25 Years of Carnival Celebrated in Our Station Galleries Across Gloucestershire

We’re proud to be hosting a new community exhibition celebrating 25 years of Carnival in Gloucestershire across our station galleries at Gloucester, Stonehouse, Stroud and Cam & Dursley. The exhibition invites residents and visitors to discover something unexpected as part of their everyday rail journey.

Celebrating 25 Years of CARNIVAL: Bringing The Street Alive has been created by Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) and delivered in partnership with us at GCRP. Installed across four stations, the exhibition transforms everyday station spaces into vibrant galleries reflecting the diverse creativity, colour and community spirit Carnival has brought to the county over the past quarter century.

At GCRP, we work to connect people and places through the railway. Our community station galleries are designed to create welcoming, shared spaces that celebrate local identity while encouraging sustainable travel. Through this partnership with SVA, we’ve brought Carnival into the heart of the rail network, making local culture visible and accessible in places people already pass through every day.

The exhibition brings together images from Carnival projects in both Stroud and Gloucester, showcasing the artists, participants and communities who have brought Carnival to life in colour, movement, music and costume. Alongside historic photographs from Gloucester’s Carnival activity, visitors will see Stroud Carnival moments and more recent work, reflecting the breadth of cultural influences that have shaped Carnival locally.

Our aim is simple: to create shared community spaces within stations and highlight how easy it is to explore Gloucestershire by train. We hope the exhibition encourages people to hop off at a different stop, spend time in a station gallery and discover somewhere new - strengthening the connection between rail travel and local identity.

This year’s Carnival programme of workshops and procession formed part of the Jazz Stroud Festival in May 2025, marking the 200th anniversary of the modern railway and SVA’s purchase of the Brunel Goods Shed in Stroud.

The project has been made possible thanks to funding from Great Western Railway (GWR) through its Customer and Communities Improvement Fund (CCIF), supporting our collaboration with SVA to bring this work into the rail network.

The exhibition is free to view in our station galleries at Gloucester, Stonehouse, Stroud and Cam & Dursley.

If you have an idea for community exhibitions or would like to get involved, email us at info@gcrp.org.uk