Saffron Walden Museum presents its summer season: A Summer of Art!

The programme includes an exciting new exhibition - The Uttlesford Open 2023 - in addition to the "Wild about Walden" art trail, both opening to the public on 22 July.

The Uttlesford Open 2023: A Sense of Place exhibition will feature artworks by over 50 local artists, exploring the theme of the people, places, and landscape of Uttlesford. The artworks cover a breadth of artistic disciplines from painting to milliner and quilt making to stained glass, all evoking the intrinsic character of the district and the emotive bonds and attachments that people experience in response to it. 

Building on previous work with Support 4 Sight, the exhibition will also feature audio descriptions of some of the artworks on display, written and performed by the artists themselves so giving a more personal narrative to the pieces and understanding how Uttlesford has provided inspiration for the art.

Charlotte Pratt, Learning and Outreach Officer at Saffron Walden Museum and the exhibition coordinator, said: "It is important we continue to improve the accessibility of our exhibitions at the museum and show that we are a museum for the whole community. I hope this exhibition and varied summer programme demonstrates this broad inclusivity, through the audio descriptions, the free "Wild about Walden" art trail and in addition to the call for the exhibition, which was open to everyone in the county to enter."

Also launching on 22 July is the Wild about Walden art trail which will see large lion sculptures and silhouettes hidden all around Saffron Walden. Trail maps will be available from the museum and are free to all. For those successfully completing the trail, there will be the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win a season ticket to the museum along with an exclusive behind the scenes tour. There will be 14 lions to find in total, each with a letter allocated to it. Lion hunters will need to find all 14 lions and record their letters correctly on the trail map which then needs to be handed back to the museum to be entered into the prize draw. Everyone who joins in will also get a sticker!

The museum will also be holding a fun-packed programme of creative activities for families over the holidays, beginning on 25 July with a clay tile activity and finishing on 24 August with an amazing day of heritage crafts. There are six activity days in total during this time, and drop-in spaces will be available on a first-come-first-served basis, although it is advised to pre-book tickets to avoid disappointment via the museum's art tickets page.

The Uttlesford Open 2023 exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 22 July and runs until Sunday 29 October. Most of the artworks will be on sale and purchased works can be collected after the exhibition closes at the end of October.

The Wild about Walden art trail will run from Saturday 22 July to Tuesday 5 September. All completed entries will go into a prize draw shortly after to win a fabulous season ticket for the year and an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the museum.

14 July 2023