PLYMOUTH ART WEEKNDER 2026
We're excited to be taking part in Plymouth Art Weekender 2026, with three days of activity at Grow Plymouth from 16–18 October.
At the centre of this year's programme is Totems for Troubling Times, a new residency and evolving exhibition by artist collective Room to Manoeuvre, alongside a Friday evening Ritual Celebration and the opening of Grow Plymouth's artist studios across the weekend.
Totems for Troubling Times
Throughout October, Room to Manoeuvre will take over Grow Plymouth's ground-floor project space for Totems for Troubling Times.
The project brings together sculptural installations and assemblages, wall-based and free-standing works, and objects functioning as contemporary reliquaries, vending systems, altars and shrines.
The artists are interested in work that blurs the boundaries between the sacred and the transactional, the sincere and the absurd, and the everyday and the extraordinary.
Using humour, spectacle and sometimes unease, the project asks audiences to think about the complex relationships between belief, value and exchange.
Rather than arriving at Grow as a finished exhibition, the work will evolve throughout the residency, with visitors invited to call in and encounter the project as it develops.
For Plymouth Art Weekender, the project expands further, featuring work from 20 guest artists.
Ritual Celebration – Friday 16 October
5.30–8.30pm | Free entry.
On Friday evening, join us for a Ritual Celebration marking the culmination of the residency and the beginning of Plymouth Art Weekender at Grow.
Come along, encounter the work, meet some of the artists and see how Totems for Troubling Times has evolved during its time in the space.
Grow Plymouth Open Studios – Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 October
Open Studios hours: TBC
Alongside Totems for Troubling Times, we're planning to open up more of Grow Plymouth's working artist studios over the Art Weekender.
Visitors will have the opportunity to explore the building, meet some of the artists based here and discover the range of work being developed behind our normally closed studio doors.
About Room to Manoeuvre
Room to Manoeuvre is an artist collective taking over Grow Plymouth's project space from 1–18 October 2026.
Their residency forms part of Grow Plymouth's #DIYRESIDENCIES programme, which gives artists and collectives space to experiment, develop work and test new ideas.
Plymouth Art Weekender
Plymouth Art Weekender brings together artists, organisations, independent spaces and communities for a city-wide celebration of Plymouth's visual arts.