Central to the FUTURES Festival celebrations was the creation of new artwork, and encouraging visitors to explore their artistic side through walking tours, our craft zone, and workshops. Each of these activities worked with members of the local community to bring new voices into a variety of research disciplines.
Art can be a valuable tool in public engagement, bringing in adults and children alike by reframing research in the context of the familiar. At FUTURES 2025, art played a key role in our walking tours, workshops, Pop-Up Curiosity Shop, and Treasure Trail.
Both our Treasure Trail and walking tours inspired attendees to explore artwork in the wider city, from the ‘We Still Have a Chance Mural’, launched as part of FUTURES 2024, to Steve McCracken’s bird-themed street art in ‘Sensing Exeter’s Air Quality: A Bird’s View’. By showcasing artwork around Exeter, these activities highlighted the city’s strong environmental connections, and forged new links between local research, and the area as it is experienced by the public.
Anyone looking to create their own artwork could book into Dr Caitlin Kight’s workshop, ‘Visual Revelations: Drawing Comics for Fun and Wellbeing’. This hands-on event provided an introduction to comic creation, while exploring the wellbeing benefits of art and creativity. The workshop invited all to both learn about comics, and create their own, with one visitor saying that this blend of education and creation meant “it didn’t feel like learning”, and others noting how much they enjoyed it – despite not being confident in their drawing!
At our Sunday Pop-Up Shop, the children’s craft zone invited younger visitors to engage with the day’s research in a fun, age-appropriate way. As part of this, attendees were encouraged to contribute to a mural, showcasing everything they had learnt in their time exploring FUTURES. This mural has been fantastic for highlighting all the different elements of the festival, and what these mean to the members of the community who took part.
While the festival’s events are now over, we hope that the learning from these activities, and the legacy of the FUTURES mural will continue to inspire new audiences to engage with research, and learn about the wonderful work happening around the city.
FUTURES is a free festival of discovery which takes place across venues in Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Exeter and Plymouth, funded by the UKRI.
