Oxfordshire Artweeks

Oxfordshire Artweeks is an open-studios festival that has run every May since 1981. For three consecutive weeks the county turns its sheds, attics, garden studios, kitchens, garages, and a fair number of front rooms into temporary galleries; visitors walk in, talk to the artist, and look around. Entry is free at almost every venue. The format is unusual because the work is shown where it is made — not in a separate gallery space, but in the studio where the paint is mixed, the pots are thrown, or the prints are pulled.

The festival splits the county geographically. Each of the three weeks is given over to one block:

• One week for the city of Oxford — central and suburban studios, plus a handful of established galleries such as Art Jericho.
• One week for north Oxfordshire — the villages and small towns around Banbury, Bicester, and Woodstock.
• One week for south Oxfordshire — the area around Henley, Wallingford, Dorchester, and the Thames Path villages.

The order rotates year to year; the published festival guide and the artweeks.org website list which week is which, with a directory of every participating artist sorted by area and medium.

What an open studio actually looks like

Studios open mostly across the weekends and the days either side. Inside, what you find varies widely: oil painters at easels, ceramicists at the wheel, jewellers at the bench, textile artists with looms in the spare bedroom, printmakers in converted garages. Some studios sit alone; others cluster — whole streets in parts of Jericho and east Oxford run as informal trails because several artists live within a few minutes' walk. The maps in the festival guide flag clusters, and on the ground a yellow Artweeks flag or sign in the window marks each open door.

Talking to the artist is half the point. Most are happy to explain their process and price range; many of the works on the walls and tables are for sale, with everything from low-priced cards and small prints to original pieces.

Planning a visit in Oxford

Pick one of the three May weekends, work out which week covers the city, and pick a small geographic cluster rather than trying to cross town. Practical pointers:

• Treat it as a walk. A morning in Jericho or east Oxford can easily take in five or six studios on foot. Bring the guide (print or PDF) and mark the ones you actually want to see.
• Cycle for the longer trails. Walking radius is limited; cycling makes a wider afternoon possible, especially out to Iffley, Headington, or along the canal toward Wolvercote.
• Studios open in spurts. Most are open from late morning to late afternoon, but hours vary by artist; check before a long detour.
• Cash and card. Smaller studios still tend to be cash-friendly; larger ones take card. Carry a small amount of cash if you might want a card or a small print.

A short history

Artweeks began in 1981 and has run annually since. It is one of the longest-running open-studios festivals in England and the model it uses — the studio as gallery, organised into geographic blocks across a county — has been borrowed by similar festivals elsewhere. The festival publishes an annual guide each spring, edited around the participating artists; the guide is widely distributed in Oxfordshire libraries, cafes, and galleries from mid-April onward.

Where else to combine a visit

If you are in Oxford for the city weekend, the centre is dense with permanent options to pair with a studio trail:

• The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street — combines well with a Jericho studio trail; the Ashmolean's cafe makes a useful lunch stop.
• Modern Art Oxford on Pembroke Street — the city's contemporary gallery, often running an exhibition that pairs with Artweeks visitors.
• The Covered Market — central, indoor, useful when the weather turns.

Related

• Jericho — the Oxford neighbourhood with the densest cluster of Artweeks studios most years
• May Morning — the other May event Oxford is known for, at the start of the month

Sources

• Wikipedia — Oxfordshire Artweeks: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxfordshire_Artweeks (1981 founding; three-weeks-each-May format; geographic split into Oxford city, north, and south Oxfordshire; Art Jericho among venues)
• Artweeks — official festival site: artweeks.org (annual directory and guide)