The Summer Show 2026

Riverside MillJubilee GalleryPast Exhibition

18 Jul

New approaches by our Maker Members

Merlyn Chesterman’s Summer Show 2026 piece, ‘March 7th’ (in collaboration with Sally Byron-Johnson)

MAKE Southwest is proud to support a thriving community of almost 300 Maker Members from across the Southwest of England, including Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Bristol, and parts of Hampshire.

Working across a remarkable range of disciplines, including ceramics, textiles, jewellery, silversmithing, woodwork, willow weaving, print, glass, sculpture, leather, metalwork, mosaic, bookbinding, furniture, and mixed media. Our members represent the rich diversity of contemporary craft in the region.

Our membership spans every stage of a creative career, from students and recent graduates to established makers. The annual Maker Members’ Summer Show is open to all Full Maker Members, providing an opportunity to showcase outstanding work created within the last two years.

This year, we have celebrated experimentation, highlighting makers who are exploring new ideas, materials, and processes within their practice. The exhibition brings together bold, innovative, and one-of-a-kind works, and pieces that reflect moments of discovery, risk-taking, and creative achievement.

Many thanks to our selection panel for this vibrant and exciting show.

18 July - 10 October 2026

Jubilee Gallery

Events

Friday 17 July, 6 - 8pm: Opening Party

Tuesday 18 August, 10.30am - 12pm: Make a Kinetic Mobile with Becky Crawford - a Children & Families workshop

Tuesday 18 August, 1.30pm - 3pm: Make a Kinetic Mobile with Becky Crawford - a Children & Families workshop

Saturday 22 August, 10.30am - 3pm: An Introduction to Hand and Frame Loom Weaving, workshop with Jessica Cutler

We’re now on Bloomberg Connects!

Enjoy extra content for this exhibition - listen to audio interviews with featured exhibitors while walking through the gallery, or from the comfort of your own home.

Download the Bloomberg Connects app and enhance your visit with our FREE digital guide. Find out more.

Vote for your favourite maker!

Every year we give you, our visitors, the chance to vote for your favourite maker or piece in the exhibition. Use this form to submit your vote.

The maker with the most votes will receive our People’s Choice Award.

Voting closed Tuesday 13 October 2026, 6pm.

People’s Choice Awardee

Naomi Davies

Naomi has over 35 years' experience in making and teaching jewellery. Having been inspired by geometric mid-century modernist fabrications she has recently started experimenting more in sculptural and 3-dimensional forms. Having sculpted skulls and rose thorns in the last few years, she has begun to use the casting process to develop designs that come with a statement further.

The Dartington Donkey is a much-loved sculpture that is situated near the top of Dartington Gardens created by Willi Soukop. It has been a focal point for Dartington visitors, including Naomi's family through the generations. Indeed, it has its own Facebook page. Her father, Thomas Nathaniel Davies, an artist, used to take her and her brothers and sister to see art exhibitions at Dartington from her birth and she has photographs of them, and now her own children, playing and posing on the donkey.