POSE 2025
We’re pleased to report that POSE25 was a significant and successful event for Portsmouth’s creative community. Over the course of the weekend, around 200 artists across a wide range of venues opened their doors. From home studios to galleries, independent businesses and community spaces, POSE once again demonstrated Portsmouth’s strength as a city for the arts in all its forms — from painting, printmaking and ceramics to performance, music, spoken word, installation and socially engaged practice. Events such as POSE play an important role in supporting Portsmouth’s ambition as it develops its City of Culture bid, showcasing the depth, diversity and accessibility of creativity across the city.
Read more below....
A Big Round of Applause!
POSE25 was the largest edition Open Studios, Exhibitions and Events to date, with around 200 artists taking part across studios, galleries, community venues, businesses and temporary spaces throughout the city.
Bringing together a wide range of creative practices including painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, photography, textiles, installation, sound, performance and spoken word.
Artists opened up their working environments, shared processes and engaged directly with visitors, creating opportunities for meaningful conversations about making, materials and ideas. Which involved
• Over 120 artists featured in the printed guidebook
• Activity across studios, galleries, businesses and community venues
• 5,000 printed guidebooks distributed• 10,000 fold-out maps distributed
• Estimated 30,000–35,000 visits across the weekend• Over 223,000 Instagram views, with 48% from non-followers all grown organically too!
and overall estimated uplift to the city of around £700,000.
Alongside exhibitions and open studios, POSE25 featured a substantial programme of workshops, talks, demonstrations, participatory activity and live performance taking place in the lead-up to, during and following the main trail weekend.
These activities encouraged visitors not only to experience creativity, but to take part in it.
Some standout moments included:
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A substantial programme of workshops, demonstrations, performances and participatory activity taking place across the city throughout the POSE weekend, ranging from printmaking, clay and jewellery demonstrations to word mash Labs, music workshops, movement, ritual performance and collaborative making.
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Casemates Recording Studios creating a strong fusion of music and visual arts, with multiple acts and live activity taking place over the course of the weekend.
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Participatory projects such as, Rituals of Earthly Survival, Word Mash Lab, Doodle Jam and community lantern making helping encourage audiences to actively engage in creativity rather than simply observe it.
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Increased artist participation across different areas of Portsmouth, including the north of Portsea Island, helping broaden access to creative activity across the city.
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The generosity of artists, galleries, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and businesses such as Pool House Studios, in adopting artists and supporting those without viable exhibition spaces.
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Artists reporting meaningful conversations with visitors that led to new collaborations, opportunities and ongoing connections beyond the weekend itself.
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Continued support from organisations such as The Corner Collective and Art Space Artists in helping strengthen artist networks and discussions around future opportunities for mentoring and young people within Portsmouth’s creative community.
but theres more....
Artists and Impact
POSE25 created valuable opportunities for artists to develop their practice and connect with audiences.
Artists reported sales, commissions, new audiences, exhibition opportunities and future collaborations, alongside increased confidence in presenting and discussing their work.
The event also supported peer connection, informal mentoring and digital promotion, helping strengthen the wider creative community.
Digital support workshops delivered by Helen Goss and Tom Byrne helped artists strengthen their confidence around social media, visibility and audience engagement, while also supporting participation in the ongoing development of SMMAP.
POSE25 also included free one-to-one artist support sessions with artist mentor Alys Scott-Hawkins, offering participating creatives dedicated time for professional reflection, advice and development. These sessions formed part of the wider commitment to supporting artists beyond exhibition opportunities alone.
POSE25 also continued to support younger and emerging creatives through initiatives including POSE Kids and opportunities connected to the Young People’s Art (YPA) programme, helping create pathways for younger artists to exhibit, develop confidence and engage with Portsmouth’s wider creative community.
Artists without permanent studio space were supported through the adopted artist model, ensuring wider access to participation.
POSE25 also received coverage across local media, including The News and Southsea Folk magazine, helping extend visibility beyond the immediate event.
As part of POSE100, 9-year-old James A. exhibited alongside professional artists after receiving the inaugural POSE Kids Art Award, reflecting a commitment to supporting creativity across generations.
Below is Fark, (James' favourite artists) presenting James with his Pose Kids Award.
Community
POSE25 encouraged audiences to explore different parts of the city, increasing footfall across venues, cafés and independent businesses.
As part of the programme, City Arts Portsmouth CIC developed the POSE Discount Card scheme in partnership with local businesses. This provided participating artists with access to discounts on materials, services and hospitality in the lead-up to and during the event, supporting both artists and the local economy.
Beyond the weekend, POSE25 has continued to support new connections, collaborations and opportunities across Portsmouth’s creative community.
Families and Young People
POSE25 placed a strong emphasis on encouraging participation from children, young people and families, helping create accessible entry points into creativity across the city.
POSE for the Kids brought together a dedicated programme of family-friendly workshops, performances and creative activities taking place across the weekend, the majority of which were free to attend. Activities included lantern making, collaborative drawing, word and poetry workshops, music sessions, spray painting, mask making, movement workshops and participatory installations.
Families were encouraged not only to visit venues, but to actively engage with artists and creative processes through interactive trail sheets, creative challenges, competitions and opportunities to upload and share their own work with the wider POSE community.
The programme also encouraged children and young people to speak directly with artists about their ideas, materials and processes, helping demystify creative practice and create more meaningful connections between artists and audiences.
These activities helped increase dwell time at venues, supported intergenerational engagement and encouraged families to explore different areas of Portsmouth together through creativity.
Accessibilty
A core aim of POSE is to make creativity visible and accessible within everyday life.
By working across a wide range of venues — including informal and non-traditional spaces — POSE25 created multiple entry points for different audiences.
Workshops, demonstrations and participatory activity helped support engagement from people who may not typically attend gallery-based events
Beyond the Weekend
Since POSE25, activity has continued through projects such as Between the Stops, which brought together over 80 poets and 14 photographers, placing work across Portsmouth’s bus network and into everyday public spaces for several months, alongside a digital flipbook and published printed book capturing the project.
With Portsmouth recording around one million bus journeys each month, this created a sustained and far-reaching presence for the work, reaching audiences well beyond traditional arts settings. The digital flipbook version of the publication has also been viewed over 850 times internationally, extending the project’s reach beyond the city. A limited print edition of 150 books was produced with an ISBN and distributed through legal deposit to the British Library and the Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries, ensuring the work is formally archived.
Alongside this, the POSE100 exhibition at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard provided further opportunities for artists to share work, build on connections and continue their development beyond the trail.
Together, these projects extend the impact of POSE beyond the weekend itself
The Future
Following the success and increasing scale of the programme, City Arts Portsmouth CIC has made the decision for the main POSE arts trail to move to a biennial model. With the next Trail taking place in 2027.
This allows time to strengthen partnerships, secure funding, expand artist support and continue improving accessibility and audience experience.
The years between each main POSE trail will remain active, with exhibitions, workshops, artist meet-ups and collaborative projects continuing to bring artists together across the city.
Rather than a pause, this creates space for deeper connection, experimentation and continued creative activity between each major event.
We would love to see all of our communities represented through the arts and we know there are still a number of artists out there who we would like to welcome to take part in POSE, please get in touch if you have questions we would love to hear from you.
Learning and Improving
As with any large-scale event, there’s room for refinement. While feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive, we recognise areas where we can improve, using the information from the feedback forms sent out, as well as the valuable input from participants and visitors will be an essential part of shaping POSE in the future
Thank you
Thank you to every artist, volunteer, venue, partner and visitor who contributed to POSE25.
POSE exists through collective effort and a shared belief in the value of creativity within the city. Every conversation, open studio, workshop and exhibition played a part in shaping this year’s event.
We are so very grateful to be part of something which we feel is quite magical - purely because we all come together.
#POSE25 #POSEPortsmouth #CityArtsPortsmouth #Portsmouth100