Trinity Community Arts is delighted to announce that it has been awarded £17,000 through the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) Exhibitions Fund to support Art of the Possible: Rhythm • Flow • Resistance, a major international exhibition and site-specific activation planned for Summer 2027 at Jacobs Wells Baths.
The project is one of just seven exhibitions selected nationwide for the inaugural Gulbenkian Exhibitions Fund, a new initiative supporting UK-based cultural organisations to present contemporary art by artists from Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries. Grants of up to £30,000 have been awarded to museums, galleries, festivals and arts organisations across the UK, helping to strengthen the visibility of Portuguese and Lusophone artistic practice within the UK's cultural landscape.
Art of the Possible: Rhythm • Flow • Resistance will bring together artists from the UK, Portugal and Brazil to explore movement, collective memory and resistance through photography, immersive installation, sound, film and performance. The exhibition will activate the newly uncovered and naturally lit pool hall at Jacobs Wells Baths, creating a large-scale cultural experience in the historic space for the first time in decades.
Featured works include Portuguese-based artist Attilio Fiumarella's photographic explorations of bathhouses and civic space, particularly his "100 Swimmers" project at Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham. In 2014 this cherished Edwardian public swimming pool, one of the last operational municipal baths in the UK, became a focal point for Fiumarella's exploration of civic space and community resilience.
The exhibition will also include performance and political theatre by São Paulo collective Legítima Defesa, led by Eugênio Lima; and Breathe, an immersive sound and light installation by Bristol-based producing organisation In Between Time, supported by Arts Council England.
The exhibition forms part of a growing international collaboration and Trinity's wider vision to transform Jacobs Wells Baths into a vibrant civic and cultural destination for Bristol. Currently undergoing restoration, the Grade II listed former public bathhouse is being brought back into public use as a new cultural and heritage venue, with a full public opening planned for 2029.
The exhibition will offer a rare opportunity to experience the building's historic main pool hall in its original spatial configuration. It will be the first time since 1976 that the space has been publicly accessible in this form, allowing visitors to encounter the restored natural light, scale and Victorian architectural details that were obscured during its later use as a dance centre.
By connecting the heritage of public bathing and civic gathering with Afro-diasporic narratives and contemporary artistic practice, Art of the Possible: Rhythm • Flow • Resistance demonstrates the potential of Jacobs Wells Baths as a space for cultural exchange, creativity and community connection.
The project is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch), Bristol City Council and Arts Council England.
Audience feedback, attendance data, partner reflections and photographic documentation gathered through the exhibition will contribute to the wider evaluation of the Jacobs Wells Baths restoration project, helping to shape future interpretation, programming and public engagement activity as the building progresses towards reopening in 2029.
Image: Attilio Fiumarella, The 100 Swimmers, 2014.
