Art in the Park Festival 2023
Kate Livingston, Festival Director writes…
Leamington’s unique Art in the Park Festival will take place for its tenth year on August 5th & 6th 2023 in the awarding winning Jephson & Mill Gardens.
The festival is now the largest free outdoor arts gathering in Warwickshire and key to the town’s evolving cultural and creative narrative. This year’s theme is ‘Present’, a conceptual and literal theme, harnessing the now. Being present in the world and place we are right now. The last few years have been so turbulent and for the world, it is very important to be present in where we are. The ever-changing world seems slightly less scary when participating in a community craft or performance. Focusing our attention on exactly what we are doing right now. Our workshops are so important and give so much education, inspiration, and clarity to our visitors, we feel this our 10th year, is the perfect time to be present.
Art in the Park is a Community Interest Company. We rely on the generosity of our sponsors, the good-spirited nature of our volunteers and the thousands of artists, performers and visitors who take part. In 2022 we were shortlisted for national award by Access all Areas for ‘Best visitor Experience’. We want to continue this and continue removing any boundaries that people might feel when visiting our free community festival.
Over the last 2 years we have been working very hard to make our festival truly inclusive and accessible to all members of our community. This requires many meetings with local families, discussions with local charities and extensive plans and changes to help make it possible.
Last year was evidence of the success and hard work with different things we put in place. We were able to offer more SEND friendly workshops, we offered accessible parking for SEND visitors who struggle in some cases to get Blue badges, we provided a SEND quite space, and we were able to offer low income families snack packs.