— Jonathan Falkingham

Our passion for art has attracted like-minded organisations to inhabit our spaces, creating communities of creative individuals inspired by what is happening all around them. Here’s a look at some of our best art installations and collaborations all over the country.

Take Royal William Yard in Plymouth, which has been home to many galleries over the past decade, including Ocean Studios, which gave artists of varying disciplines a platform to share their work.

More recently, in 2025, we launched an anniversary exhibition celebrating two centuries of extraordinary history, filled with drawings and artefacts that tell a longstanding story.

In the centre of the city in 2021, we teamed up with Plymouth artists to host a Graffiti Jam for local artists and the civic skate community, resulting in vibrant artworks at the Plymouth civic centre.

Followed in January 2023, by a series of light installations commissioned by Plymouth Culture, in partnership with Plymouth City Council, and funded by Historic England through the Heritage Action Zone programme.

Up North in Manchester, we have long placed art at the heart of New Islington, where the Screaming Gander contemporary art gallery is located on the ground floor of our Chips building. It has hosted exhibitions including ‘Ancoats Sunsets and Swimsuits’.

Further arts initiatives have come through pop-up collaborations such as a colourful poetry series with Manchester-based writer and performer Argh Kid, who worked with New Islington Primary School children to produce poems about the area that were turned into an outdoor art exhibition.

In 2023, our RIBA Award-winning Waulk Mill in neighbouring Ancoats received a show-stopping light installation designed by light artist, designer, and engineer Ben Rousseau. The spectacular creation spans 2.5m in width and drops 15m in length, visible from multiple points inside and outside the building.

And over at Irwell Riverside in Salford, we worked with the Arts Council to create the Paradise Works art space adjacent to our Town House homes. The studio in East Philips Street was created following demand from local talent for more creative space. Boasting an intergenerational group of over thirty artists, it hosts an ongoing programme of exhibitions, film screenings, projects, and events for the whole community.

Art has been intrinsic to our Park Hill neighbourhood in Sheffield since day one.

In 2009, before redevelopment, graffiti artist Kid Acne created colourful artworks, before Gary Hindley installed huge canvases of original Park Hill residents in the concrete frame windows of the building.

That was followed by S1 Artspace who based themselves in the former Scottish Queen pub, creating space for 20 artists, while in 2021, the Park Hill plinths were unveiled in collaboration with Create Partnerships, a Sheffield-based independent collective. The plinths now feature new artworks alongside play areas, street furniture, lighting, sports facilities, and early-years outdoor learning spaces.

At another Sheffield landmark – the Grade II Listed Cole Brothers building – we have engaged local artists and performers with a series of creative events. In 2024, the building hosted temporary commissions from two of Sheffield’s leading cultural festivals, Sensoria and No Bounds, featuring immersive light and sound installations that invited visitors back inside.

In summer 2025, Cole Brothers hosted Crossed Wires, a three-day live podcast recording event as part of the citywide festival, sponsored by BBC Sounds.

At Port Loop, our newest neighbourhood in Birmingham, MAIA transformed a three-storey town house into a venue for creatives from Black and under-represented communities. Port Loop also hosted the vibrant Play Out ‘til Tea event in 2019, attracting over a thousand people for a day of creativity and arts.

In the centre of the city, our Rotunda building played host to the unique Birdman festival in 2005, where Belgian performance artist Benjamin Verdonck lived in a nest on top of the building, a commentary on urban living and the role of art in city development.

In 2008, the Matchworks in South Liverpool hosted Superlambananas for the Capital of Culture Parade, fittingly returning one of the city’s iconic sculptures to its birthplace.

In Bradford, home to Lister Mills where we transformed two historic mills into new homes and workspaces, art has always been part of the story. In 2025, we contributed to the City of Culture celebrations with STRIKE – a spectacular light and sound show celebrating the women who shaped modern Bradford.

This followed our 2022 commission, Putting Bradford’s Name in Lights – an illuminated artwork projected onto Lister Mills, created with Arts Council England, Bradford Council, and Historic England, bringing culture and creativity to the regenerated site.

This ongoing use of art has helped Urban Splash create more than just homes and workspaces; it allows us to put culture and creativity at the heart of the communities we develop – something we are committed to continuing in the future.

If you’re an artist, performer, or inspiring creative with brilliant ideas, get in touch to see if we can make any of our spaces around the country work for you.