York River Art Market’s 10th anniversary as city’s answer to Paris’s Left Bank opens this weekend. 80 artists & makers to take part

Lucy Hook Designs’ poster for York River Art Market’s tenth anniversary

YORK River Art Market’s tenth anniversary season on the banks of the Ouse begins this weekend.

As many as 80 artists will take be taking part this year, split into 30 exhibitors on each of the six days, August 2 and 3, August 9 and 10 and August 16 and 17, from 10am to 5.30pm.

For details of each day’s participating artists and designers stationed at riverside stalls on Dame Judi Dench Walk, by Lendal Bridge, head to YRAM’s Facebook page at https://facebook.com/YorkRiverArtMarket/events.

As ever, the free event is organised by founder Charlotte Dawson, a graphics, jewellery and vocational art and design tutor and Fenwick Street artist, who specialises in abstract paintings, layered with paint and collage, and is now setting up her own jewellery business too after making pieces for ten years.

“York River Art Market is something I’ve always run on my own, albeit with a little help this year,” she says. “People can see my graft and my passion for it, and it has that drive behind it. It’s about supporting the artists of York and beyond; it’s free to attend; it’s a grassroots initiative– and that has a positive knock-on effect for the artists.

“It’s a collective enterprise, where I hold the reins but it wouldn’t be anything without the artists and the people who support it by attending.

“We care that each of the six events are never the same and so we host a different variety of creatives at each one, which means there’s always something for everyone’s creative tastes and budget. You can buy an original artwork for £500 or a card for £2.”

Her market has been called York’s answer to Paris’s Left Bank and its multitude of bohemian arts fairs by the Seine, but Charlotte says: “I’ve still not been there, so I’ll have to take people’s word for it.”.

Looking back to the York market’s origins, Charlotte recalls: “Like everything, inspiration came from various things. I was working with Sophie Jewett at York Cocoa House and she knew I wanted to do something after I’d left university. I knew there wasn’t an arts market in York, and that’s when the space at Dame Judi Dench Walk was brought to my attention by Sophie’s friend at the council.

“It was the right time for me to go off and do something more freelance, and when I looked into setting up a market positioned by railings, Bayswater Road Art Market, in London, came to my attention, so I contacted the organiser for advice and started the York market after that.”

Charlotte marked out the cornerstones for establishing a market. “Part of the running of this event involves strong quality artists, but a huge part of it is creating an atmosphere that is welcoming. Part of the drive for me was to make it accessible and less imposing that having to go into a shop,” she says.

“You get the direct relationship between the artist and the potential buyer. There’s no middle man. That relationship between maker and buyer, for me, when I purchase something, you know it’s hand-made, and if you can get a bit of a back story, you’re getting more for your money as a buying experience, which makes it more valuable.”

Charlotte Dawson: York River Art Market founder and organiser, teacher, artist and jewellery designer

Reflecting on ten years of York River Art Market, crowned by winning the Best Community Project/Event at the York Culture Awards, Charlotte says: “In the Covid year, the event went online and obviously it wasn’t the same,  but it survived and I  can honestly say that the amount and the quality of the submissions has really grown, especially over the past two years.

“There were hundreds of applications this year, and plenty of them were new. The call-out goes out in January and the six days were full by the end of February – and I don’t take people on just because they apply; I do select who will take part. The quality is really good this year.

“If I were to run my own gallery, the art might be exclusively more to my taste, but I see York River Art Market as being ‘by the people, for the people’. There’s something for everybody.” To prove the point, ceramics, jewellery, paintings, prints, textiles, ceramics, photography, woodwork, clothing, soaps, candles and cards will be on sale.

Among the artists and makers taking part this year will be regular participants Bejojoart, Adele Karmazyn, York 360 illustrator Elliot Harrison and FangFest potters Fangfoss Pottery; York singer and artist Heather Findlay; North Eastern ceramicist Amy Rutherford; York College graphics degree tutor and Ripon artist Monica Gabb, of Twenty Birds designs.

So will be Katrina Mansfield, from PICA Studios, in Grape Lane, showcasing her fluid art animal inks; conceptual artist Hannah Turlington,  whose paintings “evoke the fragility of emotions”, and Feis Crochet Studios. “With the way of the world right now, you think, ‘we need the vibrancy of her crochét flowers’,” says Charlotte.

Look out too for CharKnots’ eco-conscious macramé homeware and accessories, from Sheffield; LDM  Designs’ eco-friendly lino-prints that raise awareness of environmental issues, and York landscape painter Charley Hellier, who is working on two collections: the dark, stormy and gothic Tempestarii, related to medieval storm creation mythology, and the peaceful and quietly pensive Reverie.

Lucy Hook Designs had “the absolute pleasure” of designing this year’s poster to mark YRAM’s tenth anniversary. “I had so much fun designing it,” says Lucy. “We wanted to incorporate the tools used by all the makers, and also different parts of this wonderful city. My favourite part is the river coming out of the gouache tube!

“We’ve done some limited-edition Risograph printed versions that have been put up in some special businesses around York and I’ll have some prints for sale at the markets too. I’ll be down by the river for all six dates, so let’s all pray for nice weather. Come on down to say ‘hi’.”

York River Art Market not only nurtures artistic talent from York and beyond but also supports charities, led off by York Rescue Boat, whose tenth anniversary also falls this year. Amnesty International’s Bookshop will be on site on August 9 and graphic designer Laura Sanderson’s Art Is My Career Studio on August 17. Her charity specialises in investing in arts education, travelling around schools to promote art as a career. How apt for YRAM.

Will York River Art Market still be here in a decade’s time, Charlotte? “The next ten years? Well, I like to take it one year at a time but I would be honoured if YRAM could continue and, like Bayswater, be a staple of the art scene. Maybe I could even hand it over one day,” she says.

“There is scope, when so far it’s been a sideline for me from my teaching, doing it without support. There’s potential for working with a team and growing where it can grow, but I like the organic nature of it as it is now: working with a different artist each year for the poster, supporting charities and promoting local artists.”

Everything’s going to the wall as The Postman delivers street art tribute to key workers in Guardians Of York murals

Steve Wasowa, ICU doctor, York District Hospital, turned into street art by The Postman

YORK public art pioneers Art Of Protest Projects and The York BID are collaborating on a street art series of murals to “honour and elevate pandemic key workers from York”. 

They are working with The Postman, the anonymous international street artist collective tasked with creating the ancient city’s first urban art installation to celebrate the Guardians Of York, who helped to keep York moving when the city – and the world – came to a standstill during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Inviting people back into the city once Lockdown 3 eases, Jeff Clark, director of Art of Protest Projects, says: “Helping people to realise the difference that urban art can make to a town or city, through its presence in York, has been something we’ve been working towards for a long time.

Gill Shaw, Boots retail worker

“To be able to do it with such outstanding artists like The Postman, as well as our homegrown heroes, was beyond anything I could have imagined when we first set out.”

Eleven essential workers, all of them York residents, were recorded by a professional film crew in the closed Debenhams store in Davygate, giving their account of the hardships of working through the upheaval created by the pandemic, and all had their portrait photographs taken.

Taking part were: Becky Arksy, primary school teacher; Pauline Law, police officer; Sally and Mark Waddington, York Rescue Boat; Martin Golton, street cleaner, and Steve Wasowa, ICU doctor, York District Hospital.

Steven Ralph, postal worker

So too were: Steve and Julia Holding, owners of the Pig and Pastry, in Bishopthorpe Road, and founders of the Supper Collective; Steven Ralph, postal worker; Gill Shaw, Boots retail worker, and Brenna Allsuch, ICU nurse, York District Hospital.

Their images have been transformed into murals by The Postman collective, whose favoured artistic medium is pop-culture paste-ups, rooted in punk, wherein they express themselves in brightly coloured, edgy, urban portraits, varying from street artworks of Nelson Mandela in South Africa to pop stars in Los Angeles.

“As the Guardians project builds momentum, we realise more and more how important it is to tell the stories of the people behind the masks,” say the mystery duo with roots in graffiti culture. “The key workers that have carried us through the last year inspired us and made a difference to everybody’s lives.”

Pauline Law, police officer

The Guardians Of York will be displayed on city-centre walls in a three-month installation from April 9 to July 9, in a show of gratitude to key workers timed to coincide with the relaxation of lockdown restrictions and the reopening of many of the city’s “non-essential” businesses, potentially from April 12.

Recalling the dissolving street art of York memorial artist Dexter, The Postman will be applying their paper-based large-scale artworks to walls with wheat paste, their impermanent form of art fading and washing away over time, duly creating a buzz as people seek them out before they disappear.

Jeff Clark has worked closely with Andrew Lawson, executive director of York BID (Business Improvement District), who says: “The BID has supported a couple of street art projects in the city over the past few years and its new five-year business plan outlines how it would like to provide more support in this area.

“To be able to do it with such outstanding artists like The Postman, as well as our homegrown heroes, was beyond anything I could have imagined when we first set out,” says Art Of Protest Projects director Jeff Clark

“The Guardians Of York is an apt project to kick off reopening in 2021, as it will add a splash of colour to the city, while reminding the public of those local heroes who have worked hard to keep us all safe.”

Jeff’s art and media company delivers large and small-scale exhibitions, murals and projects, both nationally and globally, but he was particularly keen to bring alive a new project in his home city, where he previously invited Static – alias Scarborough street art duo Craig Evans and Tom Jackson – to construct murals on the floor of the Art Of Protest gallery, in Little Stonegate, at Brew York, Walmgate, and down a Coney Street alleyway in October 2018.

“By nature I’m a bit of a hippie, but I have the connections to deliver on my beliefs, working on projects in London, New York and Los Angeles ” says Jeff, whose upcoming ideas stretch to creating an open-air museum and laser art (that will not be mere pie in the sky).

Mark Waddington, from the York Rescue Boat team

“I don’t see why I can’t bring my ideas to my home city, so that’s why I’m working with Andrew Lawson, discussing at length how we might implement such ideas, starting with this installation trail with high impact for three months.

“Projects could look at York heroes of the past, but it would be churlish at the moment to do right now when the biggest heroes are our key workers.”

Jeff was keen too to break away from the prevailing images of such workers. “Rather than having yet more tired faces, we want to remind people that there is hope and a path out of this pandemic.

Julia Holding, Pig and Pastry co-owner and Supper Collective co-founder

“It is a world of fear, love and compassion, but these portraits not only show us that, yes, these workers do work that keeps the world going round, but they go home to their families, and they all want to make the world a better place than they came into.”

Mounting the Guardians Of York is a passion project for Jeff and The Postman.  “They like to do street art that makes a difference, and my partner is an NHS frontline worker, so I’ve seen every day how Covid has worn them down, sacrificing their own health. It’s no wonder that nurses have gone down, had to stop working, because they’re frazzled,” he says.

“They’ve had to go into a war-like atmosphere, where normally you’d do a tour and then be sent home, for a break, but that’s not been the case. That’s why my heart and soul has gone into this project.”    

Martin Golton, street cleaner

Let the last word go to project participant Brenna Allsuch, ICU nurse and project support manager to boot. “Telling my story in such a real and raw way has helped me to understand the weight of this year, and to reflect on all the highs and lows,” she says.

“Beyond that, it’s made me feel like I’m part of a community, a collective of people that have not stopped going.”

To watch a video about the project, go to: https://youtu.be/7cUpnE1M-sw

“Telling my story in such a real and raw way has helped me to understand the weight of this year,” says ICU nurse Brenna Allsuch

Copyright of The Press, York