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Welcome to Gulbenkian.

Gulbenkian is the University of Kent’s Arts Centre offering innovative, engaging and high quality arts activity for the public, staff and students. It provides a key role in delivering the University commitment to public engagement and has a particular focus on the creative empowerment of children and young people.

Our Vision

Gulbenkian will work with a range of creative partners to become a leading 21st Century international arts centre offering an engaging, innovative and high quality arts programme. We will act as a catalyst developing and curating ideas, spaces and emerging talent. The empowerment of children and young people will be at the core of our activity.

Gulbenkian houses a 340 seat theatre, 300 seat cinema and a café which incorporates an informal cabaret style space for live music, comedy and slam poetry. We programme over 1,000 events including music, comedy, theatre, dance and film per year, enjoyed by more than 100,000 people. The arts centre attracts a range of conferences and events to Kent such as BBC Question Time.

Our work with young people includes ART31, Youth Theatre,  TECH31 , SCREEN31 plus Kent’s international family festival – bOing!

In April 2015 we became an Arts Council of England National Portfolio Organisation in recognition of our developing role as a pioneer in the creative empowerment and engagement of children and young people.

The University of Kent as the “UK’s European University”, provides invaluable access to Europe through our campuses in Paris, Brussels, Rome and Athens. Our international outlook and the expertise of international colleagues helps to inform our work and develop best practices through initiatives like ART31 and the bOing! International Family Festival.

"Altogether, the venue lives and breathes its mission."
Arts Council England Artistic and Quality Assessment 2016

ART31

ART31 takes its name from Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, which states that ‘Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities’.

ART31 is a vision created with, by, and for young people in Kent, championing the belief that all children and young people have an entitlement to access high quality arts and culture, to empower them to achieve their creative potential, and to genuinely engage young people as equal partners in any decision making that affects them.

The ART31 Youth Board is made up of young people from across Kent aged 13-25 who steer its governance, and influence policy and practice across the county and beyond, challenging the creative sector to examine existing ways of working and integrate young people into the core of their practice.

Our projects with young people

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