Cambridge City Council is inviting Cambridge-based artists of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience to showcase paper-based artwork for free on a number of art benches in the city centre – to join a growing cohort of artists who have exhibited during the benches’ first three months.
The council created the Christ’s Lane Art Benches to support artists who may otherwise not have access to exhibition space or funding. Each artwork is displayed for one month, giving the artist the benefit of free city-centre publicity. The work is also exhibited on the Christ’s Lane Art Benches Instagram account, which serves as a virtual gallery: @artbenches
This rolling opportunity is open to artists using any medium – paint, pencil, photograph, or anything else – but artwork must be no larger than 300mm x 450mm, on paper. Every artwork received will be displayed for up to one month, on a first come, first served basis.
The first exhibition in April 2023 featured artists from two local arts organisations. Rowan Humberstone, a charity providing an arts centre and forest school for adults with learning disabilities, submitted work by students Selina, Alex, Aidan, Lucy, Usman, Jack, Emma, Naomi, Louisa and Jenny.