The Box, Plymouth

The Box is a multi-disciplinary arts and heritage space and the UK's most significant cultural initiative launched in 2020.This cultural destination is a museum, gallery and archive that showcases Plymouth’s rich and colourful history, as well as hosting ground-breaking exhibitions, musical compositions and performances. Bringing together the former Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library and St Luke’s Church buildings, The Box is part of the city's ongoing regeneration, re-shaping the landscape of the city’s ‘cultural quarter’.

The venue opened with three major exhibitions, including Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy, the largest commemorative Mayflower exhibition in history, and Kehinde Wiley: Ship of Fools, featuring the work of the world renowned portrait painter and hosted in The Levinsky Gallery on campus. The Box is also home to The Foulston Room, a dedicated space for the University’s Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Business.

The Box brings together the collections of Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office; the Local History Collections of the Central Library; the South West Film and Television Archive; the South West Image Bank, and some of the Naval Heritage Centre collections in Devonport, with a curated, contemporary programme complemented by rich academic research, from The Bridge .

Plymouth’s newest history centre project, The Box

“What is distinctive about The Box is the spirit of connection,” says Professor Dafydd Moore, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business, and the University’s lead representative on the project. “It is about moving people, mentally and physically, to other places such as Smeaton’s Tower or the Elizabethan House. It is about allowing Plymothians to reconnect with the history of their city as a whole, and allowing visitors to make sense of the rich historical landscape they are visiting when they spend time in Plymouth.”