Current Art and Sculpture Events in Wakefield

Join Yorkshire Sculpture Park for a life drawing workshop inspired by Bharti Kher’s powerful Six Women sculpture. This session invites you to sketch a live model alongside this sculpture for an hour. Participants will then walk up to The Kitchen Café for a break, before returning to the gallery to work directly from the sculpture. Expert guidance will be offered by Tessa Houghton, professional artist and life drawing tutor.

Wakefield, WF4 4LG
Thursday 3 April 2025, 9:30am-12pm
£50, booking required
Click here for more information.

Wakefield Exchange presents The Sleeping Tree, an immersive sound and light experience transporting the audience to the Sumatran rainforest in Indonesia. Every night, Siamang Gibbons sleep in special sleeping trees,  the same trees they have used for generations. The exhibition’s rich soundscape focuses on the calls of one of the remaining Siamang Gibbon families, alongside other forest species.

Wakefield, WF1 3AD
Thursday 3 April – Monday 21 April 2025
Free
Click here for more information.

Wakefield Museum presents a fascinating talk from artist Naomi Aderonke where she will share what she has learnt through her recent project researching and creating Cistercian ware pottery. Discover some of the intriguing examples from Wakefield Museums store that inspired Naomi’s work, hear about different techniques and materials she tested, and see examples of Naomi’s work and her test samples up close.

Wakefield, WF1 2UP
Thursday 3 April 2025, 2:30pm-3:30pm
Free, booking required
Click here for more information.

In the Chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, discover Into Being, Derbyshire-based Laura Ellen Bacon’s exceptional immersive sculptural installation created from natural materials. Weave your way through the building, to view a piece woven for the space in willow – a sustainable and warm material that Laura uses to create a surprising and compelling sensory experience.

Wakefield, WF4 4LG
Saturday 5 April 2025 – Sunday 7 September 2025
£9.50 (£7 concession), FREE for under 18s.
Click here for more information.

📸 ©Alun Callender, courtesy the artist and Hignell Gallery

Expressions in Blue is an extraordinary exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park where visitors will be dwarfed by a forest of monumental porcelain sculptures – up to five metres high – by renowned ceramicist Felicity Aylieff. The sculptures feature the classic blue and white associated with Chinese porcelain. Shown alongside the sculptures, photographs reveal the remarkable process of making and its sheer physicality.

Wakefield, WF4 4LG
Saturday 5 April 2025 – Sunday 14 September 2025
£9.50 (£7 concession), FREE for under 18s.
Click here for more information.

📸© Sylvain Deleu

The Art House are excited to welcome back CRAFTED, their independent makers market in the heart of Wakefield. The event will be taking over the gallery spaces on 26 April, showcasing hand-crafted products from local designer-makers, including textiles, ceramics, jewellery, printmaking and more. You’ll have the chance to shop from more than 20 unique makers all in one place!

Wakefield, WF1 2TE
Saturday 26 April 2025, 10am-4pm
Free
Click here for more information.

Coinciding with CRAFTED, studio holders at The Art House are opening their doors for the return of the Open Studios event! Meet some of the best contemporary artists, designers and craftspeople in Wakefield, and find out about their work. Many of the Artists will also be offering original artwork to buy directly. Explore the Grade II Listed  former Carnegie Library and take part in free activities in the Maker Spaces.

Wakefield, WF1 2TE
Saturday 26 April 2025, 10am-4pm
Free
Click here for more information.

Caroline Walker is known for her paintings which offer a lens into the everyday lives of women, portraying diverse female subjects in settings that blur the boundaries between public and private. This exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield will bring together works made over the past five years with new paintings exploring themes of motherhood and early-years care.

Wakefield, WF1 5AW
Saturday 17 May 2025 – Monday 27 October 2025
£14 (adults)/ FREE for Wakefield district residents
Click here for more information.

The Hepworth Wakefield presents Helen Chadwick: Life Pleasures. British artist Helen Chadwick embraced the sensuous aspects of the natural world, breaking taboos of the ‘traditional’ or ‘beautiful’. This major retrospective will be the first in over 25 years, charting the development of Chadwick’s art and highlighting her significant impact and contributions to British and international art history.

Wakefield, WF1 5AW
Saturday 17 May 2025 – Monday 27 October 2025
£14 (adults)/ FREE for Wakefield district residents
Click here for more information.

Artwalk is Wakefield’s free bi-monthly multi-venue trail of art, music, spoken word, sculpture, performance, history and photography. On the last Wednesday of alternate months, quirky venues (from places of worship to pubs and bars) open between 5pm-9pm to become a rich collection of art galleries, installations and performance spaces. Keep checking the Artwalk website for details of the latest trail as they become available.

Wakefield, WF4 4LG
Wednesday 28 May 2025, 5pm-9pm
Free
Click here for more information.

Wakefield Exchange and artist Jason Wilsher-Mills present Jason and the Wakefield Adventure, Jason’s first large-scale exhibition of work in his hometown of Wakefield. Jason’s brightly coloured inflatables celebrate disability, northern working-class heritage, and popular culture. This exhibition features a new 20-metre sculpture, Jason’s largest and most ambitious artwork to date, created especially for Wakefield.

Wakefield, WF1 3AD
Friday 20 June 2025 – Sunday 7 September 2025
Free
Click here for more information.

This summer, The Art House is thrilled to bring an exciting new exhibition and installation by artist Charlotte Smithson, exploring the powerful connection between people, place, and nature. Inspired by her family roots in Wakefield, Smithson’s project invites visitors to reflect on how memories and emotions are tied to the spaces and landscapes we inhabit.

Wakefield, WF1 2TE
Saturday 21 June 2025 – Sunday 24 August 2025
Free
Click here for more information.

The Hepworth Wakefield‘s iconic Ceramics Fair – the go-to place to buy and explore all things pottery – returns! You’ll find over 60 of the UK’s best independent ceramicists and potters selling traditional and contemporary ceramics, homeware, tableware, jewellery and more. Plus family activities, street food and discounted exhibition entry.

Wakefield, WF1 5AW
Saturday 28 June 2025 – Sunday 29 June 2025
£2.50/ FREE for Wakefield district residents, bookable
Click here for more information.

The Art House presents Hidden, a collaborative project by Charles Fox and Prum Sisaphantha (Pantha) exploring memory through the lens of photography. The work is rooted in Pantha’s journey through the Khmer Rouge era. During this time, she carried over 90 family photographs in the pockets of her dress. The exhibition invites audiences to reflect on how history is preserved, concealed, and rediscovered through images.

Wakefield, WF1 2TE
Saturday 28 June 2025 – Saturday 16 August 2025
Free
Click here for more information.

The Pull of Gravity at Yorkshire Sculpture Park is the first major exhibition by South African artist William Kentridge outside South Africa focussing on his sculpture. His practice questions grand narratives from history, politics, science, literature and music, alongside an ongoing interrogation of the legacy of colonialism.

Wakefield, WF4 4LG
Saturday 28 June 2025 – Sunday 19 April 2026
£9.50 (£7 concession), FREE for under 18s.
Click here for more information.