From and To
From and To is both an exhibition about creative freedoms and a place for creative freedoms to be explored together, a ‘commons’ of sorts.
At the centre of the exhibition is Laura Eldret’s large-scale curtain installation snaking across the gallery, with openings creating different routes, zones and backdrops within the gallery. Newly commissioned for the exhibition, this curtain brings together imagery shaped through conversations and shared making with local communities and individuals. Together, these exchanges explored ideas of freedoms and creativity: how freedom and creativity is felt, imagined and enacted. Motifs emerge of elemental wind, speech bubbles and listening ears, an orchard, singing apples, a giant egg and a potato. These forms coalesce across the curtain, imagined as a landscape that speaks of freedom’s many textures: fresh air and open ground, movement and meandering, windfalls and growing, playfulness and chat, food and the sea. But freedom is not always easy; it is political, conditional, and hard to find. The work holds space for that complexity too: a landscape both imagined and real, shared and hoped for.
From and To also features a gallery wall dedicated to a growing and evolving display of ‘creative freedoms’ shared by community members and visitors; meanwhile, the Honestly honesty shop includes products and items available to buy. Also on display are unique artefacts uncovered by Laura Eldret during her research into cultures of freedom in Dorset – including the Dorset Union of Agricultural Workers banner.
From and To refers to the idea of having ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom to’ as distinct forms of freedom. This exhibition contemplates creativity as something that is for everyone to engage in, as a vital source of freedom. When thinking of creativity as a freedom – and relating this to the freedoms fought for in the past and today – creativity more clearly become an essential need and right for everyone.
Laura Eldret was commissioned by Bridport Arts Centre in Summer 2025 to respond to the idea of creativity and freedom, as part of Future Arts Centres’ national project Our Freedom: Then and Now supported by the DCMS, Arts Council England, Open Eye Gallery and Libraries Connected. From and To was imagined by Eldret but made possible through the generosity, time and collaboration of individuals and communities who have informed the research, inspired the work, and are contributing to the exhibition and events – thank you.
TAKE PART:
From and To is an evolving exhibition created in collaboration with communities of Bridport and surrounding areas of Dorset. Visitors and residents are invited to take part in a range of ways, including the Honestly honesty shop, and by contributing to the evolving gallery wall display of ‘creative freedoms’.
→ To contribute to the ‘creative freedoms’ display simply hand in your submission at the gallery more info here.
→ The Honestly honesty shop is open to anyone to use as a platform to sell (to gallery visitors) their creative wares with freedom from mainstream formats of commerce, details here.
→ The exhibition is also being offered as a space for [free] use by the community as a site for creativity from busking to pickle-making sessions, meet-ups to… more info and booking via BAC.
EVENTS:
Opening Weekend Sat – Sun 11/12 Oct
Bridport Art Centre has extended opening hours for the exhibition opening weekend and on Saturday buskers will be in the gallery from 12pm, and on Sunday there will be drop in portrait sessions 11am – 1pm with photographer Carole Evans.
Portrait Photography, Wed 15 Oct 1-4pm
Photographer Carole Evans pop-up portrait studio; book to get a portrait here
Free Reading, Sat 18 Oct 10.30am – 1pm
An offsite event at the Poor House Reading Rooms — an archive and a space for reading, writing, and art publishing based in a former church poor house. In partnership with More Than Ponies, book here.
No Fail Drawing, Wed 22 Oct 1 – 3pm
A ‘no fail’ drawing session for adults with artist Jo Burlington, more info and book here.
Apples Session, Sat 25 Oct 1 -3pm
Bridport Community Orchard brings juice, juicing demos, and creative activities to the gallery, weaving together the deep connections of people, place, and creativity that flourish at the orchard. Drop in, all welcome, more info .
Art Play, Wed 29 Oct 10 – 12pm
What do you want to be? What do you want people to see, or not see? What do you want to make? A making session with Jo Burlington from Oops Wow responding to the ‘From & To’ exhibition. For age 6+ more info and book here
Hip-hop Words, Wed 29 Oct 1.30 – 3pm
A young people’s creative writing workshop with Dorset-based rapper Isaiah Dreads, exploring personal storytelling through rap, poetry, and group collaboration. For age 12+ more info and book here
Freedoms and Creativity in Song Sat 1 Nov, 12.45pm
Dorset Red, a politically engaged Bridport choir, invites everyone to join their open singing workshop exploring songs of freedom drop in, all welcome.
Storylines Wed 5 Nov, 3.30 – 5.30pm
A playful, collaborative story-writing adventure workshop with The Bank of Dreams & Nightmares, empowering young imaginations to explore, question, and dream big through the power of words. For children aged 8+, more info and booking here.
Artist-in-conversation, Sat 8 Nov, 11am
Join artist Laura Eldret in conversation with curator Honor Beddard within the From and To exhibition at Bridport Art Centre’s Allsop Gallery, more info and booking here.
Laura Eldret is a Dorset-based artist and researcher making work for/about/with people, places, ecologies and communities. Her work has been exhibited widely, from England to Argentina, and she has been awarded commissions by major art institutions. She was recently (2024-25) artist-in-residence at West Dean Gardens. Since 2023, she has been carrying out a PhD at the University of the West of England exploring ideas of commons/ing, the rural and ecologies. She is founding director of More Than Ponies, a visiting lecturer, a trained permaculturist and play worker.
#fromandto
image typeface: Us by Laura Eldret created in collaboration with children of Milford Academy and Fraser Muggeridge © CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 download here