By Jill Stocks
Horsforth Walk of Art returns this weekend after a one-year hiatus. And this year it promises to be even bigger and better than ever with 43 venues across the town hosting artists and events.
Taking place this Saturday and Sunday, 4 and 5 July, the event takes place across three routes in Horsforth, red, blue and green, and with the help of the Walk of Art map you can navigate all the activities and exhibitions across the weekend.
Kezia Roberts from the Walk of Art told us:
“I am super excited about the weekend. There are so many different things going on. I can never ever tell you year from year what is going to be coming because I leave it completely up to the artists and the venues which is how it should be. I don’t control anything.
“And as such we’ve got international pianists, we’ve got Horsforth Climate Action going crazy in The Grove and making up all sorts of wonderful things, people doing gorgeous watercolour activities, friendship bracelet making, it’s just going to be a really lovely community weekend.”
This year’s theme is “Back to my routes” and the weekend promises to be a great community event with art, music, crafting and workshops. The Walk of Art venues are open 11am to 4pm though the festivities start a little earlier on the Saturday when you can enjoy Lucy’s Pop Choir at 10am followed by LS Sax at 11am at Horsforth Farmers Market.
The Farmers Market is part of the red route, which covers two venues on Bachelor Lane and venues at the top of Town Street as well as St Margarets church and parish centre and Hunger Hills Wood.
The blue route covers venues on Town Street from the HCC downwards as well as Horsforth Hall Park, including the skatepark, stable, community garden and Japanese garden, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Horsforth Museum, Hall Park Avenue and Horsforth Arts Society, as well as music at various times at The Grove On The Grass and The Green.
The green route covers venues on Broadway and the Cragg Hill and Regents area, Featherbank Lane and New Road Side venues, the Victorias and Horsforth Manor Care Home, which hosts a number of events over both days including poetry readings, have a go sessions and interactive activities.
And if that wasn’t enough there are the High Street Galleries on Town Street and New Road Side with work from schools in the area in collaboration with Walk of Art artists and you can even buy Walk of Art 2026 merchandise from Our Handmade Collective on Town Street.
You can pick up maps from Woodlawn cafe on Town Street, Haus of Coffee on Station Road, Zero Muda on New Road Side, Our Handmade Collective, Cafe Yoga and Woodside micropub. You can also download them from the Walk of Art website.
The routes are clearly marked with bunting, coloured according to the route, made by Horsforth residents and community groups, all helping to contribute to the Walk of Art being very much a community event run by and for the community.
Members of the Sisters of Horsforth WI made bunting as a project as part of their craft group sessions as well as working on them at home. Material for the bunting was supplied by Leeds Women’s Aid on New Road Side, helping to make the project sustainable too.
Anna Bragger is the retail manager at Leeds Women’s Aid. She told us: “It’s a pleasure to support Horsforth’s Walk Of Art. We are so glad it’s back this year. It’s a brilliant community initiative. We’ve loved being able to support through fabrics through our textile recycling, putting it to good use with the team from the WI and various Walk Of Art volunteers stitching away to make this remarkable bunting.”
In the run up to the Walk Of Art the community have also been involved in knitting and crocheting root vegetables and characters which will be hidden on the route at a number of craft sessions and at home.
Kezia said: “Along the routes we hide knitted characters so we’ve got little rabbits, and they hark back to our theme as well. Our theme for this year is ‘back to my routes’ so we’ve got root vegetables but then we’ve also got ‘see a rabbit rabbit’ which was the very first activity that we did for the Walk of Art in 2015.”
There’s also a chance to win a competition this weekend. The venues along the routes now have venue QR codes. Check in to as many locations as you can this weekend on the web app powered by Stellaris Labs, send in the proof and you could win a goody bag from this year’s artist Stejdesign. The codes also provide information about what goes on at each venue and directions to the next venue.
Of course none of this could happen without volunteers. Kezia said:
“I don’t know where to start with the volunteers. There are so many volunteers who do just little things, teeny tiny things. For example the map this year. We’ve had Dan Forster bring it all together, we’ve had Stejdesign illustrations make all of our gorgeous little people, so just far too many people to mention but I appreciate absolutely every single one of them.”
The weekend is rounded off on Sunday teatime with the end of the event party at The Old Kings Arms from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. The event will be opened by The Phobia but it is also an open mic event and people are invited to bring along their own instruments and get involved.
Kezia also recommends keeping an eye on the website for any last minute artist or venue changes over the weekend:“Keep an eye out for any amendments on the website because there have been a few changes at the very last minute so I would recommend people look at the amendments before they set out on their little walks.”
You can also get up to date information on everything that’s going on this weekend on the facebook and instagram page.
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