Keep your eyes peeled for yellow signs across the county highlighting venues of this year’s Somerset Art Weeks Festival. From Saturday 19th September to Sunday 4th October, you are invited to discover the breadth of artistic talent that thrives across Somerset. This year’s festival, organised by Somerset Art Works (SAW), takes as its theme Cultural Connections – celebrating the people, places and stories that bind our communities together.
At the heart of the 2026 festival is a series of projects supported by SAW’s Micro Commission programme, exploring this theme in imaginative ways. Working across photography, textiles, sculpture, installation, film and participatory practice, six artists examine ideas of identity, heritage, migration, belonging and our relationship with the more-than-human world.
Kirsten Madeira-Revell and Polly Hall – Hybrid Selves
Shoemakers Museum, Street – Festival Venue 68
Hybrid Selves is a collaborative commission created by artist Kirsten Madeira-Revell and writer Polly Hall in which they explore ideas of identity through the creation of mythological hybrid creatures. Working at the intersections of sculpture, installation, costume, and creative writing, Madeira-Revell and Hall highlight that our identities are not singular – we are shaped by family, memory, community, experience and take different forms in different contexts. At the Shoemakers Museum, you will encounter a series of original hybrid creatures and the origin myths that make them in written and spoken-word forms. The exhibition will also feature public workshops and events, including a free family friendly workshop in which audiences are invited to craft their very own magical creature (free drop in workshop: Saturday 19 September 10am to 4pm).
Richard Tomlinson – A Portrait of Chard & A Portrait of Yeovil
Chard Guildhall – Festival Venue 36
Westlands Entertainment Venue, Yeovil – Festival Venue 45
In a series of photographic portraits and personal stories, Richard Tomlinson celebrates the unseen faces and unheard voices that shape the character of Chard and Yeovil. Tomlinson’s project centres on the idea that the identity of a place is not only situated within its walls and geographic forms, but in the people who inhabit and bring life to these spaces. With his touring photographic studio, Tomlinson invites residents to create self-portraits and tell the tales of their home towns. From recent relocators to long-term residents, shop owners to family members, viewers are invited to stand face to face with the lives, experiences, and cultural connections that shape Chard and Yeovil today.
Sami Green – Characters
ACEarts, Ilminster – Festival Venue 52
Inspired by the notion of communities as a sociogram – a map of relationships – artist Sami Green creates an interactive textile installation exploring themes of belonging, migration, and shared identity. Grounded in playful participation, Green colourful forms invite viewers to stack, combine, and nestle objects in multiple ways sparking curiosity and conversation for audiences of all ages. Working with Polish artist Aggie Kowalczyk, Green’s textile forms feature patterns and prints which evoke experiences of relocation and transition, migration and movement. The exhibition also features a free participatory programme: The Shape of Us (Saturday 19 and 26 September and 3 October, 10am to 5pm). These free drop-in workshops invite participants to animate the soft textile forms through touch, play, and shared making to build ever-changing sculptural structures that reflect Somerset’s interconnected communities.
Sue Green and Alice Crane – Held: What We Carry
Cotley Tithe Barn, Chard – Festival Venue 37
What treasured object fits in your hand or pocket? What would you carry if you had to leave home? These two questions sit at the heart of Sue Green and Alice Crane’s collaborative project which explores ideas of belonging, migration, memory and identity. Through textiles, repurposed cloth and found materials, the work reflects on the stories objects hold and the emotional and cultural connections embedded within them. Working in collaboration with artist Lucy Brown, the project is set within a working farm and draws connections between landscape, labour, care and lived experience. Audiences are invited to explore the wonderful space of Cotley Tithe Barn through a site-responsive installation crafted from textiles, found objects, paint, and personal artefacts. Audiences are also invited to to experience the exhibition through a series of free events, including HELD Heritage Craft Demonstrations on weaving, rag rug-making, spinning and other textile crafts (19 to 24 September, and 30 September to 4 October, free all day workshops).
Tina Salvidge – Looking for Cheddar Man
King John’s Hunting Lodge, Axebridge – Festival Venue 75
The Mapstone Gallery, Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury – Festival Venue 67
Drawing inspiration from the story of the Cheddar Man, Tina Salvidge’s project connects Somerset’s ancient past with experiences of its living present. As the oldest near-complete human skeleton discovered in Britain, the Cheddar Man challenged assumptions about Britain’s oldest inhabitants and Salvidge’s work uses digital technologies, archives and community participation to create a growing archive of stories and objects that unpick personal histories of place and belonging. The project is grounded in a simple question: what object would tell the story of your own connection to Somerset? Visitors are invited to reflect on these objects, stories, questions, and connections through an exhibition of Salvidge’s archive at King John’s Hunting Lodge and a film presentation at the Somerset Rural Life Museum.
SAW’s Micro Commissions encourage artists to develop ambitious new works whilst creating meaningful connections with audiences and communities. The programme provides vital support for creative career development, enabling artists to strengthen their professional practices. 2024 artist Zoe Snape’s commission project on bubbles and breath helped to secure her place for postgraduate studies at Central St Martins, London. For more information on SAW’s 2026 commissions and full details of the Somerset Art Weeks Festival Programme, please visit: https://somersetartworks.org.uk/what-we-do/art-weeks/
