Cultural Collections
Cultural Collections brings together extraordinary collections of art, rare books, film, theatre and live performance archives and more. Explore original items and unique resources that support study, research, and your creative practice or simply enjoy discovering something unexpected. We also care for the University of Bristol’s historical records, preserving the stories, decisions, and moments that have shaped the University over time.
Exhibitions and events
Discover what’s happening across Cultural Collections. Enjoy exhibitions, events, tours, and talks that bring our collections to life, on campus and beyond.
Cultural Collections are open to everyone
- Students work with original materials to support essays, dissertations, coursework, and creative projects.
- Researchers access primary sources and archives to support new and ongoing research.
- Artists and creatives explore our archives, performance history, and public art to spark new ideas and work.
- Members of the public enjoy free exhibitions, events, and artworks across the University campus.
- Community partners collaborate with us on shared projects, learning activities, and creative commissions.
Our friendly teams are here to help you find, access, and make the most of the collections, whether you’re visiting for the first time or returning for deeper research.
We look after a range of locally, nationally and internationally significant cultural collections. The cultural resources we care for range from large scale public art to more traditional paper-based materials and are located across the University’s locations.
Most collections are accessible to the public. You can consult the archives we care for by appointment, visit our exhibition spaces during our opening hours or you can discover them at your leisure as you walk through our grounds.
Cultural collections include:
Public Art
Whether you are a local resident or visiting Bristol for a few hours, you can enjoy a range of temporary and permanent public artworks hidden in the city’s green spaces or adorning buildings.
Special Collections
Covering everything from the history of our institution, cartography, politics, science, publishing and even wildlife film, Special Collections bring together a diverse range of printed books, archival resources and artefacts.
Theatre Collection
As one of the most significant international performance archives, the Theatre Collection holds a wealth of resources that help to tell the story of British theatre history and contemporary practice. Resources include paintings, scene models, costumes props, prompt books and even a piece of toast used in promotion.
As an accredited Museum and Archive, we host exhibitions from Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am-5pm.
Art Collection
Housed within our various collections and buildings are a range of artworks. To explore the oil paintings and sculptures all in one place, visit ArtUK.
The Uncertain Space: our virtual museum
The Uncertain Space is our unique, and purely virtual, university museum. We work with curators, academics, and community groups to developing an evolving programme of virtual exhibition experiences.