Bexhill Art Weekender Returns for 2026
BEXHILL ART WEEKENDER RETURNS FOR 2026 WITH TOWN-WIDE CELEBRATION OF
ART, PERFORMANCE, FILM AND COMMUNITY
Featuring artists’ open studios, drop-in workshops, a Bexhill Day concert, experimental music experiences, exhibitions, film screenings, ceramic sales and a celebration of sculpture and 3D art.
15–16 August 2026
Bexhill Art Weekender returns on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 August 2026, transforming Bexhill-on-Sea into a vibrant, town-wide celebration of contemporary art, performance, music and creativity.
Now in its second edition, Bexhill Art Weekender brings together artists, cultural organisations, community groups and independent businesses across the town to present a programme of exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, talks and open studios. Entirely free to attend, the Weekender invites residents and visitors alike to discover Bexhill’s rich cultural ecology and experience the town as a place of creativity, experimentation and collective imagination.
This year’s festival is made possible by an extraordinary coalition of organisations across the town. Bringing together cultural institutions, artist-focused organisations, community groups, heritage organisations, youth initiatives and independent businesses, the festival offers a snapshot of a cultural ecology that is far greater than the sum of its parts. In doing so, it reveals one of the central lessons of Bexhill’s emerging cultural plan and UK Town of Culture ambition: that the town’s greatest cultural asset is its remarkable capacity for collaboration, collective imagination and quiet but continual cultural revolution.
Alongside their Summer exhibitions programme Tawfik Naas Manifestations for an Eternal Spring, and Annie Whiles Door Way Guardians, Flatland Projects will present CEREMONIA, an evening of performances celebrating the radical potential of the analogue in a digital age. Bringing together experimental music, movement and collective gathering, the programme features Bionic Step by artist Nina Davies and a special performance by the Statue of Liberty big band.
Nina Davies (b.1991) is a Canadian-British artist whose work examines the present moment through dance and popular culture, considering how movement is made, circulated, consumed and continually reproduced across contemporary media ecologies.
Devised by Ed Baxter, co-founder and former CEO of Resonance FM, Statue of Liberty is an anti-fascist big band comprising 18 musicians from diverse backgrounds who have formed a symbolic and metaphorical statue to welcome strangers to our shore. Through collective performance and public gathering, the ensemble offers an act of sonic resistance, solidarity and welcome at the edge of the nation. Statue of Liberty features i.a. Otti Albietz (Beau Flies), Matt Armstrong (Kenny Process Team), Toby Bula-Edge (The Brothers Bula), Adam Bushell (The Hauntological Orchestra), Fritz Catlin (23 Skidoo) and Anthony Moore (Slapp Happy), alongside special guests tbc.
The De La Warr Pavilion, in partnership with artist collective ZEROH, presents MASS, a one day celebration of sculpture and 3D art inspired by Tschabalala Self’s Seated, bringing together local and regional artists to showcase and sell their work. Other highlights include a Sunset Screening of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Revolver Record Fair in the auditorium, the launch of new collaborative projects with young people from Bexhill, and the Pavilion’s summer exhibition To Improvise a Mountain, a Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre curated by Turner Prize nominee Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Common Clay opens its studios for exhibitions, a ceramic sale and Queer Clay Club by resident artist Nick Kidd and Camara Pinnock, whilst hosting Clay as Class Material, a round-table discussion exploring the relationships between class, making and access to ceramic practice. The weekend will also see artist Agata Bogacka invite artists and residents to take part in the Bexhill Art Weekender Harvest Procession, a playful and participatory parade of handmade bread sculptures through the town.
Elsewhere, Do Your Ideas presents an exhibition by Anna Maria Nabirye Letter Press Works to accompany her residency at Written In Print Imprenta a new letterpress print studio in Bexhill. The studio will host long-term residencies for local artist writers and offer an annual print subscription.
Bexhill Museum presents Sovereign Shoals with artists Yasmin Ornsby; Mary Hooper a new project developed with members of the Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society that uncovers the hidden geology, stories and histories lying beneath the waters off the Sussex coast through sound, moving image and a guided coastal walk.
New additions to Bexhill Art Weekender this year further strengthen the festival’s commitment to community participation and intergenerational exchange. Bexhill Heritage joins the programme with a free Bexhill Day concert featuring live performances from local music and theatre groups, celebrating the town’s rich cultural traditions and civic life. Meanwhile, Living Communities will present Run to Chase Your Dreams, a series of creative drop-in workshops for all ages, inviting participants to make, create and imagine together through accessible activities designed to encourage participation, connection and aspiration.
Throughout the weekend, visitors can also discover exhibitions and activities presented by Bexhill Artrium, Love Art By Sea, Living Communities, Heart of Sidley Community Association, RePublic, Peter Marlow Foundation, Refugee Buddy Project, Talent Accelerator and many others, alongside open studios at Beeching Road Studios and across the town.
Bexhill Art Weekender continues to build on Bexhill’s long and distinctive history of modernity and cultural experimentation. Through collaboration and collective participation, the Weekender seeks to tell new civic stories about the town, celebrating Bexhill as a place of quiet but continual cultural revolution and demonstrating the power of culture to connect communities, animate public life and shape new futures.
Ben Urban, Director of Flatland Projects and Chair of Bexhill Cultural Network, said:
“One of the most powerful lessons from our bid to become the 2028 UK Town of Culture has been discovering just how deeply culture is woven into Bexhill’s sense of itself. There is an enduring futurism here, a feeling that the town is always in the process of becoming. Bexhill Art Weekender is an expression of that unfinished future: a collective act of imagination that brings together artists, communities and organisations to rehearse the kind of place we want Bexhill to remain and become.”
Participating organisations include:
Flatland Projects, De La Warr Pavilion, Talent Accelerator, Bexhill Academy, Music’s Not Dead, Zeroh Studio, Common Clay, Three Legs Brewery, Do Your Ideas, Bexhill Museum, Bexhill Heritage, RePublic, Living Communities, Love Art By Sea, Heart of Sidley Community Association, Project 78, Footbridge Gallery, The Old Ambulance Station, Beeching Road Studios, Peter Marlow Foundation, Refugee Buddy Project, Bexhill Artrium and iBex Studios.
Bexhill Art Weekender 2026
Saturday 15 – Sunday 16 August 2026
Free admission
Full programme and information:
www.bexhillartweekender.com
Social Media:
@bexhillartweekender