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Haworth, West Yorkshire
Bradford is 2025’s UK City of Culture, and Wild Uplands is part of the year-long celebration that involves four new installations on the moors above Haworth, 10 miles west of central Bradford. There are pink marble butterflies designed by Meherunnisa Asad. On the ridge above, Steve Messam’s 10-metre tower of locally quarried stone looks out over heather-purple hills. These works are dotted around the lake and abandoned quarries of Penistone Hill country park and a family-friendly guide charts a route around all four. While wandering over the moors, you can tune into a geolocated immersive soundscape, Earth & Sky, which includes music by Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius. The Brontë Bus from Hebden Bridge via Keighley stops three times an hour in Haworth, and it’s then a 15-minute stroll past the Parsonage to Penistone Hill. Haworth’s steep, cobbled Main Street is lined with pubs and cafes such as the Writers’ Bloc, which opened in November 2024 and serves cream teas inside a hollowed-out book. At the bottom of the street, Haworth Old Hall has a choice of locally distilled gins.
To 12 October, bradford2025.co.uk
Folkestone, Kent
The 2025 Folkestone Triennial, the UK’s biggest urban collection of contemporary outdoor artworks, features new site-specific works by artists from around the world. It is free and open daily until 19 October, and you can choose your own routes using the map in the digital guide. No 15 is an old Martello tower containing Katie Paterson’s extraordinary years-long project Afterlife. She has fashioned 197 amulets from matter embodying the harm caused by the climate crisis: fragments of charred wood from burnt forests, stones from islands menaced by rising seas … Walk past Jennifer Tee’s Oceans Tree of Life, a seaweed sculpture of brick and fused sea glass built into the grassy clifftop, to reach Sara Trillo’s chalky Urn Field. Down some steps off the harbour arm, don’t miss Red Erratic by Dorothy Cross, a waterside block of red Syrian marble carved with human feet. Stop off at Herbert’s for an ice-cream, where artist Emeka Ogboh has designed a lolly that tastes like lemon cheesecake and can be dipped (sherbet dip-dab-style) into a slightly salty-spicy coating that looks like sand. Ogboh’s choral sound installation Ode to the Channel is a few minutes’ walk away past Sunny Sands beach. Here you can sit on the steps with your ice-cream and listen to the music and the waves.
To 19 October, creativefolkestone.org.uk
Newquay, Cornwall
A series of new murals are appearing on walls around Newquay. There are colourful seaside abstracts, bouncing beachballs, a fisher mending nets by candlelight … Bus 56 from Newquay runs hourly up to Porth, where local artist Phil Strugnell has painted a big, colourful mural on the side of the SeaSpace aparthotel. From here, you can follow the coast path back to Newquay for a couple of miles. Skirting Lusty Glaze and Towan Beach, walk through the ancient burial site at the Barrowfields to reach the town. Stroll past the new murals, each one with a QR code to give you details about the artist, and end near Elle Koziupa’s chiaroscuro fisher opposite Sainsbury’s.
Muqy Street Art Trail, ovenqy.co.uk
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
The British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent runs until late October. More than 60 artists, including comedian Johnny Vegas, are involved in films, events and exhibitions in the Spode Works, a historic ceramics factory 10 minutes’ walk from Stoke-on-Trent station. There are regular trains from Crewe, London Euston and elsewhere. A bronze Josiah Wedgwood stands opposite the station, holding a copy of the Portland Vase. Spode is a maze of old factory buildings, storerooms and galleries. New commissions include Playscape, turning clay spoil into a playground, and Josie KO celebrating Black women in Stoke with a collaborative bottle kiln-inspired goddess. When you’ve finished exploring Spode Works, follow the new Living Heritage trail, which launched in April, and starts from Spode. There are Staffordshire oatcakes and deep-filled sarnies at the Quarter, while the Little Vintage Tea Room at Spode Museum has homemade cakes and a mosaic counter designed by artist Philip Hardaker, inspired by Spode’s blue Italian ceramics.
To 19 October, britishceramicsbiennial.com
Wolterton, Norfolk
Wolterton Hall and its 200-hectare (500-acre) estate have been closed to the public for decades. Now a new art and culture programme comes with a chance to explore the Palladian house and grounds during opening hours (generally Wed to Sun, 11am to 4pm) if you book a free ticket online. The inaugural exhibition, Sea State, includes tempestuous new North Sea-inspired works by Maggi Hambling and painted-steel wave-form sculptures by Ro Robertson in the Marble Hall. In the old Portrait Room, don’t miss Hambling’s moving tribute to her late partner of 40 years, Tory. This is less an art trail than a parkland stroll and indoor exhibition, but both are lovely. Maps available at Wolterton offer various routes around the lake and ponds, with views of the heronry and ruined round-towered church. There are more great walks at nearby Mannington. Norfolk-based bakery Bread Source has cafes in Wolterton Hall’s library and at Mannington too, serving cakes, drinks and huge flaky croissants.
Sea State runs to 7 December, wolterton.co.uk
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Westminster, London
Author and journalist Juliet Rix’s new book, London Statues of Women, features interviews with artists and models. It covers the more obvious monuments, such as Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace and Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. But you can also find groundbreaking director Joan Littlewood outside the Theatre Royal in Stratford and Amy Winehouse in Camden Market. The book includes three statue safaris around Westminster, Bloomsbury and the City. The Westminster route starts with a dancing Anna Pavlova in gilded bronze on top of the Victoria Palace theatre and ends at Waterloo near Basil Watson’s National Windrush Monument. Look up on Horseferry Road to see Mary and Etienne Millner’s bronze figure of visionary mathematician Ada Lovelace, backed by gold computer punch cards. Or head to the riverside garden by St Thomas’ hospital to find nurse Mary Seacole.
London Statues of Women is published by Safe Haven Books
Wrexham, Clwyd
A new public art trail is part of Wrexham’s bid to be 2029 UK city of culture. Coordinated by local artist Liam Stokes-Massey, the trail includes 14 works so far and the city is planning a second phase this autumn. The Boss is Stokes-Massey’s tribute to Wrexham FC manager Phil Parkinson, and there are several football-themed works. Others celebrate the city’s industrial heritage, such as Josh Colwell’s monochrome miner with caged canary. The Art Bunny (AKA Rachel West) evokes Wrexham’s markets, where her mum and grandad worked. There’s a map to plot your route round the murals. Tŷ Pawb gallery, market and food court has homemade curry, pies from the Pie’d Pie’per and more.
Find out more at wcct.wales
