A new community art exhibition, art trail and installation has landed in Walmgate, York.
Swarmgate is designed to celebrate the rich history and community of the street – and is the culmination of the five-month-long Walmgate Reframed Project.
A highlight of the project is the installation created by Pocklington artist Gemma Wood, featuring a hive of resin-cast bees illuminated by hundreds of lights.
The community art exhibition is located at the Art of Protest Gallery at the top of Walmgate. Curated by Leon Dumont from York Creatives, visitors will see various artworks of the area by artists including Lincoln Lightfoot, Elliot Harrison, Alan Hawkins and Dom White.
Alongside these you can also view outputs from the various workshops that have taken place as part of the project over the last few months, including digital designs and poetry from the children of Fishergate School.
And don’t miss the audio immersive art trail, collected and curated by Hook, Jacob Ward and Sarah Williams from York Creatives, and written by local writers Olga Szawa, Lara McClure, Betty Powdrill, Sarah Williams and Gordon Campbell-Jones.
In 10 shop windows down the street you’ll spy wooden hexagons with QR codes on – plus some smaller hexagons made by the children of Fishergate School. When you scan these QR codes you can listen to poetry and stories about Walmgate especially written and recorded for this project.
Walmgate Reframed was designed to celebrate Walmgate’s history, creativity, and community while helping to revitalise the area and aims to make Walmgate feel more welcoming and vibrant, encourage visitors, support local businesses, and strengthen community pride.
The project has been developed as part of York’s wider regeneration efforts and funded through the Vibrant & Sustainable High Street Fund, supported by Mayor David Skaith and the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.
Walmgate Reframed is led by the University of York and York Creatives, in collaboration with local residents, community groups, and businesses.
The project was managed by Sarah Williams, managing director of York Creatives: “The three outputs of this project (the exhibition, art trail and installation) really come together to show just how many people have been involved and how hard everyone has worked – which the symbol of the bee really encapsulates well.
“We hope that a lot of people will get down to see all of these elements in the next few months and be as impressed as we are to see the artworks, poetry, stories and community effort put in to create all of these artworks.
“We hope everyone can see first-hand the passion people here have for art: from colourful seamstresses to prolific painters who’ve lived in Walmgate for decades, creativity runs deep in this community, and it truly deserves to be celebrated.”
