Artweeks - an exuberant and slightly surreal carnival

Sami Cohen, d'Overbroeck's Principal, writes about the College's support of Oxfordshire's Artweeks festival ...

For three weeks each year, Oxfordshire’s artists and craftspeople are 'at home' to the rest of us. Studios and workshops are thrown open to all-comers and a vast array of work in every style and medium imaginable is put on show – usually in a refreshingly accessible, matter-of-fact way. By the same token, Artweeks enables us to catch a glimpse of the creative process itself: to 'smell' the fresh paint and the drying clay; and to meet the artists in their own space, surrounded by their tools and materials, and often also by their own favourite sources of inspiration.

Back in 1982, Oxford Artweek (in the singular then) was a new cultural phenomenon, the first 'open studio' arts festival in the UK. Twenty-six years on, the festival, which now runs to 3 full weeks, is a hugely well-organised and well-subscribed event that encompasses not just the city of Oxford but the whole of the county, with several hundred artists and craftspeople taking part.

Above all, though, Artweeks is fun! It has something in common with another, much older, Oxford event: St Giles' fair, which has taken place in the heart of the city every year, with barely any interruptions, for nearly four centuries. In both instances, albeit in very different ways, the normal humdrum train of everyday life is momentarily suspended, giving way to a happy, exuberant and slightly surreal carnival atmosphere. Artweeks sees us wondering at will in and out of the homes of old friends and perfect strangers, to be delighted (and as often surprised) by works of art that we have chosen to go and see 'on spec', often knowing little about them or their makers. There is an innocently enjoyable promiscuity about it all, and all sorts of unexpected encounters take place along the way!

Artweeks is a heady and colourful celebration of creativity and of community, and we are delighted to be able to contribute to it in a small way. Long may it continue!