Community Exhibition Collective: Shape Our First Annual Exhibition

In partnership with UWE, St Anne’s House is delighted to welcome Beth Roberts as a curation student in residence from April to June 2026. We’ve set her a brief for an idea that came from the community, including via our Action Group. Her brief is to:

Create an annual community-led open submission exhibition for St Anne’s House.

Throughout her time with us, Beth will plan and develop this project with communities in and around St Anne’s House. There will be many ways to get involved: from taking part in our initial ideas workshop, joining our Community Exhibition Collective and submitting something to be displayed.

I have been placed at St Anne’s House for my Masters residency, in partnership with the MA Fine Art Curating programme at UWE. My background is in Human Geography, with a focus on socio-cultural dynamics – which informs my practice alongside my love of connecting with people, making art, and running creative events.

I have greatly enjoyed collaboratively organising events, workshops, and exhibitions – and I truly believe that when people come together for a common goal, the outcome can be magical. Below is a workshop I co-organised recently, engaging people with a traditional exhibition in alternative and accessible ways.

By shifting the ways that things normally work and who is in charge within art spaces, I believe it has the power to create positive change within communities – because making an exhibition welcoming to everyone gives people the opportunity to display their work and believe in their artistic ability. I’m so excited to see what this project becomes!

When people think of curators, they traditionally picture galleries and museums where someone manages a collection of artworks or artefacts. However, the modern curatorial role is far more varied – it often involves facilitating connections between artworks, artists, and the public through managing, educating, and researching.

My own practice, which will underpin this project, is rooted in socially-engaged arts: actively involving communities in art and making it accessible to all. My course-mates, placed at other cultural institutions, are doing everything from archiving and research to running live events – which just shows how varied curation can be.

The project will deliver a community-centred exhibition, aiming to open this August at St Anne’s House, with the ambition of growing into an annual event. But this is more than just a show on a wall – it’s a living, collaborative process, with the local community involved at every stage, from the first ideas to the finished exhibition.

Whilst traditionally a curator would choose what artwork to display and where, this project will turn that on its head. Taking inspiration from ‘Whose gallery is it anyway?’ where submitting artists to an open call were invited to collectively curate the exhibition — installing their own work, moving others around, and taking pieces down in a continually shifting display. I believe this approach would be a wonderful way to shape our own community exhibition, as it reflects the values of this project and of St Anne’s House.