Exeter’s Quayside Shanty Festival will return on Saturday 13 September. Expect another fantastic day and evening of folk songs of the sea, performed by some colourful characters and suitable for all the family. We can’t wait to see you there for more seafarin’ shenanigans on and around Exeter’s Heritage Harbour.

Join artists Sue Palmer and Sheila Ghelani as they turn over the interconnections between climate and geology, fuel and feelings, the strata and layers of atmospheres through performance and action. Everything we make is from the earth and will go back to it. Running order: Arrive, looking and reading. Sue and Sheilas performance along a table. A conversation between the artists and two invited guests from other fields, ranging from scientists to local historians, from artists to activists. Our event will include a break with a drink. Sue and Sheila have previously collaborated on Common Salt, a show and tell about empire, nature and memory, and this new piece builds on their practice and performance work. Atmospheric Forces has been made through a series of week-long residencies in four locations: UAL Wimbledon College of Arts (School of Performance and CCW Research), Somerset Earth Sciences Centre, University of Readings Department of Film, Theatre & Television in partnership with South Street Arts and RADAR/LUArts in Loughborough. The project is supported by Arts Council England, UAL: Wimbledon College of Art, University of Readings Department of Film, Theatre & Television in partnership with South Street Arts & RADAR Loughborough.

To celebrate the upcoming paperback release of her critically acclaimed memoir, we are excited to welcome Susanna Crossman. About Home is Where We Start In the late seventies, six-year-old Susanna moved with her mother and siblings to a utopian commune in rural England. For over fifteen years, she lived inside a crumbling mansion with fifty adults and children, trying to remake the world. Decades later, with the benefit of hindsight, she returns to her own childhood with pressing questions. What happens to children when we try to abolish the family? What is it really like to be the product of a social experiment? And how can we criticise the damage caused by revolutions while retaining a belief in the power of change? Part personal memoir, part critical analysis, Crossman turns to leading thinkers in philosophy, sociology and ethics to examine the many meanings of family and home. About Susanna Crossma: Susanna Crossman is an essayist and award-winning fiction writer. Her memoir, Home is Where We Start, was published by Fig Tree, Penguin, in 2024. Her new novel, The Orange Notebooks, will be published by Bluemoose Books in 2025. She has recent work in Aeon, The Guardian, Vogue, Paris Review, and more. A published novelist in France, she regularly collaborates with artists and film-makers. Currently, when she's not writing, she works internationally as a lecturer and clinical arts-therapist. Susanna has run writing and creativity seminars on three continents (Sarah Lawrence College (NY, USA), Kangwon National University (South Korea), University of Botswana, Universit Rennes 2 (FR), EDF and more). Born in the UK, Susanna Crossman grew up in an international commune and has lived in France for over half her life.

Andrew's recent success has led to him being described as the "Greatest Card Magician in the world. It's a lot of pressure to live up to. Come and find out if it is true.

We are thrilled to welcome award-winning author Philip Marsden to Quay Words this June for an evening discussing his latest book, Under a Metal Sky. About Under a Metal Sky The discovery of minerals beneath our feet has transformed our species. Ochre first prompted humans to express themselves in art; tin and copper helped instigate the Bronze Age and later the Industrial Revolution; silver kick-started the engines of global trade. Each of these substances generated a leap forward in technology, each one opened the imagination a little further and each one brought with it a cache of unexpected dangers. Under A Metal Sky begins and ends in Philip Marsdens homeland of Cornwall, one of the worlds great geological hotspots. Travelling eastwards into Europe, he examines how the extraction of peat propelled the Netherlands to world prominence but also imperilled its very existence. Continuing on up the Rhine by barge, into the heart of the continent, he uncovers more stories of potent and tempting resources, from iron-rich meteorites to radium and mercury, and the gold-bearing mountains of Georgia. At the same time he explores precious seams of ideas, from science to alchemy, mysticism to ecology and those questing souls who pursued them, like Paracelsus, the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II, Goethe, William Blake and Marie Curie. Rich with revelations, Under A Metal Sky traces the dazzling achievements and dark consequences of our ability to extract what we want from the earth, and presents a fascinating new perspective on European history and on our troubled relationship with the natural world. About Philip Marsden Philip Marsden is the award-winning author of a number of works of non-fiction, history and fiction. Recent books include The Levelling Sea - about Falmouth and the influence of the sea on individuals and national history, Rising Ground which examines the power of certain sites to generate story, and The Summer Isles, an account of sailing single-handed up the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland in search of mythical islands. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and his work has been translated into more than fifteen languages. Living on a small farm in Cornwall, he is actively involved in both marine and terrestrial conservation. Image credit: Lewis Jefferies This event will be in-person at Exeter Custom House. You can find out more about the accessibility of the Custom House here [https://quaywords.org.uk/about/access/]. If you have any access needs youd like to discuss with us before the event you can contact us on [email protected]. We can offer free carer tickets if you need help to support you to attend.

Join Pile Up! artists Louise Ashcroft, Farmer Glitch and Freya Gabie from 4pm at the Custom House where they will be on hand in the exhibition to answer questions about their artworks. After a short performance action by Louise at 5.30pm, the artists will be in conversation with Matt Hulland, Resource Recovery Manager at Exeter City Council about the materials and processes involved in making Pile Up! and wider issues of resource exhaustion and circular economies. There will be a paid bar at this event.

Saturday 19th July/ 11am-1pm & 2pm-4pm Join writer-in-residence Kirsteen McNish for a day of creative writing at the Exeter Custom House, with two exciting workshops examining the themes of Flow and Weft and Weave. Together we will explore personal and fictionalised stories drawn from the changing nature of a tidal city and the relationship with the natural world, and things that are hidden or concealed. What does the inter-tidal nature of an estuary bring forth? What does the water bring in and then take away again? Where do confluences collide and what parts are stranded or saved or intertwine with other narratives? Examining the Exe estuary and the combined inspirational energies of artists, musicians and poets alongside the natural environment as inspiration, Kirsteen will lead these two workshops around what harnesses the rhythm of the natural world, human and non-human stories to bring forth simple and yet impactful work that all contribute to a larger picture. Read below for further details on each workshop. Workshop One: Folk, flow & churn (11-1pm) This first workshop will examine the flow and churn and the energy of water, the pull of the moon, the mysterious and our internal tides, the folkloric, ritual, non-human and otherness in relation to water. Led by Kirsteen, we will look at stories that are somehow concealed, washed up, or churned by the tides. Participants will look at the esoteric nature of water and the force of flow and churn. and that of the rich and sometimes threatened ecology of where we live. Together we will delve into the creative imagination, the tidal nature of emotion, and the natural environment. Workshop Two: Weft and Weave (2-4pm) In this second workshop of the day, we will draw inspiration from the industry of cloth and textiles in Exeter and the collections at the Quayside as metaphors for weaving stories into a convergence of tides and times. We will use field recordings from the natural environment of in and outside of the quay to provide an aural soundtrack, examining transience and stories that otherwise might not be heard. Drawing inspiration from archives, sound and the spaces between the built environment and the natural world, participants will create new material which makes up a larger interconnecting tapestry of work. We will look at transience and the fragmental nature of what it is to live in a city that tells thousands of stories that otherwise would perhaps be unheard. Smart phones with audio recorders/voice notes will be needed for this workshop. Should you require any assistance with this element of the workshop, please speak to a member of the Quay Words team. The workshops will take place in historic rooms on the first floor of the building. There is step-free entry to the ground floor and a lift connects the ground and first floors. If you have particular access requirements please phone or email the Custom House Visitor Centre in advance of your visit. There are five free disabled parking spaces for registered Blue Badge holders next to the Exeter Antiques Centre immediately in front of the Custom House. Maximum stay is three hours. Please email Quay Words on [email protected] with any accessibility enquiries. We can accommodate free tickets for carers or personal assistants if needed just email us after booking to let us know.

Were pleased to continue hosting theExeter Poetry Society Stanza [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/stanzas/devon/exeter/]for some of 2025's in person meetings at Quay Words. The sessions are led by local poet (and previous Quay Words writer-in-residence [https://quaywords.org.uk/residencies/sarah-acton-summer-2024/])Sarah Acton [https://sarahacton.co.uk/] and are a chance to bring poems youre working on along for peer feedback. For every session each poet brings along one poem for critique (with 8 paper copies for your fellow poets to read). You can register your interest for free here.Please note, in registering your interest you are agreeing for Quay Words to share your contact details with Sarah Acton as the group's organiser. Once registered, Sarah will contact you with further details. The group meets on thefourth Thursday of the month at Exeter Custom House or at Exeter Community Centre, from 11am-1pm. Please check the dates listed to see where the Stanza will meet each month: Exeter Custom House dates 17th July 2025 16th October 2025 20th November 2025 Exeter Custom House, 46 The Quay, Exeter, EX2 4AN Exeter Community Centre dates 20th February 2025 15th May 2025 19th June 2025 18th September 2025 Address:Exeter Community Centre [https://www.eccentre.org/], 17 St David's Hill, EX4 3RG You can find out more at the Poetry Society website here [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/stanzas/devon/exeter/].

New artworks exploring the hidden currents of our material worlds installed across Exeter Custom House. For over 300 years Exeter Custom House was a place for the weighing, measuring, counting and assessing of goods and materials from across the globe as they entered the city. Join Art Work Exeter on the Quayside throughout June for this exhibition and a programme of events that creatively measure and value our contemporary worlds of stuff to explore how they are piling up!