Artist Open Houses: Winter Wonderlands

Santa’s grottos, festive forests, galleries, gifts galore & much more at Artists Open Houses Christmas Festival

Christmas is coming and, along with it, the annual Artists Open Houses Christmas Festival! With Santa’s grottos, winter wonderland gardens, candy cane surprises, as well as art, crafts and Christmas treats, there is something for all the family.

Starting on November 26, the Artists Open Houses Christmas Festival covers the last weekend of November and the first two weekends of December, stretching across Brighton and Hove to Ditchling and Lewes.

Waiting behind the door at 11 Rugby Road is a festive forest of trees hung with handmade decorations and a candy-land kitchen crammed with Christmas treats. While at TheBigForest, in Chester Terrace, Mr Rowling and Mr Craven welcome visitors to their retro Christmas emporium. Handmade gifts include felt dog sculptures, dog brooches, miniature animals, cut-out and dress Brighton men dolls and felt tree decorations.

Peculiar, wonderful and thrilling, The Stanley Road Store will be holding special themed weekends, including Merry Kitschmas, Rough Luxury and Blooming Botanics. On offer are children’s soft toys made from recycled fabrics, knitted kitties and a special children’s grotto.

What better way to shop for unique presents than with a glass of mulled wine and mince pie in hand!

At Hanover’s Little Papa House, in Queens Park Road, you can see giant candy canes in a winter wonderland garden, and Santa’s Grotto in the shed. See Atelier 51’s amazing ceramics and at New England House find gifts for all the family, while at Art Across The Line take a look at the infamous Festive Window!

Hove Museum’s first Open House marks the start of its exhibition Fabula presents: Many ways to tell a story. Fabula is a collective of local and international artists from many different backgrounds and disciplines. These include picture-book makers, illustrators, animators, painters and puppeteers, all united by a desire to tell stories through image, objects and text.

At Party Animals at Unlimited, the Church Street shop and gallery are going ‘wild’ with bright, whimsical animal-inspired prints, offering an amazing array of gifts from their talented collective of designers to complement a show of new work by local illustrator Dan Walters.

And in a small gallery in Fisher Street, right in the heart of Lewes, portrait and reportage photographer Rosie Wooldridge exhibits her new exhibition Images of Childhood. In this series of portraits, children and young people were photographed engaged in an activity important to their lives. The portraits are accompanied by drawings and writings by the children telling their own stories.

Don’t miss William Collier House in North Road, displaying work by people who have experienced unsettled housing and homelessness. Their last Open House exhibition was described as ‘really inspiring and thought provoking’. At Grace Eyre, in Marshall’s Row, see an inspirational collection of works by some of Brighton and Hove’s finest outsider artists. And at 48 St George’s Road view paintings and sculpture by seven students entering their final year at the University of Brighton.

The Artists Open Houses Festival is the perfect way to explore and celebrate this winter – and what better way to shop for unique presents than with a glass of mulled wine and mince pie in hand!

See www.aoh.org.uk for more info.