UH Arts + Culture

UH Arts + Culture (University of Hertfordshire Arts + Culture) brings a rich arts and culture programme to our campus and our local communities. We share the best visual arts, live arts, music, film, design and media across our university sites, in Hatfield and St Albans. Collaborating with artists and performers, we commission and present ambitious and relevant work, informed by research. We seek to engage the public as audience members, participants and active co-producers. Reaching across our county, we are committed to strengthening Hertfordshire’s arts and cultural offer with our partners.

Based in Hatfield, our visual arts programme offers artists the space to experiment and develop new ideas. Working with emerging and established creatives, we initiate a series of exhibitions, residencies, commissions and pop-ups, informed by research. We present an ambitious schedule of temporary art exhibitions and related events in the Art + Design Gallery. Constructed in 1998, as part of the University’s School of Creative Arts, the gallery is a large atrium space and also functions as the school’s entrance. With its vast glass-fronted wall and six-metre-high ceilings, the light-diffused gallery offers 100 metres of hanging space and 250 square metres of floor space. It works particularly well for site-specific and site-sensitive installations.

In addition to our temporary exhibitions, UH Arts + Culture are also responsible for the care and mamnagement of the University’s accredited Art Collection. Boasting over 500 artworks dispersed across the campuses, the collection includes paintings, prints, drawings, photography, sculpture, textiles and ceramics. These works are integrated into the University environment to enhance the learning environment, to inspire and provoke students, staff and visitors. The Chapman Gallery is one of the main gallery spaces dedicated to showcasing the University’s Art Collection. The architecture bears witness to the institution's incredible evolution – for over sixty years this was the gateway into Hatfield Technical College, then Hatfield Polytechnic and now the University of Hertfordshire. The collection's 13 impressive outdoor sculptures form the Sculpture Walk, charting the evolution of British sculpture since the 1950s. Visitors are welcome to do self-guided tours of the Sculpture Walk using our Sculpture Walk maps, which can be found in the University's main reception buildings and in our campus galleries.

Since June 2018, UH Arts + Culture has worked in partnership with the St Albans Museum + Gallery to contribute to a vibrant visual arts programme across varied spaces within the St Albans Town Hall building – engaging broadly with artists, audiences and the site.