The Box Plymouth’s Summer of Expression starts 20 June

The Box Plymouth will begin its Summer of Expression on 20 June, bringing a season of exhibitions, displays and family activities to the city through the summer and into October.

For readers planning a visit, the main venue is The Box Plymouth. The season runs from 20 June to 21 October, with individual exhibitions opening and closing on different dates. Specific daily times and price details were not included in the source notice. The programme is aimed at the general public, families, children and young people.

Major exhibitions anchor the summer programme

At the centre of the season are two large exhibitions: Echoes of Us, running from 20 June to 20 September, and Gillian Ayres: A Life in Colour, running from 4 July to 4 October.

Echoes of Us brings works from the Government Art Collection to Plymouth, grouped around the themes of Belonging, Memory and Connection. The exhibition spans more than 300 years of art and includes work by Barbara Hepworth, Cornelia Parker, Chris Ofili, Phoebe Boswell, Alvaro Barrington and Alberta Whittle.

The show has also been shaped by workshops and conversations with young people from Plymouth. Their ideas helped inform the exhibition’s themes and interpretation, placing local voices alongside a national collection. Works from The Box’s own art collection are also included, among them pieces by Devon-based George Shaw and Cornwall-based Denzil Forrester.

Victoria Pomery, CEO at The Box, said the partnership had given the venue a chance to share the Government Art Collection’s historic, modern and contemporary holdings with audiences in Plymouth and the wider region.

Gillian Ayres show traces seven decades of colour

Gillian Ayres: A Life in Colour focuses on one of Britain’s most influential abstract painters. The exhibition brings together 26 works across seven decades, from a painting Ayres made as a teenager to large-scale works from later in her career.

The display also connects Ayres’ work with the landscapes and rural life of South West England. She lived in Morwenstow, on the North Cornwall and North Devon border, from 1987 until her death in 2018.

Hannah Hooks, contemporary art curator at The Box, said Ayres’ commitment to painting was central to the exhibition. She described Ayres as “a formidable and brilliant artist” whose work deserves wider recognition.

Alongside A Life in Colour, visitors will be able to see In the Making, a display marking the 170th anniversary of Arts University Plymouth and the city’s long connection with creative education.

Family displays and young artists feature across The Box

The summer programme also includes Where’s Your Head At?, running from 4 July to 4 October. It will spotlight winners and selected entries from a Children and Young People’s Open held earlier this year, with submissions from people aged 0 to 25 across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset on the theme of Art and Emotion.

Families visiting from 7 July to 13 September will also encounter Little Lights, a display of 42 one-metre-high lighthouse sculptures. The pieces were designed and decorated by local schoolchildren as part of St Luke’s Hospice’s Guiding Lights project and will be placed throughout The Box’s main building.

Another part of the season is Pro Grip (How to be Humans), running from 23 June to 21 October in The Box’s Media Lab. The British Film Institute-supported commission by filmmaker and visual artist Jordan Baseman uses footage from the 1990 UK Arm Wrestling Championships and an interview with psychologist Dr Gray Atherton from the University of Plymouth.

Dates to check before visiting

The Box says the Summer of Expression will also include exhibition tours, artist-led events and hands-on family activities. Full event details, opening times and any booking information should be checked directly with The Box before travelling.

Source: Plymouth City Council

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This preview is based on the published Plymouth City Council notice for The Box Plymouth’s Summer of Expression.

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• Confirmed the season dates and venue from the source notice.
• Checked individual exhibition date ranges against the supplied event brief.
• Kept price, opening time, transport and accessibility details out where the source did not...

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Plymouth City Council

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Plymouth

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2026-06-15 14:20

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Article contextPeople & topics3#7

Victoria PomeryHannah HooksJordan Baseman

#Echoes of Us#Gillian Ayres#Government Art Collection#Little Lights#Plymouth exhibitions#Summer of Expression#The Box Plymouth

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