Holmfirth Artweek gears up to celebrate 60th Anniversary

Holmfirth Artweek gears up to celebrate 60th Anniversary

Holmfirth Artweek returns to Holmfirth and the area this year promising to be the biggest celebration yet for its 60th anniversary. The annual art exhibition,is one of the UK’s largest open art exhibitions, and has become a local event with a national reputation.  Now a firm favourite in the calendar, it welcomes visitors from across the Holme Valley and beyond. 

Holmfirth Artweek, is a week-long event dedicated to visual art.  The event includes a main exhibition in the Civic Hall in Holmfirth, featuring over 400 exhibitors with over 2,000 individual pieces of art.  There are also fringe venues across the local area,that showcase even more artists with thousands more pieces of art and crafts, creating a real buzz in the local area.

This year is set to be more exciting than ever as the team prepare to celebrate 60 years since the very first event.  To mark this occasion there will be special celebrations in the main exhibition including a specially curated new artist showcase within the main exhibition and multiple fringe venues across the region.  The team behind the event hope this year will be the biggest and most successful event to date.  

It is also the 30th year of Artweek for Curator of the event and local artist Mick Kirkby-Geddes. Mick brings his own sense of style to the event each year, mixing up the format of the main exhibition to keep it fresh and new.  His focus is about “bringing everyone together to make something great happen”. And this year is promising to be the best one yet.

For 60 years the event has brought together a variety of artists across all mediums of art – from sculpture to paint, to photography and beyond.  It remains one of the UK’s largest and longest running open art exhibitions welcoming artists and visitors from the local area, as well as across the country. 

As well as supporting local artists, a percentage of sales from Holmfirth Artweek are donated to charity each year.  To date the event has raised over £1.1 million. This year this will be split between local charity The Kirkwood and long-standing partner Macmillan Cancer Support.  In 2025 this amount total £40,000 or £20,000 each.

Across the event there will be a wide variety of art from both professionals and amateurs, providing something to suit everyone’s taste and budget in the main exhibition.  There are also demonstrations on the stage in the Civic Hall, showcasing a selection of artists at work so you can see behind the curtain on how pieces are made.  The Civic Hall in the heart of Holmfirth also has a small café and a market on the middle floor, making it a fun day out.

In addition to the main exhibition, businesses and venues around the area also participate in the Holmfirth Artweek Fringe by exhibiting and selling the work of even more artists.  This helps to bring Holmfirth Artweek into the community and to raise extra funds for the charity partners.   Venues located across Holmfirth, the Holme and Colne Valleys and beyond provide a great way to see the local area.   The venues range from bars and cafés to churches and community spaces, as well as open art studios which will offer visitors special access into the artists’ workspaces, this year there will be 60 venues to visit.

This year, the event will run from Sunday 5th July to Saturday 11th July.  The main exhibition, at Holmfirth Civic Hall, will be open from 10am – 9pm Monday – Friday and until 5pm on Sunday and Saturday.  

For further information please visit the website: www.holmfirthartweek.org.uk or follow Artweek on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

For those who can’t wait until the main exhibition opens, there will be a Preview Evening held on Saturday 5th July for ‘Friends of Artweek.’

For anyone who would like to become a ‘Friend’ and attend the Preview to get the first look at the exhibition and exclusive opportunity to buy before it opens to the public you can find out more information on the website.