Award Winning Independent Cinema

We commission work by national and international artists, working with them to develop a unique, challenging and varied programme of exhibitions.

Our cinema is independent, so we hand-pick all of our films, from the best of arthouse cinema from around the world to those blockbusters that you wouldn’t want to watch anywhere else.

Learning is at the heart of all of our activities. Plymouth Arts Centre is a creative place to socialise, and we want to enable as many people as possible to experience art, and feel inspired, confident and thrilled by what they encounter.

We believe that culture changes the world for the better.

Plymouth Arts Centre is supported by Plymouth City Council and Arts Council England. We are a Registered Charity No 800664.

We want to share in making Plymouth a vibrant cultural city, engaging and stimulating our visitors and the local community with our dynamic arts programme and the warmth of our welcome. Our main base is our well-loved building near the Barbican on Looe Street, but our arts, cinema and learning programmes reach out across the city.

Plymouth Arts Centre develops dynamic partnerships with other cultural organisations, both locally and nationally. We aim to strengthen artistic practice in Plymouth by taking a key role in events like the Plymouth Art Weekender and working with organisations such as Visual Arts Plymouth and the Plymouth Visual Arts Programming Group on city-wide projects.

Open Air Cinema is a well-loved fixture on Plymouth’s cultural calendar, taking classic and cult cinema to large audiences at iconic locations such as Tinside Lido, Royal William Yard and Mount Edgcumbe.

We embrace digital technologies to enhance what we do, and Plymouth Arts Centre is a leading partner in developing Artory, an incentivised ‘what’s on’ app for cultural events in Plymouth. The app enables users to leave feedback on events, and organisations to understand their audiences better. Produced by Plymouth Arts Centre and i-DAT, it groups together and promotes cultural activity from over 16 venues and organisations in the city. Artory is an example of how the arts benefit from a collaborative approach.