VENUE MATCHING
Can You Help Dorset Artists?
Call for Venues: Dorset Art Weeks 2026!
Do you have a venue that could host artists and/or makers for Dorset Art Weeks 2026?
We're looking for diverse spaces, including galleries, framers, cafes, or even open gardens perfect for sculpture. Artists willing to share their studios for a group show are also welcome!
The possibilities are truly endless. This is a fantastic chance to promote your venue or business, all while championing the arts in Dorset.
Are you an artist seeking a venue for DAW26, or do you have a venue that could host artists or makers?
If so, please get in touch! We'll post your details on this page.
Registrations for Dorset Art Weeks 2026 closes on Wednesday 10 December 2025.
ARTISTS SEEKING A VENUE
To be listed, please email producer@dorsetartweeks.co.uk with the following information:
Name:
Contact: (email and/or telephone)
Location: Where are you based? Are you happy to travel to another area?
Discipline: A description of what you make/create. Website or Instagram link.
Requirements: Any other information you'd like to share about your needs.
Image: An image of your work.
VENUES SEEKING ARTISTS
To be listed, please email producer@dorsetartweeks.co.uk with the following information:
Contact Name:
Contact: (email and/or telephone)
Venue Details: Where/what is the venue?
Artist Type: What type of artist/maker(s) are you looking for?
Requirements: Any other information you'd like to share.
Image: An image of your venue/space (if possible).
Please note - Dorset Art Weeks takes no responsibility for venues or artists arrangements. This page is purely for venues and artists to get in touch with each other for possible participation in the event.
SEE BELOW FOR LISTED VENUES AND ARTISTS.
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST(S)
POSTED - 30/9/25
Contact Name: Sacha Pratten
Contact: contact@vivreretreats.co.uk / 07971916957
Venue Details: Private house in Wimborne
Artist Type: Happy to host 2/3 artists. A sculptor for the garden.
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST(S)
POSTED - 1/10/25
Contact Name: Jayme Reaves / Modern Folk Studio
Contact: contact@modernfolk.studio or 07958134274
Venue Details: 1A Guernsey Street, Fortuneswell, Portland DT5 1JR
Artist Type: Most likely visual arts in the form of paintings, printmaking, etc that can be hung on the wall. There may be some limited display space for sculpture or ceramics.
Requirements: I am happy to arrange keys with the artist(s) to divvy up open studio times to make it viable. My studio also has my antiques and upcycled items, which can be used for display. We can also host a bakery on the Saturday morning of the art week to drive additional traffic to the site.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 2/10/25
Contact Name: Rosemary Jacks
Contact: rosemaryjackspottery@gmail.com
Location: I am a based in Musbury on the Devon/Dorset border. I would love to join up with another artist(s) with a venue in the Lyme Regis / Bridport area.
Discipline: Wheel thrown functional earthenware pottery influenced by English Delftware and early pottery.
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST(S)
POSTED - 6/10/25
Contact Name: Simon Raynes
Contact: 07887 752853 WDCChair1@gmail.com
Venue Details: The Harbour Theatre, 7 Hope Street, Weymouth DT3 8TU
You can find us just off Hope Square, Blue doors!
Artist Type: Any, we have hosted Painting, sculptures, ceramics, and all sorts besides. We have an extensive set of lighting available.
Requirements: There is a fee of £40 per day or £10 per hour
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 6/10/25
Contact Name: Richard Gregory
Contact: rg@richardgregoryart.com 07956 507802
Location: Blandford Forum. I am happy to travel to another area.
Discipline: Contemporary visual artist, making drawings, object installations and digital works. Themes include: the landscape as a mirror; surveillance-paranoia; object, identity and material.
Website: https://richardgregory.art Instagram: https://instagram.com/richardgregory
Requirements: I am considering two options:
1. Situation with a group where there is common ground, either materially or conceptually eg, it could be about drawing, or it could be about responding to a place.
2. Bringing an existing group (twenty3 art collective https://www.instagram.com/twenty3.artcollective/) together in an available, as yet unidentified, space.
Image: After Tonga-Mallard 2025, Still Watching 2025 - Drawing, graphite and pastel on paper, held with found flints from Tarrant Rushton.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 6/10/25
Contact Name: Lucy Fennell
Contact: fennelllucy8@gmail.com / 07538 130610
Location: Gillingham, but am happy to travel to surrounding areas.
Discipline: My work is best described as a mixed bag - painting, photography, writing/poetry, textiles - I work in a lot of mediums and work with various themes such as gender, performativity, the body and more.
Website: https://lucymargaretjoyce.wordpress.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lmjart__/
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 6/10/25
Contact Name: Elly Harvey
Contact: ellyharveysilver@gmail.com
Location: Im based in BH14 but am happy to travel around 45 minutes to the right venue.
Discipline: Designer and maker of solid gold and sterling silver jewellery.
I am a known maker in the Poole Lilliput Canford Cliffs and Sandbanks areas as well as Sherborne/Dorchester/Poundbury. I'm looking for a venue with established other makers and disciplines who would like a jeweller in the offerings for 2026.
My website is www.ellyharveysilver.com and my socials @ellyharveysilver.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 6/10/25
Contact Name: Jenny Mellings
Contact: jenny.mellings@gmail.com
Location: I live between the South Somerset border (Crewkerne), Bridport (partner) and Poole (parents) and currently some of my work is about Arne and related sites.
I would be interested in a shared studio space or other type of venue during the event, preferably in South Dorset somewhere between Lyme and Wareham.
Discipline: Current work mainly involves painting using earth colours and photography but could involve some archaeological finds and small objects. Themes include desert-like spaces, other planets, archaeology, architecture, history, wildlife and mythology. Preferred space would be alongside artists whose work relates in some way. Work can be seen online here:
https://www.instagram.com/transtemporal_spaces/
https://jennymellings.com
https://axisweb.org/artist/jennymellings
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST(S)
POSTED - 7/10/25
Contact Name: Victoria
Contact: info@victoriayj.com or studiosherborne@gmail.com
Location: Art studio / venue hire in Sherborne (studiosherborne.uk)
Artist type: Can be 3D, photography, painting
Requirements: everything can be viewed here: studiosherborne.uk/hire I am happy to do a discount for the whole of the DAW event and happy to also discuss running workshops alongside this.
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST
POSTED - 11/10/25
Contact Name: Anne Quinney
Contact: gonesnorkelling@yahoo.com
Location: Blandford Town Museum
Artist type: 2D / 3D. Wall space and cabinets. Space for browsers and cards.
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 11/10/25
Contact Name: Tom Pouncy trpouncy@gmail.com
Contact: collective@auger.gallery / 07391643592
Venue Details: Auger Collective, Unit 7, 600 Christchurch Road, Sovereign Centre, BH1 4SX
We are a community interest company and provide exhibition and event space for the community, collectives and artists on the South Coast.
Artist Type: Paintings, mixed media, digital art and/or sculptural.
Requirements: www.auger.gallery
Looking for a group of artists to exhibit in our large space for Dorset Art Weeks.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 13/10/25
Name: Jo Saker
Contact: Jo.saker@icloud.com 07771921620
Location: Loders, near Bridport. Yes I'm happy to travel but Bridport would be amazing.
Discipline: Ceramic Artist. Plant Theatres. Ceramics made for Nature.
Instagram @josakerceramics
Requirements: It would be great to be with another ceramists or with a compatible creative please. My pieces are contemporary, graphic and minimal so a visually quiet (white) space would be ideal.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 13/10/25
Name: Jane Norman
Contact: hello@cyanobluedesigns.co.uk
Location: I'm in Poundbury, but very happy to travel.
Discipline: hybrid cyanotypes / drawing
https://www.instagram.com/cyanobluedesigns/
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 1/11/25
Contact Name: Sarah
Contact: sarah.rossant1@gmail.com 07810112299
Venue Details: A garden center/cafe in the picturesque village of Abbotsbury (Google 'Muddy Patches')
Artist type: sculptures, paintings
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 5/11/25
Name: Ina Pickard
Contact: 01305 594457 inapickard@gmail.com
Location: I am based in Central Dorchester.
Open to suggestion but would prefer within 12 miles or so of Dorchester.
Must have reasonable car access.
Discipline: Paintings in Oil / Watercolour / Pastel / cards.
Instagram: inapickard6
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 12/11/25
Contact Name: Annabel Turner at Shaftesbury Abbey Museum & Gardens
Contact: office@shaftesburyabbey.org.uk 07967 328212
Venue Details: Shaftesbury Abbey Museum is in the centre of Shaftesbury on Park Walk. The foundations of a Benedictine Abbey lie in a peaceful walled garden and the museum tells its history. http://www.shaftesburyabbey.org.uk/
Artist type: Possibly sculpture in the garden, or an artist could use the attached lodge building for displaying paintings
Requirements: Artists' work must be appropriate for a consecrated site
Artists are welcome to come and have a look by prior arrangement as we are now closed for the season. Just get in touch with me.
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 17/11/25
Name: Dawn Thomson
Contact: dawnthomson@yahoo.co.uk 07905019326
Location: Sherborne will travel 30 minutes from Sherborne
Discipline: oil on canvas
http://www.dawnthomsonart.com
Requirements: not expensive. Shared space. Parking
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 17/11/25
Name: Cat Finlayson/ Ammonite Emporium
Contact: cat@bodypaintingbycat.co.uk
Location: Live in Weymouth, work in Lulworth Cove weekly. Happy to travel entire county as I often freelance all over.
Discipline: Handmade silver aluminium/ copper repousse skeletal framed 3D art of Kimmeridgian fossil sea reptiles, dinosaurs, ammonites. 3d textural 'shadow panel' faux fossils of the same. Layered papercuts of Dorset landscapes, species accurate wildlife, and fossils, made from my sketches. Colourful curio panels- beetles etc moulded from paper then foiled.
https://ammoniteemporium.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bodypaintingbycat?igsh=M3Z5eDJseXAzdTEw
I only rebranded & separated out my decorative art this summer so these are quite new!
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 18/11/25
Contact Name: Clare Shearing-Lynn, parish administrator
Contact: allsaintschurch2@gmail.com
Venue Details: All Saints' Church garden, at the corner of Castlemain Avenue and Oxford Avenue, Southbourne, BH6 5EH
Artist type: Sculptors, art installations
Requirements: Lovely community garden space for sculptures, etc., with public access. Artist(s) will need to pay registration fee.
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 24/11/25
Contact Name: Annette Coulstock
Contact: Dorset.knapp@gmx.com or 07531 610840
Venue Details: Barn near Winterborne Steepleton, Dorchester - DT2 9HD.
Plenty of parking and easy access for the artist and visitor.
Artist type: Visual arts in the form of paintings, printmaking, etc that can be hung on the wall. Space for sculpture or ceramics on tables / floor.
Currently have a wet felt artist (me) and a painter taking part.
Requirements: To share manning the open studio times. Artists are encouraged to come and have a look by prior arrangement
VENUE SEEKING ARTISTS
POSTED - 25/11/25
Contact Name: Johnny Rath
Contact: studio@oxenburysyard.com / 07767 267499
Venue Details: Oxenburys Yard, Gundry Lane, Bridport, DT6 3RJ
The former workshop and waggon house is being repurposed into a new venue for community and cultural use.
The space can be programmed with hanging space on walls and screens in discussion with the artist/s.
There are also 6 tables for placement of work on the tops.
There are also chairs if needed on site.
Artist type: Painters, textile artists, sculptors or film/sound installations.
Requirements: The former workshop and waggon house is being repurposed into a new venue for community and cultural use.
The space can be programmed with hanging space on walls and screens in a number of ways along with tables for placement of work on the tops.
The space is currently being refurbished ready for opening Easter 2026.
There is parking on site for the artists.
@oxenburysyard
ARTIST SEEKING VENUE
POSTED - 25/11/25
Name: Laura Hollick
Contact: laurakate1991@hotmail.co.uk 07908 124238
Location: Based in Weymouth / Dorchester
I am happy to travel within 15 miles of Weymouth or Dorchester (I'm based in Littlemoor).
Discipline: Mixed Media abstract artist (paint, digital, textiles, collage) with an emphasis on creative expression to support mental wellbeing. A mix of smaller and larger pieces.
Instagram @LauraHollickDorsetArtist.
VENUE SEEKING ARTIST
POSTED - 3/12/25
Name: Ruth Readman
Contact: ruthreadmanceramics@gmail.com
Location: Marnhull, North Dorset
Artist type: Someone who would like to show their work outdoors. I have a large garden which is accessed via 5m bifold glass doors from my inside exhibition space. We back onto fields and have a shepherd's hut. Leafy shade during the summer from the Horse Chestnut. The garden is level and grass with borders. You would be joining a ceramicist and a textile artist.