Exeter Dumpling Day 2024

Exeter’s first Dumpling Appreciation Day will be held on 23rd June at the Custom House.

Find out more about our international dumpling makers and their recipes at our Dumpling Display: Open daily 10am-5pm, Saturday 15th-Sunday 23rd June.

Art Work Exeter and The Cultural Knowledge Exchange have partnered with some excellent city organisations and dumpling makers from across the world to celebrate an international hero – the humble dumpling! The project is about food, flavours, memories and how we feel at home – evoking the many connections the Custom House would have had with people from across the world and their traditions.

We’ve been running dumpling making workshops at St Sidwell’s community centre, where 7 dumpling makers taught us the recipes for 8 different kinds of vegan, vegetarian and meat based dumplings from three different continents. The resulting small, tasty treats will be served for sampling upstairs at the Custom House throughout Exeter’s first Dumpling Day on 23rd June.

As well as dumpling tasting on the day itself, you can find out more about the dumpling makers, their recipes and customs in the accompanying Dumpling Display running 15th-23rd June upstairs in the Custom House. Drop in and pick up a recipe zine to try making them yourself at home.

Exeter Dumpling Day is the first project in Art Work Exeter’s ‘House of Customs’. A programme of creative events and activities that connect people, places and traditions from across the world.

Dumpling Day is being held during Refugee Week – the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. The theme for Refugee Week 2024 is ‘Our Home’ and as well as sharing our food and stories with each other, the project is an invitation to extend the warmth and hospitality of our homes to people who are displaced from theirs. We have partnered with Refugee Support Devon, Hikmat Devon, the Devon Ukrainian Association and St Sidwell’s Community Centre to make the project happen.

Entrance is free. Everyone is welcome!

Exeter’s first Dumpling Day is part of Art Work Exeter’s House of Customs programme at Exeter Custom House. Art Work Exeter are Cultural Partners at Exeter Custom House 2023-26 supported by Exeter Canal and Quay Trust.