Events

Comings and goings...

Below are a few of our happenings… from workshops, whittling and wellbeing retreats.

We also post details on our Instagram account @southcombebarn and via our Southcombe Journal newsletter.

Dartmoor Clayscapes

13 June – 6 July 2025

Dartmoor Clayscapes: Empathic Journeys through Clay is a programme of arts featuring Iman Datoo, Arabel Lebrusan and Florence Peake that engages with the materiality of clay ‘kinaesthetically’ or through tactile learning. The programme, held at Southcombe Barn, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, comprises workshops, interactive performance and film to reflect on contemporary issues such as migration and ecological crisis, supporting the development of empathic responses to both human and more-than-human forms of life.

Homeland Clay Workshops

13 & 27 June, 11am -3pm: drop in clay workshop led by Arabel Lebrusan and Kate Lyons Miller. Free and open to all.

A series of free drop-in workshops led by Lebrusan alongside ceramicist and educator Kate Lyons Miller will be held in the studio, coinciding with the open gardens at Southcombe.

During these sessions, the public are invited to join the artists in sculpting migratory swallows using local clay and tin. The ceramic swallows will form part of a large scale sculpture which will be on view from 4 July in Southcombe Gardens.

Homeland - Free exhibition

4-6 July, 10am – 4pm: HomeLAND collaborative sculpture by Arabel Lebrusan on view and film work by Iman Datoo

HomeLAND, realised by Arabel Lebrusan, forms the programme’s central project. Influenced by eco-feminist and socio-historical methodologies, Lebrusan’s work often takes the form of site specific sculptures and interventions that question existing hierarchies and power dynamics. Her latest body of work is concerned with ecological grief in response to extraction and commodification of natural landscapes.

Voicings - Performance

5 July 2025, 7pm: Voicings performed by Florence Peake, Southcombe Barn, £5 entrance

Combining performance and visual arts practices, Florence Peake’s work explores forms of reciprocal relationality, using touch as an access point to receive and communicate information that sits outside of the patriarchal structure of visual and verbal language. During her residency at Southcombe Barn, Peake will perform her interactive piece Voicings. Through local ball clay, the idea of collective agency is evoked as a way to access and articulate questions of personal, group and global concern.

Kitchen Table Weekender

3rd – 5th October, 2025

A weekend of creative development, allyship and professional guidance

Kitchen Table Weekender

Archive

Hover on the images below for your previous events at Southcombe Barn

Artist Open Call - Kitchen Table Weekender

28th February - 2nd March, 2025

Kitchen Table is a collaborative initiative by contemporary art curators Dr Ella S Mills of talking on corners and Vashti Cassinelli of Southcombe Barn. Our partnership is focused on supporting women and non-binary visual artist professionals at any stage in their career. This artist-centred programme provides time and space to consider your current work and future potential. It focuses on you and your practice through reflective critique, collaborative creative thinking, professional guidance and well-being in the unique, ancient landscape of Dartmoor National Park.

Hanna Tuulikki: Dawn Chorus performance

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 6:00 am to 7:00 am

At dawn on Beltane, artist Hanna Tuulikki will sing the summer in, performing some of her solo vocal works based on the patterns of songbirds, animating the echoes of the greenwood and interacting with the music of the birds.

Fern Leigh Albert: Wild Campers

Friday, May 10, 2024 6:00 pm Saturday, May 25, 2024 2:00 pm

Photographer Fern Leigh Albert’s solo exhibition ‘Wild Campers’ documents the wild camping campaign from January 2023 to present day. With an upcoming Supreme Court appeal due in October, Fern looks to re-enliven the discussion about wild camping on Dartmoor and celebrate the achievements of the campaign so far. Presented by Radical Ecology and Southcombe Barn, Invasion Ecology is a season of contemporary land art coming to Dartmoor from 1 May – 10 August 2024.

Invasion Ecology

Saturday, June 1, 2024 11:00 am Saturday, August 10, 2024 3:00 pm

Invasion Ecology is a group exhibition that adopts decolonial, land-based inquiry to begin rethinking our relation to place and landscape. Artists include Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert and Ashanti Hare, with works spanning installation, performance, moving image and photography. By casting a long lens on history – back to the formation of continents – and focusing on the exploitation and displacement of plants and people, the programme seeks to challenge the ‘othering’ of species by deconstructing binary distinctions between terms such as ‘native’ and ‘invasive’.

Ashanti Hare: River That Never Rests Iteration II

Saturday June 15, 2024 7.30pm to 8pm

River That Never Rests Iteration II is a ritual performance that explores the concept of the river Exe becoming sentient and revealing its story as ‘the observer of the land and guardian of passing over.’ The process of creating the ceremonial costume is an integral part of the work, encompassing the magick and meditation of ritual. Hare developed this commission in part during a residency at Southcombe Barn in 2023. Observing the surrounding wildlife was integral to exploring the idea of the river Exe ‘as the watcher who connects the physical with documented histories of Exeter and the wider South West.

Mariam Mohamed: Decolonising plant medicine workshop

Saturday, June 22, 2024 10am to 11am

Processes of colonisation and capitalism have historically led to the destruction of knowledge systems, ecologies and earth-based practices. In this practical workshop we will challenge colonial systems of knowledge production and botanical language by engaging in a sensory-based session that draws on perception, intuition and oral storytelling as a way to develop deeper relationships with plants as medicinal and spiritual allies. Honouring ancestral and indigenous knowledges, we will journey into the apothecary garden, learn about respectful plant medicine practices and weave together our senses and creativity to craft a herbal remedy inspired by the season.