Arts and Culture at Exeter

Our Visual Culture initiative is part of the university’s Arts and Culture strategy, and builds on strong regional, national and international partnerships. We have close links with Exeter Phoenix, a publicly-funded contemporary art space and registered educational charity, and with RAMM. Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery's multi-million pound development project aims to deliver a dynamic 21st-century museum which reinterprets the past and enriches the present.

Elsewhere, we work with Arnolfini, one of Europe's leading centres for the contemporary arts, and with Watershed, a cross-artform venue and producer. Our staff contribute to arts and literature festivals in Bath, Budleigh Salterton, Cheltenham and St Ives, in particular the Du Maurier festival. We work closely with Tate St Ives and with regional arts organisations and are hosting five flagship Visual Culture events this year.

As well as working actively with arts bodies in the region, our research collaborations take place in an international context. Recent research has involved collaboration with Exeter Cathedral, Tate, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, British Film Institute / BFI Education and Learning and the JCC Carthage Film festival.

Visual Culture at Exeter builds on unique resources: the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture opened in 1997 as part of the British celebrations of the centenary of cinema. The Centre's remit is to encourage the ongoing enjoyment, understanding and study of film, and provides a research collection of international stature, illustrating the development of optical recreation and popular entertainment from the late 18th century to Classical Hollywood and the present day. The Fine Art Collection features a series of changing exhibitions throughout the year in the Streatham campus galleries, as well as permanent sculpture walks on campus and online galleries.

Arts and Culture strategy

The Arts and Culture Strategy celebrates the University’s outstanding contributions to arts and culture in Devon and Cornwall. It promotes international cultural relationships and dialogues, through highly-ranked arts research and teaching, practice and performance. Our staff and students create partnerships and engage with the arts community through galleries, museums, theatres and literature festivals.

Find out more about the Arts and Culture strategy on the Arts and Culture website.