Purbeck Photography Festival 3rd – 11th April 2027
Sandy Hill Arts is delighted to be piloting an inaugural Purbeck Photography Festival from 3rd to the 11th April 2027, as a precursor to an ongoing, independent biennial festival. Dorset already holds a strong portfolio of art festivals like Dorset Art Weeks, Inside Out Dorset, B side and Arts by the Sea, but none of them are particularly focussed on photography. Photography now plays such a pivotal role in our everyday lives, and with our seemingly endless appetite for imagery we feel it is a good time to develop this new arts festival.
While metropolitan areas benefit from a high density of contemporary galleries, rural areas are frequently underserved: there are no other photography festivals within 60 miles. The ten day Purbeck Photography Festival will challenge this disparity, and aims to introduce high-quality new photographic work by national and international artists, juxtaposed with the work of emerging regional practitioners. In this age of transient instant image making we want to champion and re-emphasise ‘considered photography’ as what it is, an accessible and democratic art form.
Our title and theme for this first Festival is ‘Beyond the Pale’. Exhibitions will focus on landscape, but with an emphasis on public access to land: a live topic across much of the country, and especially in the South West. We are aiming for a broad engagement which will appeal to the widest audience both within and outside the local community.
Exhibitions, free to the public, will be hosted by Sandy Hill Arts in Corfe Castle and the Mowlem Theatre in Swanage, as well as two open air exhibitions along the Swanage beach promenade. In this first year we will hold an Open Competition for artists across the country, as well as showing work stemming from a local school project. We will include workshops on historic processes like Cyanotypes and sun printing, and are currently sourcing one or more speakers. We are in discussion with the Rex cinema who will show themed films, and we are planning a community portrait project.
More details as we can firm them up! Keep an eye on our social media and sign up to our newsletter…
Sample images – England-on-Sea, Brent Jones
