Community & Change

We believe that art can inspire and drive change

Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange has always been shaped by the needs of the communities it serves. This mission has been sharpened in recent years by national and global events that have long-lasting impacts on those communities, particularly those that are vulnerable and marginalised.

We recognise that to be relevant and useful to our communities, including the least represented, we must reflect the lived experience of the audiences we hope to serve.

Programme approaches must represent a greater diversity of perspectives and voices and find roles for artists as activists, and artworks as tools to bring meaning, or challenge presumptions and preconceptions.

We know that to address issues that our communities and specialist partners identify as urgent, we must welcome them into the organisation, and go out to their spaces, devolve decision-making, and invite them to shape our programme and bring fresh perspectives.

We are ambitious in our commitment to help communities use art and creativity to tackle real-life challenges.

Wellbeing & Creative Health
Image shows a group of people standing on rocky beacj with large bags of marine rubbish in front of them

Hyper-Local / Internationally Connected

Artists' Activism

Creativity in Education

Key Statistics / Our Impact

Our board, leadership, and wider staff/volunteer teams work effectively together within a collegiate culture. Our Mission, Vision and Values underpin all our work and are shaped through whole-team working and are owned and embraced by all. We are actively moving towards equitable, diverse and inclusive representation on the whole gallery team.

We are a key economic driver in the region with a local annual economic impact of £2.6m. Our gallery carbon footprint is 52 tCO2 pa, (67 tCO2 in 21-22, 54tCO2 22-23)

Those we engage as audiences and participants are becoming more diverse:

  • IMD19 postcode analysis shows improving engagement trends with residents of the 20% most deprived wards (16% of Cornish population) up from 11% to 18% of visitors
  • Visitor age profiles have moved too. In 2017, 15% of visitors were under 45yrs. By 2022, this increased to 40%. Global Majority audiences more than doubled, from 2% to 6% (Cornwall 2%).
  • 8% of our audiences describe themselves as disabled compared to 21% in Cornwall. As with our workforce, more targeted work is required.
  • While our in-gallery visitor totals fluctuated, we see in 2024/25 a return to pre-pandemic figures and our online user figure has more than doubled in five years to 58k.

 

What Success will look like

Building on our previous successes, delivering Let’s Create for Arts Council England will mean communities not previously engaged with the arts will feel ownership of the gallery and part of our team.

  • We will have inspired and equipped young people, older people, and young families through access to creative education.
  • Our ambitious and dynamic programmes will centre diverse voices, particularly those reflecting intersectional protected characteristics, increasing their representation amongst staff and board.
  • We will have reached more people, increasing the numbers we engage on-site, and bolstered by off-site programming, and through this work, provide vital support and access to creativity to those underserved in our local communities.

Through intelligent data-driven targeting and evaluation, our work will be relevant to the lives of a much broader cross-section of people, providing material support and enriching lives. We will have continually challenged ourselves to think and act differently, to achieve this goal.