Ntu Festival 2026: the Push and the Pull

This February sees the return of the annual Surface collaboration with Nottingham Trent University with the 14th NTU Festival: The Push and the Pull.

Following the success of last year's festival, The Island, this year's selected Fine Art students will use a critical and reflective approach to curate group exhibitions in response to the festival's theme The Push and the Pull by exploring ideas such as closeness and distance, belonging and not belonging, the pull of childhood nostalgia and push of adult expectations.

The NTU Festival offers selected Fine Art students the opportunity to curate a group exhibition that establishes their practice outside of the university. Surface provides a supportive and professional environment for the students to plan and show their work.  Two exhibitions will run concurrently in each week of the festival.

Week One

Exhibition dates: 19th- 22nd February, Main Gallery

Opening Night: Tuesday 18th February, 6-8pm 

Tension Precious Time

Indigo Gow / Zofia Skindzier / Holly White 

Knotts of Tension

Amber Clarke / Tilly Wattam 

Week Two

Exhibition dates: 26th- 1st March, Main Gallery

Opening Nights: Tuesday 25th February, 6-8pm

Tethered Transitions 

Rose Dias / Charlotte Gee / Nikola Liwora

Tension

Samuel Basham / Xin Chen / He Jiang

Artist Talk: Saturday 1st March, 2pm
 

The NTU Festival: The Push and the Pull opens in the Main Gallery and Project Space. As always, there will be a donations bar with ales from local brewery, Pheasantry.

Free Entry: Everyone Welcome