Exhibitions

Exhibition dates at a glance

Art+Archaeology's exhibitions programme brings visual art practice into dialogue with archaeological work, staging projects in museums, galleries and heritage sites across the South of England. Rather than treating archaeology and art as separate disciplines, the programme places them side by side, asking what happens when artists respond directly to excavation finds, historic buildings and landscape. Exhibitions are accompanied by residencies, lectures and workshops, allowing audiences to engage with the ideas over time rather than in a single visit.

One recurring strand of the programme takes place in partnership with regional museums, where archaeological collections and contemporary artistic responses share the same galleries. By placing new commissions among historic objects, the exhibitions prompt visitors to consider how archaeological interpretation is made, who makes it, and how much creative freedom should shape it. This reflective framing is central to the organisation's aim of researching and enhancing connections between artistic and archaeological practice.

Some exhibitions are sited outdoors, at priory grounds, gardens and other heritage locations, using the physical environment itself as part of the artistic enquiry. Working in these settings invites a different relationship with archaeological sites: visitors move through landscapes that have been excavated, conserved or reinterpreted, encountering sculpture, sound and text interventions along the way. Such projects underline the value of place and encourage close, unhurried attention to surroundings that are often passed without notice.

The curatorial approach also extends to supporting the artists and archaeologists involved. Contributors to individual projects come from varied backgrounds, including practitioners based at academic institutions and independent researchers, and many of them use the residency periods attached to exhibitions to develop work on site. This collaborative model means that exhibitions grow out of sustained exchange, with lectures and public programmes making the research process accessible to visitors who may not be familiar with archaeological method.

Publications accompanying the programme document exhibitions and related events, preserving the outcomes of each collaboration for audiences who cannot attend in person. These outputs complement the online exhibition archive, which gathers past and current projects together with information about contributors, venues and associated programming. By archiving the work in this way, Art+Archaeology creates an ongoing record of how artists and archaeologists can inform and challenge one another, extending the conversation well beyond the dates of any single show.