Sherwood Art Week turns streets into galleries
Sherwood Art Week runs until Sunday with artwork in shop windows, yarn bombing, workshops and open gardens, showing how local artists, businesses and volunteers can turn a neighbourhood into a gallery.
Sherwood Art Week is in full swing, running until this Sunday, 14th June. Large parts of Sherwood have been turned into galleries this week, with the high street being "yarn bombed" (you may have seen postboxes given knitted, diorama hats), and shop windows turned into displays. The theme of this eighteenth Art Week is "Growing Together", leading to the Sherwood Open Gardens event on Saturday.
Much of the length of Mansfield and Haydn Roads has been turned into an art gallery as shops from Brigitte Bordeaux to Orchid Café all have artwork in their windows or inside. There are almost sixty venues along the way who are taking part, with painting, ceramics, and textiles made by Sherwood locals.
Workshops are planned to run throughout. Today, for instance, Sherwood Methodist Church is hosting a needle-felted bookmark-making session (10am), the Inbetween Café has a "sip and paint on cake" workshop (5.30pm), and The Place has a printmaking workshop. The workshops must be booked in advance and cost £10 per person.
The event is a huge community feat, with volunteers organising and working throughout the week which takes the energies of artists, businesses, and local organisations to bring to life. All the sponsors are local enterprises.
This is happening at a time when many cultural venues are eager for further public funding in order to continue. Last month, the Arts Everywhere Fund allocated £130m of its £1.5bn fund to be spent on venues like Nottingham Playhouse which will cover a funding gap of £60,000.
Institutions like the Playhouse are vital to Nottingham's cultural output. Sherwood Art Week is a reminder that plenty of Nottingham’s culture is also made at street level, by volunteers, shopkeepers and neighbours.
Shane P
Lady Bay also hosts an arts festival annually.
