By Jill Stocks
Walk of Art brought an extra helping of creative energy to Horsforth, with locals and artists across 43 venues in the town showcasing their talents and their passions.
From watercolour to crochet, from gardening to chalk art, the event, which was sponsored by a number of Horsforth businesses, featured unique displays and workshops highlighting community and creativity in the town.
Venues were open from 11am to 4pm last Saturday and Sunday but proceedings started early with Lucy’s Pop Choir performing at the Farmers Market on Town Street at 10am, followed by LS Sax, the first of a number of musical performances across the two days which also saw performances at The Grove on the Grass and at The Green.
Don and Frania hosted “Frogponds” in their garden on Cragg Avenue and chatted to people about how much they loved their garden and all the curiosities in it.
At the HCC on Town Street there were a number of stalls and demonstrations including a chance to see the result of the competition to design a flag for Horsforth.
Entries flooded in and it proved to be difficult to choose a winner as artist and flag maker Jax Temple-Smees told us: “It went out to any child in Horsforth from 0-16 to create a flag design that represented Horsforth as a community and all the fantastic stuff that we have here and fantastic people. We had over 500 entries which was a bit mindblowing.
“Made it very difficult to choose winners. We got it down to 44 and we decided we liked all of those so much that we were going to use a bit of every single one of them in our final design and that’s what we did.”Â
At The Grove Church Horsforth Climate Action and Arty Parkys were among those exhibiting and showcasing what they do.Â
On New Road Side there was a Chalk Of Art at Stocked with illustrator Steve James.
Cragg Hill Baptist Church held a craft and games session as well as displaying homemade knitted items and on Sunday held an open air Songs of Praise service with a selection of everyone’s favourite songs and hymns.
In Hall Park there was plenty going on over the weekend. At the stable building there was an exhibition displaying designs from Leeds Beckett University, in collaboration with Friends of Horsforth Hall Park, for the potential development of the buildings, and an invite to the public to take part in the consultation.
At the skate park you could see the result of the mural and art workshop which had been taking place over the weekend. Artists Izzy Almond and Hilda Quick said of the mural:
“We are both part of the Friends of Horsforth Skate Park group. We decided to do a mural as part of the group project to involve the community with the skate park to try and make the people who use the skate park feel ownership over the mural.
“So we thought it would be a good idea to get them involved in creating the mural so we were doing it together. Mike Farrell (trustee of the skate park group) got in contact with some schools, so we’ve done about three stamps which are from the schools and all the other stamps are filled in as part of the Walk of Art today.
“We just want to make this skatepark a nicer place. We want the people who use it to feel a bit of pride. I think that’s part of the reason we’re doing it. I think it definitely worked.”
Horsforth Manor care home hosted a number of very different local artists, who also demonstrated their craft. Lisa Krivov invited people to watch her work and view her designs and Marianne from Form in Fabric demonstrated embroidery and friendship bracelets.
Also featured as part of the weekend were the High Street Galleries at various businesses on Town Street and New Road Side which featured work from local school pupils’ collaborations with Walk of Art artists.
Visitors were guided along the route by bunting in the colour of the routes which had been made by the community at Walk of Art crafting sessions, as well as by the Sisters of Horsforth WI who used recycled material from Leeds Women’s Aid on New Road Side to support the Walk of Arts community and sustainability goals.
Children were also encouraged to look out for and collect knitted veg and bunnies along the way which had also been made by local residents at the crafting sessions.
Cllr Emmie Bromley (Lab, Horsforth) said of the weekend’s activities: “Horsforth Walk of Art was an incredible display of local skill and passion.
“I took the time to wander round in a personal capacity, as a parent, to soak it all in.
“Fantastic well done to all volunteers involved – I’m very aware this is not an easy task to organise – and to (Walk of Arts) Kezia Roberts for dedicating her life in the run up to it.”