Responding to ‘Running and Returning’
As part of the public programme surrounding ‘Jyll Bradley: Running and Returning‘ (on display in St Luke’s until 2 November 2025), The Box museum, art gallery and archive in Plymouth, has been working with Adopt South West and local adoptive families to create a new collaborative display in response to her ambitious survey exhibition.
Our families have been working with artist Beth Emily Richards through six creative workshops to explore the idea of a personal archive, scanning archive images from personal photo albums, and using digital photography, collage and other creative approaches. The display can be seen in The Box’s Simmons Learning Room window until Sunday 14 September.
Participants in the sessions included: Gabriel, Faye, Luke, Mark, Melisande, Nathan and Rosanna. Melisande told us:
“This was a different way of seeing your family and being visible.”
Artist Jyll Bradley’s early life experiences shaped her identity and practice. While Bradley grew up in rural Kent, she also spent many summers as a child in the South West, connecting with her adoptive relatives and the land. To find out more about Bradley’s early life experiences, please visit Jyll Bradley: Life and Influences.
The Box is a social space for people, art, ideas and experiences. They preserve the Plymouth’s cultural collections and share extraordinary stories to explore the pressing issues of our age. They nurture and support individuals to be creative and curious about the world around them, exploring the past in order to imagine new futures.