The CultureTide Weekly
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
Welcome to our very first CultureTide Weekly newsletter for Bath & Bristol. This is a really exciting moment, as we kick things off with our weekly round-up on what’s on that you can see and experience over the next week across the region.
This week, we’re focusing on the work of Martin Parr at the Martin Parr Foundation, while the Holburne Museum in Bath is in its final weeks showing the dazzling garments of Dame Zandra Rhodes.
But importantly, let us know what you think in the survey at the bottom of this newsletter. CultureTide is here to make accessing and understanding culture as easy as possible, and we’d love to know how we can make this weekly newsletter serve you better. Enjoy!
© Martin Parr / Magnum Photos
The Last Resort
The Martin Parr Foundation | Paintworks, Bristol
Free entry | Ends Sunday 24 May
To honour Martin Parr following his death on 6 December, the MPF gallery has opened in 2026 with an exhibition of Martin’s iconic series, The Last Resort. Shot around the English seaside town of New Brighton between 1983 and 1985, The Last Resort was one of the pioneering bodies of work driving British colour documentary photography and established Martin as one of Britain’s most influential photographers.
© Sophie Jo Hounsome Photography
Zandra Rhodes: A Life in Print
The Holburne Museum | Great Pulteney Street, Bath
£16.50 pp | Ends Sunday 10 May
Known for her fearless use of colour, signature prints and sculptural silhouettes, Dame Zandra Rhodes has redefined the role of print in fashion for more than six decades. This exhibition explores the stories behind some of her most iconic designs, arranged into themed ‘hero print’ sections that reveal how Rhodes translated her motifs into unforgettable garments.
The Essentials
Culture not to miss this week
Open Studios 50
Spike Island | Bristol
Free | Until Sunday
This bank holiday weekend, Spike Island open their doors to give behind-the-scenes access to the artists’ studios, Spike Print Studio, UWE Bristol Fine Art studios, and the workspaces of many other creative practitioners.
Sustain
Centrespace | Leonard Lane, Bristol
Free | Until Wednesday
Sustain brings together the works of University Centre Weston’s creative student cohort, revealing what can be produced when ecological awareness and creative reasoning collide.
Poster Power
Victoria Art Gallery | Bath
£9 pp | Until 10 May
This colourful exhibition showcases an exceptional range of British posters from the 19th and 20th centuries, drawn from the collections of the Victoria Art Gallery and Bath Record Office.
Sara Moorhouse ceramics
Beaux Arts | Bath
Free entry | Until 9 May
Ceramic artist, Sara Moorhouse’s work explores the ways in which spaces within landscape appear altered depending on the ever-changing colours of season, weather, time and farming.
Opening day
‘Angel Otero. Agua Salada’
Hauser & Wirth | Somerset
Free attendance | 12-3pm, this Saturday
Angel Otero makes his UK debut this spring with a new show at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, featuring a deeply personal body of work completed during an artist residency in Somerset. Moving his studio practice from New York and Puerto Rico temporarily to Somerset, the residency is an opportunity for Otero to continue his exploration of memory, place and meaning in the context of a new environment.
The gallery and Education Lab will be open from 12-5 pm, with live music and complimentary drinks being served until 3pm. Food from the team behind Da Costa and Roth Bar can be purchased in the farmyard from 12-3pm.
Recommendations
Toni Erdmann screening
The Cube Microplex | Stoke’s Croft, Bristol
7pm Monday
With her brilliant new book What Am I, A Deer? out in the world after a Cube-shaped launch in April, Bristol writer Polly Barton introduces this modern classic, which shares What Am I, A Deer?'s themes of corporate alienation, globalisation and awkward public singing.
Bauhaus Breuer Bristol
Stradling Collection | Park Row, Bristol
Until 17 May
Bristol takes centre stage in this celebration of Modernism, marking the 90th anniversary of the iconic 1936 Crofton Gane Pavilion. When Bauhaus pioneer Marcel Breuer collaborated with local furniture visionary Crofton Gane, the city became a laboratory for daring international ideas.
Mounira Al Solh in conversation
Arnolfini | Waterfront, Bristol
6:30pm Wednesday
Join us at Arnolfini for this special in-conversation to learn more about Mounira Al Solh’s practice and the works in the exhibition, which continues at Arnolfini until 24 May 2026.
Bristol Folk Festival
Various venues | Bristol
Friday to Sunday
To mark the centenary of Wajda’s birth and 10 years since his passing, Watershed celebrate this visionary filmmaker, who was not only an important storyteller of Polish culture and history, but also of the human condition.
So, what did you think?
The CultureTide Weekly is a brand new weekly publication, and we’re really keen to hear your feedback on the newsletter, as well as any recommendations for what you’d like to see in future newsletters.
…and finally
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Until next Thursday,
The CultureTide team
Culture’s better together.
Image credits:
Martin Parr, courtesy the Martin Parr Foundation
Jo Hounsome, courtesy the Holburne Museum
Dan Weill, courtesy Spike Island
Centrespace Gallery
Victoria Art Gallery
Beaux Arts Bath
Javier Romero, Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Thunderbird Releasing, courtesy Cube Microplex
Stradling Collection
Arnolfini
Bristol Folk Festival
