Arnolfini
Iconic gallery and venue on Bristol’s waterfront
Established 1961, Arnolfini is an internationally renowned contemporary arts centre on the city harbourside, offering a diverse programme of visual art, contemporary dance, film screenings and live music, as well as workshops, talks and lectures, and family events.
Its versatile facilities span multiple exhibition and performance spaces including five galleries and a 200-capacity auditorium, plus specialist bookshop, reading room, and cafe-bar. Part of the building is shared with The University of the West of England (UWE).
Alongside its own exhibitions and events, over the years Arnolfini has hosted events for many of Bristol’s key cultural institutions, including Mayfest, Bristol Palestine Film Festival, Bristol Artists Book Event, Lyrafest, and Encounters Film Festival alongside Watershed and the Bristol Beacon.
Level access into the building is available via Prince Street, with lift access to all floors. Accessible toilets are available throughout the building. Further access information can be found on the Arnolfini website: http://arnolfini.org.uk/plan-your-visit/accessibility
Its versatile facilities span multiple exhibition and performance spaces including five galleries and a 200-capacity auditorium, plus specialist bookshop, reading room, and cafe-bar. Part of the building is shared with The University of the West of England (UWE).
Alongside its own exhibitions and events, over the years Arnolfini has hosted events for many of Bristol’s key cultural institutions, including Mayfest, Bristol Palestine Film Festival, Bristol Artists Book Event, Lyrafest, and Encounters Film Festival alongside Watershed and the Bristol Beacon.
Level access into the building is available via Prince Street, with lift access to all floors. Accessible toilets are available throughout the building. Further access information can be found on the Arnolfini website: http://arnolfini.org.uk/plan-your-visit/accessibility
What's On At Arnolfini
— Arnolfini
contemporary classical
experimental
film
— Arnolfini
experimental
cabaret
comedy
theatre
stand-up comedy
Get a feel for Arnolfini
Our recent recommendations for Arnolfini
Disembodied voices, AV time-stretching, Christopher Nolan fan fiction and John Cage's love letters. No, this won't be your average avant-classical offering, but nothing's as it seems in the world of Wack or Strasbourg's radical Lovemusic Collective. Adventurous minds are in for an unmissable textual journey through radical sound art and new musical realms.
Strasbourg-based collective lovemusic join acclaimed composer-performers Jennifer Walshe and Neil Luck (WACK) for a very special concert of radical experimental music.
Global maestros of the photographic medium assemble like never before. Bristol Photo Festival present a series of in-depth conversations offering a tantalising glimpse into the folk psychogeography of Akshay Mahajan, Joy Gregory's examinations of exoticism and post-colonialism + more in this flagship expo.
Join us for a special one-day symposium with contributions from artists and photographers from across the globe.
Sell out warning! BPF kicks off with a suitably woozy triple-header, staging lo-fi dream-pop and off-kilter improv in front of moving image plucked from this year's programme. Jabu bring the moonlight lovers jamz, AOTY contender Regina Collage sways through haunting post-punk decelerations and bizarro percussionist Dan Johnson returns for an unpredictable link-up with Anushiye Yarnell.
To mark the opening of Bristol Photo Festival 2026, please join us for a special live-show by three of Bristol’s most compelling musical artists, joined on the night by special collaborators, including Anushiye Yarnell and Memotone.
Contemporary classical sound collage from the world's most pre-eminent avant garde ensemble! Phaedra revisit their fruitful work with composer Jamie Hamilton, drawing on samples of stammering voices for an AV-augmented deconstruction of dysfluency and musical language.
A new performance by Jamie Hamilton and the Phaedra Ensemble, exploring the territory between spoken language and musical sound, through the stammered voice
Sell out warning! Don't let one of the most inspiring tales of modern human endurance pass you by! Dr. Sarah Ruggins will be in person detailing how she conquered mind and body, autoimmune conditions and gender-bias, in her journey from learning to ride a bike to smashing 3 world records.
Inside the mind of a multiple endurance world record holder.