About The Box

The Box is Plymouth’s new £46 million cultural destination, proudly led by Plymouth City Council in Britain's Ocean City. A museum, gallery and archive. A cafe, shop and bar. A place that you can make your own, and where there's always something new to discover.

The opening of The Box was one of the most significant cultural events in the UK in 2020. Plymouth's former Museum and Art Gallery, Central Library and St Luke's church buildings have been completely transformed with a series of new galleries and exhibition spaces. The Box also features a striking elevated ‘archive in the sky’ with research and learning facilities, food, drink and retail spaces. It's also created a major new public square (Tavistock Place) for performances, events and artistic responses. 

Plymouth has a fascinating past and a dynamic present. The Box's collections, programmes and commissions share stories of international and local significance. We also give contemporary artists the opportunity to create new work that responds to our historic collections.

A visit to The Box is an incredible experience. We look forward to welcoming you soon.

Our vision

Reimagining the future through the past.

Our mission

The Box is a social space for people, art, ideas and experiences. We preserve the city’s cultural collections and share extraordinary stories to explore the pressing issues of our age.

From our home in Plymouth, we nurture and support individuals to be creative and curious about the world around them, exploring the past in order to imagine new futures.

We seek to be a sustainable cultural organisation for the 21st century.

Our values

• Connected – we are committed to inclusion and thrive through collaboration. We connect people, places, ideas and collections.
• Progressive – we are ambitious and seek to be an exemplary cultural organisation, developing new ideas and ways of doing things.
• Curious - we enable creativity and learning to ignite imagination and inspire change.
• Relevant – we work with others to generate an engaging and accessible offer for our communities, particularly those for whom The Box is new.

Our governance

Plymouth City Council owns The Box and St. Luke’s church buildings. The Box facility is operated through a not-for-profit company called Arca (Plymouth) Limited. Arca’s trading name is The Box. It too is owned by the Council.

All the Council’s major collections are curated and conserved within The Box museum and galleries and St Luke’s church, and at other related venues across the City and the wider region.

The Council has also instigated the establishment of The Box Foundation, a charitable company registered with the Charity Commission of England & Wales. The Foundation will achieve its charitable objects through fundraising and grant funding for the activities of The Box.

Our supporters

Creating The Box and continuing to welcome visitors to engage with our collections, spaces and activities wouldn't be possible without the generous support of many valued partners, funders and supporters.

Our awards

To date, The Box has won or been nominated for the following awards:

• Museums + Heritage Awards 2020 – Restoration/Conservation Project of the Year for the Royal Naval Ship’s Figureheads – Winner
• Apollo Awards 2020 – Museum Opening of the Year – Nominee
• British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2020 – Best UK and Ireland Tourism Project for 'Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy' – Winner
• iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards 2021 – Use of Digital and Technology for ‘The Box on The Box’ – Silver
• National Campaign for the Arts' (NCA) Hearts For The Arts Awards 2021 – Best Arts Project – Nominee
• Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) South West Civil Engineering Awards 2021 - Showcase Award - Winner and People’s Choice Award - Shortlisted
• Museums + Heritage Awards 2021 – UK Exhibition of the Year - Highly Commended and Shop of the Year - Shortlisted
• Constructing Excellence South West Awards 2021 – Integration & Collaborative Working - Winner, Value - Highly Commended and Conservation & Rejuvenation - Highly Commended
• Design Week Award 2021 – Exhibition Design – Shortlisted
• Kids in Museums Family Friendly Awards 2021 – Medium Museum – Shortlisted
• National Lottery Awards - Project of the Year for 'The Box on The Box' - Runner Up
• Insider Media 2021 South West Property Awards - Fit-out/Refurbishment of the Year - Winner
• Local Authority 2021 Building Control Awards - Best Public or Community Building - Winner
• Michelmores 2021 Property Awards – Leisure & Tourism Project of the Year - Winner and Building of the Year – Winner
• Abercrombie Awards 2021 - Best New Building - Winner; Best Public Space - Winner and The Ambercrombie Award for Excellence and Innovation - Winner
• LABC Building Excellence Awards 2021 - Best Public or Community Building - Highly Commended
• European Museum of the Year 2022 - Special Commendation
• Concrete Society Awards 2022 - Nominated
• Muddy Stilettos (Devon) Awards 2022 - Family Friendly Attraction - Finalist
• RTPI South West Awards for Planning Excellence 2022 - Joint Winner & Highly Commended Chairs Award (Excellence in Planning Delivery)
• Building Forum Awards 2022 - John Bracey Building of the Year Award - Winner

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The Box puts people at its heart, creating active participants, connecting people with their heritage and creativity, building pride and confidence. We are currently reviewing and updating our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan to ensure that it's fit for purpose and rooted in good practice.

If The Box is to be truly ‘special for everyone’ then we have a responsibiity to not only have the best and most representative work across our galleries and programmes, but to also recognise that how we recruit staff, who our partners are, what we prioritise and how we exercise our influence, all have real impact and effect change.

We are committed to creating a culture in which all those who engage with us are treated with fairness, dignity and respect.

Anti-racism

The Box is committed to anti-racism and we are working hard to be an anti-racist organisation.

Working with artists

In our work with artists we innovate and offer fresh perspectives and connections between history and contemporary life.

Environmental responsibility

As part of work to draw up an environmental action plan, we have produced a policy for the coming year. This includes a snapshot from 2021, which gives an idea of our carbon footprint (based on The Box site) so that we can identify changes that will help reduce our footprint in 2022 and onwards.

Climate emergency

The Box is committed to shining a light on environmental loss and damage, raising awareness among the communities we serve and establishing ourselves as a catalyst for urgent action.