Somerset Art Weeks returns to Yeovil Art Space

21 September – 6 October | Open Times Wed-Sun 12-4

Somerset Art Weeks Events are annual countywide celebrations of the variety and quality of contemporary visual art and craft that can be found in Somerset. The Somerset Art Weeks Festival 2024 is showcasing over 100 exhibitions and events over the county. This year’s theme is Landscape: Flux and Flow and artists, groups and galleries have explored their relationship with the land, sea, environment, landscape and themes of environmental responsibility, as well as the intersection of nature and wellbeing.

Pauline Rook | Kirsten Cooke – Main YAS Gallery

Somerset Art Weeks returns to Yeovil Art Space. Each year the countywide event celebrates the variety and quality of contemporary visual art and craft that can be found in Somerset. Yeovil Art Space hosts ‘End of an Era, New Beginning’ with exhibitions across both spaces in the Quedam Centre, featuring six professional artists living in Yeovil and the surrounding area.

In the Main YAS Gallery this year visitors will find a collection of work from photographer Pauline Rook which documents the last few days of Greggs Riding School, Yeovil, one of the oldest riding schools in Britain, before the school moved to Devon. Parallel to this, is a series of images reflecting the changing urban landscape of Yeovil from photographer Kirsten Cooke. Her work captures redundant spaces across Yeovil.   

Pauline Rook is a Somerset documentary and portrait photographer whose work captures rural life and the English countryside. Her evocative black and white photography documents the last few days of Greggs Riding School of West Coker Road, Yeovil. Pauline Rook is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society and has worked with both The Museum of Somerset and the Somerset Rural Life Museum. 

Kirsten Cooke’s photography explores the changing face of derelict buildings of Yeovil including the Old Glove Factory, former home of The Eastville Project, and Glovers Walk. Kirsten has always been connected with the West Country, she was educated locally and later settled in Yeovil. Kirsten gained her Fine Art degree at Goldsmiths, and her MA in Photography/Fine Art at the Arts Institute, Bournemouth. She is also an Associate Member of the Royal Photographic Society.

This exhibition continues beyond Somerset Art Weeks until the end of October.

Celia Brokenshire | Jess Egan | Dawn Handy | Lupe Velazquez – YAS Creative Hub

Our Creative Hub, home to the Yeovil Creatives, will also be a destination point hosting 4 member artists with diverse practices. The Yeovil Creatives offer exciting new work on display and a special opportunity for visitors to collaborate with the artists on a large artwork in the Members Space.

Exhibiting will be Jess Egan, an artist whose work explores the landscape, the sea and the sky; Dawn Handy, a mosaic artist and printmaker who uses recycled materials; Celia Brokenshire a painter whose work explores light and colour and Lupe Velazquez a British and Mexican designer and artist whose work is influenced by Pop Art. 

There will be opportunities to take part in a collaborative artwork and share your hopes and dreams for Yeovil and its future. Visitors will be asked to contribute with printing, stitching, painting and more to create a communal landscape of Yeovil. There is no need to book, just drop in during opening hours for your opportunity to get involved and meet the artists who will be in residence for the duration of the exhibition.