Around 1000 artists and designer-makers, including 150 who are first-timers for 2016, are preparing for more than 450 exhibitions and events across the county for Oxfordshire Artweeks from 7th-30th May, the longest-running and biggest open studios event in the UK.
An A-Z of painters and designers, potters and sculptors, wood-turners, photographers, jewellers and textile artists will all be opening their homes and studios across the county to the public for free to showcase their talent through exhibitions and demonstrations. From fashion to furniture, in collage, ceramics, mosaic, on fabric, on film and in fine metals, artists are telling tales of the past and the present, of wonderful places visited and people met, and sharing their inspiration and ideas, across venues, from Adderbury and Blewbury, to Wallingford and the Wychwoods.
Uncover tales of adventure behind tall timber that has travelled from flooded valleys in the far East to be fashioned into fabulous furniture with amber resin, or enjoy a gallery of personalities created in magnificent mosaics from Queen Elizabeth I to David Bowie; explore inside a Jericho tattoo parlour or uncover the unreliable history of tattoos as told by an acclaimed political cartoonist and illustrator from the national papers with cameo appearances by Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill; or navigate the world of Shakespeare with a map of his plays and characters in quirky watercolour.
Delight your senses with tactile sculpture and fibre optic textile art or enjoy olfactory paintings produced using perfumed oils in Wheatley; drive the Cotswold Art Route with a pop-up exhibition at every turn, and stop awhile in a Wonderland garden of glass where the light twists and turns in different colours before your eyes or visit a West Oxfordshire wilderness of William Morris style metal sculpture from one of the county’s most exciting young artists.
Explore the natural world, from the poles to the equator through the eyes of the county’s artists, and delight in the misty mountains, sunlit valleys and wild seas captured for an Oxfordshire festival; find treasure set in silver or come face-to-face with funky porcelain monsters inspired by Grimm fairytales. Follow a journey through the lens of a talented photographer or be surprised by a new perspective on a local place you thought you knew.
Visitors are invited into hundreds of interesting spaces, many of which are usually closed to the public, including four Oxford Colleges, three of the finest medieval barns in England, a boathouse and a boatyard as well as city studios and country galleries, homes and halls across the county. Art aficionados and everyday enthusiasts, adults and children alike will be able to follow art trails through Oxford streets, Cotswold villages, along the Thames or through the county’s market towns.
And with art talks, events, and family activities at The Ashmolean, OU Museum of Natural History and art centres across the county, there’s something to inspire all ages and aspirations. Visitors will have the chance to see the art produced in their own communities, to ask local artists about their influences, techniques and materials, and even have a go themselves.
The full exhibition listings will be available on-line from end February at www.artweeks.org & the printed festival guide will be available from April. In the meantime, download the press release attached for futher information on particular areas within Oxfordshire.
