Group Visits
Photoworks is pleased to welcome school and other group visits to this year’s festival taking place across Brighton & Hove. Ahead of the formal programme launch later this summer we have compiled a summary of what’s on.
The information is designed to support advance planning. If you have any queries regarding your group visit, please email the Learning team.
Facilitated Sessions
We are offering a limited number of free, facilitated sessions at selected exhibitions for school and college groups (ages 11 – 19) on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 October only.
What to expect
Thanks to generous support from the Art Fund, we have been working with a cohort of Arts undergraduates, supporting them to devise and lead an hour-long session for your school or college group supported by the Photoworks team. Expect lively discussion and simple practical tasks designed to support engagement with festival themes.
Facilitated sessions will be available for exhibitions at Brighton Museum, Jubilee Library, Phoenix Art Space and the University of Brighton (Edward Street, actual exhibition tbc).
We invite you to book in for two facilitated sessions, each lasting one hour. You are responsible for planning the remainder of your itinerary that day, but we are happy to advise on suitable exhibitions and lunch spots.
Contact us directly to register your interest in facilitated sessions.
Advance booking only.
Max group size 30
Please note:
- Groups planning to visit Brighton Museum independently should contact the museum directly as charges may apply.
- If you are not taking part in facilitated visits on 21 & 22 October we advise bringing your group on an alternative date.
- We are running a group clash diary for the festival. Please email us to let us know when you are bringing your group.
Photoworks Festival - Un/Stable: Lands, Anxieties, Dreams
The Photoworks Festival exhibitions and events are curated around the theme, Un/Stable: Lands, Anxieties, Dreams and presented throughout Brighton and Hove. The theme is explored through a range of exhibitions that show how photography can help us question and make sense of a rapidly changing world.
The festival invites audiences to consider how identity, place, memory, community and the environment are interconnected, asking what it means to live through uncertainty while imagining or creating hopeful futures. Addressing issues including climate change, belonging, resilience and social change, the festival encourages us to question assumptions, embrace multiple perspectives and think critically about the relationships between people, histories, landscapes and technology.
Featuring artworks created by a range of artists from young people to established practitioners that explore a range of subjects including ecosystems, global and personal archives, forest restoration, ecological and social renewal, including interconnections between human and non-human worlds. The programme offers a timely opportunity to connect creative learning with some of the defining challenges and possibilities of our time.
How to get involved:
To find out more about the exhibitions involved in the schools programme, download PDF here.
If you’d like to bring a class to the programme in October 2026, please email the learning team.