If you are after a low-key day trip from Southampton this autumn, there is a free exhibition opening over in Lyndhurst that is easy to build a day around. The Solent & Southern Art Collective Exhibition runs at the New Forest Heritage Centre from 22 August to 27 September, and it is free to walk in, which is a nice bonus for something that takes up a good chunk of a morning or afternoon.
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The show brings together 18 artists, and the range of work is wide enough that there is something for everyone. It is not just paintings on the wall; you will find ceramics, photography, textiles, jewellery, lino prints, wildlife art and glass all under one roof. A few names worth knowing before you go: photographer Alex Wright shows striking panoramic vistas, Tracy Dovey's expressive paintings lean into themes of women, myth and witchcraft, and Evelyn Bartlett is known for her bright gouache landscapes and seascapes. Dovey, who lives on the edge of the Forest in West Wellow, graduated with distinction from the MA Fine Art at Winchester School of Art in 2022 and uses folklore, folksong and old customs to look at contemporary issues like feminism and social and economic disparity.
The exhibition is part of the New Forest Marque Inspired community, which launched in November 2023 with support from Arts Council England and is open to artists and craftspeople whose work is shaped by the Forest's landscape, wildlife and heritage. Some of those members also open their studios at independent venues across the area, including CODA Music and Arts in Walkford, Hordle Art Club at Hordle Community Centre and Watermark at Lepe Country Park, so if the show leaves you wanting more, there is a wider scene to follow.
The venue itself is worth a bit of time. The New Forest Heritage Centre is an independent charitable trust dedicated to sharing the stories of the Forest and its people, and it packs a lot into one site: a museum, a reference library, an exhibition gallery, a gift shop and a café, with friendly staff to point you in the right direction. The museum highlights include the Beaulieu Road Pony Sales Experience, Cob Cottage and the Family Fun Tree, while the reference library holds the largest collection of printed material on the Forest available to the public. The centre is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00 from April to October, with last admission at 16:00, so it fits neatly into a day out.
If you want to make a full day of it, the exhibition sits nicely alongside Hampshire Open Studios, with the first two weeks running at the same time, which gives you a good excuse to keep exploring the local art scene well into September. Between the free show, the museum and the café, it is an easy, unhurried way to spend a few hours in the Forest without spending much at all.
Published Date
22 August 2026
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