National Gallery’s The Triumph of Art project with artist Jeremy Deller. We’ve hosted major touring exhibitions such as the National Portrait Gallery’s The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure and currently are displaying Echoes of Us, which is in partnership with the Government Art Collection.