We look after a range of locally, nationally and internationally significant cultural collections. The cultural resources we care for range from large scale public art to more traditional paper-based materials and are located across the University’s locations.

Most collections are accessible to the public. You can consult the archives we care for by appointment, visit our exhibition spaces during our opening hours or you can discover them at your leisure as you walk through our grounds.

Cultural collections include:

Public Art

Whether you are a local resident or visiting Bristol for a few hours, you can enjoy a range of temporary and permanent public artworks hidden in the city’s green spaces or adorning buildings.

Special Collections

Covering everything from the history of our institution, cartography, politics, science, publishing and even wildlife film, Special Collections bring together a diverse range of printed books, archival resources and artefacts.

Theatre Collection

As one of the most significant international performance archives, the Theatre Collection holds a wealth of resources that help to tell the story of British theatre history and contemporary practice. Resources include paintings, scene models, costumes props, prompt books and even a piece of toast used in promotion.

As an accredited Museum and Archive, we host exhibitions from Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am-5pm.

Art Collection

Housed within our various collections and buildings are a range of artworks. To explore the oil paintings and sculptures all in one place, visit ArtUK.

The Uncertain Space: a virtual museum for the University of Bristol 

The Uncertain Space is our unique, and purely virtual, university museum. We work with curators, academics, and community groups to developing an evolving programme of virtual exhibition experiences.

Other collections the University cares for include:

• Botanic Gardens
• Earth Sciences Collection
• Osteology and Bioanthropology Collections
• Blandford Collection of Antiquities (see in VR)