Arts and Crafts events
We host a range of arts and crafts events right here at our centre in Knaresborough. Many of these are free drop-in activities. Where booking is required, please call us on 01423 541888 or use our online booking form.
Snow White in Neverland - pantomime
Join us at the Arts and Crafts Centre for our pantomime
Thursday 10th February 6pm
Our original show is performed by our differently able makers at Henshaws Arts and Crafts Centre and will last for 1 hour.
It’s a great fun comedy panto that brings together stories and characters from Snow White and Peter Pan.
Tickets cost £5 per person
and are available to buy in the Arts and Crafts Centre shop or on the door.
Get your tickets early to avoid disappointment
Christmas Craft Fair - 28th November 11-4pm
About the event
-festive fun for the whole family-
Craft workshops – Gift stalls – Carol singing
Join us for a day filled with festive activities that the whole family can enjoy. We will have craft workshops where our skilled workshop leaders will help you to create your own festive crafts, and gift stalls selling unique handmade goods. There will be lots of Christmas cheer with carol singing plus mince pies and mulled wine to get you in to the festive spirit.
Entry is free but craft workshops will be ticketed and priced per person.
Workshop timetable:
- make your own wooden reindeer
(2hr) £15 – 2 sessions 11-1pm / 2-4pm
- paint your own ceramic baubles
(45 mins) £15 (inc 2 baubles.
Pick up in one week) – every hour
- create a paper mache Christmas tree
(2 hr) £10 – 2 sessions 11-1pm / 2-4pm
Lantern Making Workshop
Saturday 13h November from 10am
About this event
Join us at the Arts and Crafts Centre for our Lantern Making Workshop, in partnership with ‘Bright Friday’*.
Our skilled workshop leaders will help you to create your very own lantern which you can use for the Bright Friday parade through Knaresborough town centre on 26th November. The whole family will be able to get involved in the session making lanterns so why not make a day of it. Our cafe will be open and serving refreshments.
There will be two sessions: 10-12.30pm and 1-3.30pm
£10 per person per session or £30 for a family of 4 per session
(Add the word FAMILY in the coupon/promo code section when you check out for your family discount)
*Bright Friday is held on 26th November, it is Knaresborough’s annual Christmas tree lights switch-on event.
Food stalls will open in the market square from 5.30pm, together with refreshments in the form of mulled wine and fruit punch being served by Knaresborough Lions and a performance by the Year 2 children’s choir at Meadowside Academy.
At 6pm the ‘Light Parade’, led by Rev. Garry Hinchcliffe and made up of children from local schools and community groups, will leave the war memorial within the castle grounds before processing down Castlegate to the Christmas tree in the Market Place, where its light will symbolically light the tree.
As well as the parade there will be Santa and his sleigh, the Knaresborough Silver Band and more carols sung by the Knaresborough Choral Society.
Henshaws Variety Show - 11th November from 6:30pm
Thursday 11th November from 6:30pm
About this event
There will be a selection of fantastic acts to watch from comedy and slapstick to dancing and live music followed by a disco with refreshments available from the bar.
Acts will be performed by our Art Makers and some external guests.
Tickets cost £5 per person
and are available to buy in the Arts and Crafts Centre shop or on the door.
Get your tickets early to avoid disappointment
Old Stinker (and other curious Yorkshire tales) Friday 1st October: 5:30 - 6:30pm
About this event
Moon Dust Theatre presents an enchanting, original and family friendly show, Old Stinker (and other curious Yorkshire tales). Through arts council funding we have been given the fantastic opportunity for professional theatre makers to perform and collaborate with people living with a range of disabilities. We delve deep into the fascinating paranormal past of Yorkshire. Think Horrible Histories meets Round the Twist. There will be werewolves, witches and aliens. From the mesolithic mystery of Star Carr to the haunting tale of the Aldwark conjuring stone. We draw on stories such as Mother Shipton the Knaresborough prophetess, Old Stinker the Flixton werewolf and the legend of Gormire lake to name but a few. The show will be performed outdoors at Henshaws Arts and Crafts (with the option to take shelter during inclement weather) in the gorgeous town on Knaresborough.
Please come prepared with blankets!
The venue is fully accessible. Covid measures will be in place through out the venue and social distancing will be encouraged.
The café at Henshaws will be open for refreshments and please do stay after the show for a short Q&A.
There will also be an exhibition of rehearsal photographs at the venue. Please take a look!
This project is kindly supported by Rural Arts, York Theatre Royal, Easi Works, Henshaws Arts and Crafts, Community Stars and Arts Council England.
NORTHARTCRAFT ART MARKET 11th-12th September, 11am - 3pm
The art market is a place for artists to exhibit and sell their work. Our first event takes place over two days at Henshaws arts and crafts centre in Knaresborough.
Northartcraft welcomes applications for their makers market weekend, on the 11th and 12th of September to be held at Henshaws Arts and Crafts Centre Knaresborough.
We welcome demonstrations of work and are happy to provide space for you to run private workshops during the weekend should you wish to do so.
* We welcome artists from all disciplines interested in this new event.
For this first show there will be no charges for makers or any percentages taken for sales.
There will be a £3 charge on the door with all proceeds going to Henshaws and adopt a potter.
Beasts- Folk and Myth Exhibition, 1st August until 31st October
Exhibited at Knaresborough Castle
This project has been inspired by the Hart Club London’s project #FolkBeastsForAll. Hart Club champions neurodiversity in the arts gaining recognition for art that so often goes unseen.
This project has enabled art makers to produce a body of work that crosses all disciplines at the centre. Many designs can be seen as papier mache sculptures, mosaics, pottery pieces and prints. There has been cross collaboration between the workshops as art makers drawn designs have come to fruition in both two and three dimensions. Art makers have been involved in shadow puppet creations and re-enacting and exploring many of the fables and folktales associated with these beasts in performing arts.
Art makers have also worked together on the more large scale pieces, particularly the beautiful mosaics, sharing the task of arranging and gluing and grouting the mosaic and glass tiles onto the dragon and beast designs. These pieces really have been a huge collaborative effort and without the art makers cooperation and willingness to work with each other these designs would not have been finished.
We hope you enjoy the BEASTS exhibition.
