Please note that our first-floor gallery is currently closed as we install the next series of artworks for our free interactive exhibition, Art Plays Games. The gallery reopens on Tuesday 29 October with works by Tomo Kihara and Playfool, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Laura Palavecino, and Ayoung Kim.

From 5 September 2024 - 27 April 2025, we’re transforming our first-floor gallery into a space for games created by digital artists and independent video game developers.

Fun, playful and suitable for gamers and non-gamers of all ages, Art Plays Games looks at how artists are increasingly using games as a way to challenge conventional forms of storytelling and offer us new ways to make sense of the world today. Over the exhibition’s run, the artworks and games on display will rotate, introducing something different to discover each time you visit!

Each collection of games invites you to play with some of the most pressing questions we face today: how might game worlds offer us new ways of thinking about whose stories are told and how they are represented? Can we see the world through non-human perspectives or think about the issues of climate change and ecology differently? How will our understanding of being human change as artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies become more dominant?

We’ll also host a number of free and affordable events within the space, such as talks, workshops, and tournaments that explore questions around worldbuilding, gamification, and screen culture.