Plymouth

The Mayflower 400 commemorations

In 2020, the University of Plymouth and the city of Plymouth will mark the 400^thanniversary of the Mayflower sailing with a year-long programme of cultural events. A highlight of this anniversary year is the opening of The Box, a multi-million pound investment in the heart of the city that brings together the city’s art gallery, museum and archives. The opening exhibition at The Box, ‘Legend and Legacy’, is the national Mayflower 400 exhibition; co-curated with the Wampanoag Advisory Committee, it will run for eighteenth months and display objects, books, maps and paintings loaned from collections in the UK, The Netherlands and the US. Other events include, Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America, funded by Arts Council England and produced and curated by Wampanoag artists, and Journeys, a Theatre Royal production and a collaborative project involving communities from the Wampanoag and Plymouth.

The city

Other areas of interest: the Royal William Yard and the Barbican, historic parts of the city and home to numerous shops, bars and restaurants, reflect different periods of Plymouth’s maritime past, while the National Marine Aquarium offers visitors a chance to experience marine conservation work taking place in the city today.  To see Plymouth from the sea, there are regular boat trips and boat taxis from the Mayflower Steps to Mount Batten, the Royal William Yard, the city’s naval dockyard at Devonport, as well as beaches in Cornwall.

The university

The School of Humanities and Performing Arts boasts strengths in Heritage, early Modern history and literature, as well as a tradition of research in American and Transatlantic Studies.  The Faculty of Arts and Humanities is also home to the Arts Institute, offering a vibrant and extensive cultural and public programme throughout the year.