From February 2010 we have run a series of Arts Walks in and around Sheffield area. Originating as part of our Art Bytes project, more recently we have joined forces with The Shamblers walking group to explore more of our urban green spaces. We are looking to run four walks per year and at producing a leaflet containing a list of all the walks.
Sunday 25th March 2012
On Sunday 25th March, a beautiful early spring day, we held an Artswalk, celebrating the completion of the Wild Things project. The project has run over the past year with the aim of improving community spaces in the S6 area of Sheffield, made possible due to funding from the ‘Big Lottery Fund’s Community Wildlife'.
In the afternoon, with the sun shining, we ventured on a journey through some of Sheffield’s inner city parks. Beginning in the bustling Weston Park we talked about how we could think of our journey, using all of our senses to make a creative scrapbook journey of our walk. Our resident artist Lucy Coyne helped us take a fresh look at the familiar and discover new and interesting details in the environment around us.
From the heat of Weston Park we then went exploring into the wilder and more sheltered woodlands of the Ponderosa. Here we split off to explore the woodland trails and begin our scrapbook. We used a variety of media and techniques to make prints, rubbings and sketches of the environment and even stuck in wrappers of anything that would remind us of our adventure.
After much exploring, we stopped off at the playground for a well-deserved break of juice and snacks and showed off our scrapbooks to the group, displaying our individual journeys. All in all the imagination of the explorers and weather made for a rather interesting and enjoyable Artswalk. Looking forward to the next one and hoping for just as lovely weather!
One of our main projects of 2011 was our 'Villages Creative Writing and Art Classes' This was a series of weekly classes taking place in Penistone, Stannington and Denby Dale. To celebrate the success and work produced we installed three arts walks. Each route is a round walk that is fully sign posted with directions and even selected poems that were written as part of the 'Villages Writing Classes' All routes were printed on to special edition post cards that can be downloaded via the links below.
On Saturday 15th January Art in the Park and The Shamblers held our long awaited third joint Sheffield Arts Walk. In spite of the rain, 34 of us met in Endcliffe Park at midday where we were greeted by a photographer from the Sheffield Star keen to take some pictures of the event. After posing for a few photos we divided ourselves into two groups, the walkers and the artists. The walkers were taken on a brief tour of Endcliffe Park whilst the artists were given sketch pads and pencils and encouraged to begin sketching and drawing their surroundings. Many of us chose to have a go at the imposing statue of Queen Victoria which stands guard at the entrance to the park.
The next stop on our walk were the Botanical Gardens with the impressive 19th Century glass pavilions. With their strange and exotic shaped plants, the indoor gardens were perfect for the artists. After a generous stop at the gardens we were joined by the rest of the group who seemed just as impressed by the plant life. We were then taken to see the old bear pit and given a brief talk on the history of the structure by one of the walk leaders, Steve.
Following a brisk walk through the rest of the park, we crossed Ecclesall Road to enter Sheffield General Cemetery. Here, we once more divided ourselves into our two groups. The artists were given free reign to roam the grounds and do some sketching of the fabulous Roman and Egyptian style architecture, whilst the walkers were given a historical tour of the cemetery. Highlights include the Grade II listed Gatehouse, the eerie Catacombs, the Romanesque Nonconformist Chapel and the derelict Anglican Chapel.
The walk ended around 3pm whereupon many of the group went to the Lescar pub for a well deserved drink and to get to know the new-comers to our walks. Our next Arts Walk is planned for March so keep your eye on our news page for more information nearer the date.
Following the overwhelming success of our first Sheffield Arts Walk in July, Art in the Park and The Shamblers held our Second Sheffield Arts Walk this month. On Thursday 5th August, 23 walking enthusiasts and budding artists met at the Harlequin pub on Nursery Street in the city centre. A wonderful warm summer evening, we couldn't have asked for better walking conditions and spirits were extremely high as we set off along the picturesque Don Valley.
On this occasion there was a choice of two different walks on offer. Experienced walkers were treated to a brisk 5 mile walk led by Neil from the city centre to Arena Square, returning via the canal. For us artists Steve led a shorter, more gentle route which took us as along a section of the Five Weirs Walk as far as Salmon Pastures, where we stopped for a while to take in the natural beauty of the space, take photos and make some drawings and sketches of this unique urban oasis. From here we crossed over to the canal and meandered back along the tow path, pausing here and there to take in the wonderful contrast of the canal's natural beauty set against the urban industrial landscape. Our penultimate stop, before heading back to the starting point at the Harlequin pub, was Victoria Quays. Here we once more stopped for a while to take photos and make sketches of the canal boats before eventually being joined by the remainder of the group.
As is tradition among the Shamblers, the event finished with us all going to the Harlequin pub for a drink or two to chat about the days activity and to get to know our fellow walkers and artists a little better. Once again, the event proved a great success and we eagerly await the third installment in our series of Sheffield Arts Walks.
On Wednesday 30th June the Shamblers Walk Leaders took us on a guided tour of Sheffield’s inner city parks: Weston Park, Ponderosa, Crookes Valley and Lynwood Gardens. At each location there was a short talk about each park and the opportunity to sketch or photograph the landscape.
This was a lovely evening, well attended by both the Art in the Park community and Shamblers regulars alike in our first co-venture. 26 people in total turned up from as far a field as Stoke-on-Trent, all of whom enthusiastically took up pencil or charcoal to get on board with the event's art and environment theme.
We met by the steps of the museum in Weston Park where we split into groups to allow the artists time to sketch the amazing architecture and beautiful plant life on offer, while non-artists were treated to a brief history of each of the parks (thanks to Steve for preparing this). From Weston Park we then crossed over the road to the Ponderosa, where the artists were happy to produce some fabulous sketches while some of our group took time to play in the playground.
Next on the list was Crookes Valley with its magnificent pond, where even the non artists in our group were happy to sit and sketch a while. From there we went to the gorgeous Lynwood Gardens, a very different space to the others with a wild and mysterious feel to it. Lynwood is a recently re-discovered and not very well known Victorian Garden once belonging to Francis Newton (Sheffield Master Cutler) and is now a multi use Community Space.
It was the perfect spot to finish our tour of Sheffield's inner city green spaces. Afterwards, most of us went for a drink or two in the West End pub to discuss the walk and plan our next event!
Our second arts walk to Yorkshire Sculpture Park with groups from the Art Bytes project. This time we went with the Burton Street Project and Tinsley Children's Centre…
As the finale to our extensive Art Bytes project, all the groups involved were taken on a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield.
The first task of the day was to meet and greet with the artist and our tour guide of the park. Next a short walk through the main exhibition space to the underground gallery, where artist materials were distributed, so everyone could go and look and record the exhibition. Peter Randall was one of the artist, his work was about mapping ‘anatomies of thought’, ‘Mind map’, ‘Walking the dog’, and finger prints. Patterns and rhythm were the themes we were encouraged to find and explore.
Before long it was time for lunch, and may I say the YSP know how to put on a lunch, the honey mustard and leek soup was yummy, and there was a range of equally tasty sandwiches.
After lunch we moved outside to the park for a walk around, we had a few incidents where an enthusiastic fellow slipped on the muddy grass, lucky he wasn’t hurt but will need to do a bit of washing. There was a brief experience in the deer shelter, with a sensitive transition from out to in, enclosed to open, with an opportunity to sit and reflect, but most people seemed eager to explore further a field.
We were introduced to some Henry Moore sculptures about the female body and spent some time drawing them, but also thinking about the feeling it evokes.
Around this point out luck ran out and it started to rain, which coincided with our movement to the educational space. Here the artists each provided the group with an activity, painting and ceramics, or alternatively there was opportunity to go explore the park further.
I was really keen to see the Rob Ryan exhibition, of hand cut paper, prints and cross stitch, which was mind blowing to think how much time and patients it would have taken to cut out the pattern, well worth a visit!
