The relationship between the Arts University Plymouth and the Plymouth Society of Artists is a long and illustrious one. 2026 sees the Society celebrating its eighty-second year since inauguration, the University celebrating its one-hundred and seventieth anniversary.

In early 1944, under the guidance and enthusiasm of Lewis Duckett, Principal of the Plymouth School of Art as it was then known, a group of artists met to discuss the proposition of mounting an exhibition in the City Art Gallery that coming autumn. The twelve present formed the initial founding committee in anticipation of the group becoming a permanent exhibiting society in the city. Its formation and name, the Plymouth Society of Artists, was formally adopted at a meeting in the City Art Gallery in September of that year. At that meeting Lewis Duckett was elected President and Chairman and continued so for the following seven years.

Since those foundational years many of the teaching staff of the city’s academic institution have played a major role in the Society’s organising structure, as officers and committee, or as exhibiting members. Though not a prerequisite to involvement, the association has been one of enduring and valued benefit.

The purpose was to encourage and foster a professional and progressive outlook in the fine arts of painting, sculpture and printmaking for the benefit of the people of Plymouth. Membership was to be restricted to those living in the city, or with strong ties to it.

However this simple aim has evolved over time: in the eight decades that have passed there have been many and varied interpretations given to it and, equally varied, the exhibits. There have been numerous changes that have taken place, particularly in the external influences that prompt the work of the professional artist. Though still identifying with Plymouth as its base, membership now covers a much wider geography and has been responsible for the changed face of the Society, probably more so than any other factor. Unquestionably, it has brought a clear distinction from Plymouth’s phoenix years following the Second World War.