Woolacombe Sand Dune Arts Festival
20th & 21st August 2022
All day
Free
We’ve teamed up with North Devon National Trust, StudioKIND and a range of local artists and businesses to bring you the first Woolacombe sand dune arts festival on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 August.
This festival is free to attend and is all about celebrating the importance of this beautiful landscape. The dunes at Woolacombe play a vital role as the home for a range of incredible wildlife and are brilliant spaces for our mental and physical wellbeing. The event will include an open-air art gallery, a series of workshops, craft sessions, and live music.
With so much happening throughout the weekend, you are sure to find something for the whole family. Alongside the array of workshops taking place (see below for details) you will also find activities run by StudioKIND (11-3 pm), our dune den (with a selection of activities including pyrography, hapa-zome leaf printing and grass painting.), sketching stations, a range of self-guided activity trails through the dunes and live music from Small Town Jones (a local singer-songwriter).
The famous Woolacombe dunes cow trail will also be returning for the festival, with the opportunity to get involved with painting a new cow before it joins the others grazing in the dunes. To top it all off, there will also be an art exhibition, showcasing the wonderful sand dune-inspired art entries to the festival’s Dynamic Dunescapes Art Competition.
The crown jewel of the festival will be the art exhibition, which will showcase the wonderful sand dune-inspired art entries to the festival’s Dynamic Dunescapes Art Competition. The winners will be chosen by public vote at the festival and local businesses have provided some incredible prizes, including a hang-gliding or paragliding flight with Fly Like a Bird, and a surf lesson for you and a friend at Croyde.
You can enter the competition by sending a photograph of your artwork to dynamicdunescapes@nationaltrust.org.uk, along with a confirmation of whether you are entering the under 16 or over 16 category. All submissions must be received by 23:59 on Monday August 15th 2022.
Full T&Cs can be found here https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/woolacombe/documents/national-trust-sand-dune-art-competition-terms-and-conditions.pdf
What's on
Saturday
- Yoga & meditation 8:30-10:00am. Sue Dawson of SG Pilates will lead an early morning session of yoga, breath meditation & sound bowl meditation in the dunes, a perfect, relaxing way to start your day! Please bring either a yoga mat, a towel or a blanket.
- Drawing Walk 10:00-12:00pm. Artist Frances Hatch will take you on a guided exploration of the dune system through drawing. A slow meander responding to sights and sensations along the way. All materials are provided, mostly by the Dune System itself!
- Tuning in painting out 14:00-16:00pm. Artist Frances Hatch will guide you through a painterly response to the dune system. Using colour and natural materials found close by including lots of sand! All materials, tools and paper are provided.
Sunday
- Vanuatu sand drawings 9:00-10:00am. Join us down on the beach for some sand art, creating our take on Vanuatu sandroings, a traditional, indigenous art form from the south pacific islands.
- Drawing the sounds of the dunes 10:00-12:00pm. Artist Peter Stiles guides you through the process of finding abstract equivalents for sound and incorporating words into drawings inspired by the dunes! All materials supplied.
- Woodcraft flowers 12:00-14:00pm Using knives and simple green woodcraft techniques; create your own wooden flower. This workshop will begin every 20 minutes until 13:40.
- Near and Far 14:00-16:00pm Artist Peter Stiles takes you on an observational drawing journey, interpreting the dunes as distant landscapes and intimate close-ups of the plants and insects. All materials supplied.
Spaces on all workshops are limited, and they will be on a first-come, first serve basis. There will be plenty to get involved with in the day though.
