Open Studio: Make and Play

Open Studio: Make and Play is running at York Art Gallery every Saturday and Sunday from 18 July to 6 September 2026, 10am to 4pm. It's a family-friendly stamp and ink activity based around Making Waves: The Art of Japanese Woodblock Print, the exhibition that's on at the gallery throughout the same period, from Saturday 18 July to Sunday 6 September, with extra Tuesday openings on 4 and 18 August.

The sessions take place in The Studio, and the whole point is to get stuck in: you're invited to experiment, collaborate and create your own work. It's built around the woodblock prints in the exhibition, so it's a good way to try your hand at the kind of thing you'll see on the walls. If you've got kids with you, it's a straightforward one to drop into without needing to book a specific slot.

It's part of a wider summer season the gallery has put together, so there's plenty more to do around it. Gallery Tales brings in the award-winning Story Craft Theatre; Art Outdoors: Make a Splash runs in the Artist Garden; and Creative Families holds relief-printing workshops. There's also a live Mokuhanga printmaking demonstration by printmakers Andy and Naomi, so if you're interested in how the prints are actually made, that's the one to watch.

Back to the practicals: Open Studio: Make and Play runs every Saturday and Sunday from 18 July to 6 September, 10am to 4pm, except for 25 July and 8 August. It's included in general admission, so as long as you've paid your way into the gallery, you're set. The exhibition Making Waves runs alongside it from 18 July to 6 September, with those extra Tuesday openings on 4 and 18 August if you can't make a weekend.