The Art House (TAH), Wakefield, is excited to announce its Summer 2026 programme, a bold season shaped by solidarity, shared stories and collective experience. Across exhibitions, public artworks, photography, performance and community-led projects, the programme brings together artists whose work explores identity, migration, memory, queerness, and belonging.
Running throughout the summer, the programme creates spaces for listening, gathering and connection, from participatory analogue photography projects developed with children living near the Türkiye–Syria–Iraq border regions, to installations exploring music, migration and home through shared songs and personal memory.
Exhibitions and Projects
In June, TAH joins venues across Wakefield for a city-wide presentation of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt (3–7 June 2026), marking the first time the quilt has been shown outside London. Alongside the main exhibition at WX Wakefield, a selection of panels will be displayed in the Tiled Gallery, honouring lives lost to HIV and AIDS, and recognising the quilt’s enduring power as a collective act of remembrance, activism and care.
At the heart of the summer programme is Refugee Week Celebration Day on 20 June, a free day of music, workshops, exhibitions, printmaking and shared hospitality that reflects TAH’s ongoing commitment to create a welcoming space for voices and experiences that are too often unheard. The day launches multiple new projects across the building and public realm, including, Kadir Karababa: One Song (20 June-31 August 2026) – an audio-visual installation exploring how songs carry memory, identity and a sense of home across borders. Developed with women in Wakefield who have personal experience of migration or seeking sanctuary, the work brings together songs and stories connected to the places participants first called home.
Alongside this, TAH begins a new international collaboration with Fotohane Darkroom (20 June–1 August 2026), an analogue photography project working with children and young people living at the Türkiye–Syria–Iraq border regions. Presented through hand-printed photographs produced in TAH’s Darkroom from original negatives, the project offers intimate, self-authored glimpses into everyday life.
Extending into the public realm, Andy Welland: Imagined Territories (from 20 June 2026 onwards) transforms the roof of TAH with a new public artwork reimagining the flag as a symbol of connection rather than division. The work reflects on the increasing visibility and contested meanings of flags across Britain and proposes a more open vision of shared identity and solidarity.
The programme continues with Jakob Rowlinson: REVIVER (18 July–19 September 2026), the artist’s first UK institutional project, developed through a collaborative residency between TAH and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Spanning both venues, the exhibition weaves together material histories, local ecology and queered archival practices, drawing on religious, folkloric and contemporary queer references to merge the sacred and profane.
In September, TAH welcomes Sunshine Child (12 September–24 October 2026), creating an immersive exhibition filled with playful ceramics, expressive characters and vibrant colour, Sunshine Child will transform the Tiled Gallery into a joyful world of imagination, celebrating the playful child that exists within all of us.
Later in the year, Hospital Rooms at The Art House (30 September–31 October 2026) presents a major exhibition exploring how contemporary art can reshape experiences of care within mental health settings. The exhibition celebrates 15 incredible artist commissions into forensic wards and Psychiatric Intensive Care Units at Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield and Kendray Hospital in Barnsley.
Alongside the exhibitions, the programme features a vibrant series of free public events and participatory activity. PRINTED (11 July 2026) returns as a lively market celebrating contemporary paper-based practices including printmaking, photography, bookbinding, zines and illustration.
Also, before the end of Summer, do not miss the chance to visit Harriet Bowman: Slow Puncture (until 9 July 2026), an ambitious installation by the Winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2024–25. Using glass, rubber, metal and ceramics, Bowman reshapes industrial materials into precarious, fractured forms that speak of labour and bodily vulnerability, balancing humour with unease.
Damon Jackson-Waldock, Co-Executive Director at The Art House, says:
“This summer’s programme is rooted in solidarity and the power that creative spaces should have to bring people together. Across this season, our projects explore what it means to belong, to remember, to gather and to care for one another. From international collaborations and community-led projects to public artworks and immersive installations, this programme reflects our commitment to supporting artists whose work creates space for stories, voices and experiences that are too often unheard. There has never been a more important time to celebrate this!”
Further exhibition details:
Harriet Bowman: Slow Puncture
Until 9 July 2026, Main Gallery
Winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2024-25, Harriet Bowman, presents Slow Puncture, an ambitious installation exploring the entanglement of body, vehicle and material. In this new work, Bowman explores language, industry and secondary use of materials through a range of media, including glass, metal and rubber. Bowman reshapes everyday industrial matter into fragile, fractured forms that speak of labour, repair and vulnerability. Glass headrests slump, tyres collapse, and welded supports cradle precarious fragments, objects balanced between humour and unease.
More information
AIDS Memorial Quilt
4 June-7 June 2026, Tiled Gallery
As part of the city-wide exhibition of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt in Wakefield, TAH displays a selection of quilt panels in the Tiled Gallery, alongside the main exhibition at WX Wakefield. We’ll also be contributing to the wider programme of exhibitions and displays taking place across the city, with a free Print, Stitch and Solidarity workshop taking place on Sunday 7 June from 10:30-15:00.
More Information
Fotohane x The Art House
20 June-1 August 2026
TAH begins a new international collaboration with Fotohane Darkroom, a participatory arts project using analogue photography to work with children and young people living near the Türkiye–Syria–Iraq border regions. Founded by photographers Serbest Salih and Amar Kılıç, Fotohane creates spaces where children can learn photography, develop their own images, and share their experiences through visual storytelling.
More Information
Kadir Karababa: One Song
20 June-31 August 2026, Tiled Gallery
One Song is an audio-visual installation and community project that explores how music carries memory, identity and a sense of home across borders. First begun in 2024, Kadir Karababa’s project is an evolving archive of songs and stories developed with women who have personal experience of migration or seeking sanctuary.
Andy Welland: IMAGINED TERRITORIES
From 20 June 2026, Open air
IMAGINED TERRITORIES is a new sculpture and public intervention by artist and designer Andy Welland, whose practice uses bright and playful collage works to celebrate togetherness, connection and the joy of being human. The work reimagines the flag as a symbol of connection rather than division – a flag for everyone, and for no one.
First realised in 2025 as a citywide public poster campaign across more than 20 civic locations in Sheffield and Barnsley, the project now evolves at TAH as a flag artwork, proudly flying from the roof of the building. The work responds to a moment in which flags have become increasingly visible and contested across Britain, raised on buildings and roundabouts, often carrying complex and conflicting meanings of pride, fear, belonging and exclusion.
More information
Jakob Rowlinson: REVIVER
18 July-12 September 2026, Main Gallery
REVIVER is Jakob Rowlinson’s first UK institutional project, presented as a solo exhibition at The Art House in Wakefield, and an installation, ROTATOR, in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park Centre, having developed from a 2024 collaborative residency between both organisations. Spanning across the two venues, this new body of work weaves together complex material histories, explores the ecology of the local landscape, and continues the artist’s interest in queering the archive. Rowlinson merges the sacred and profane, drawing on religious and folkloric imagery such as angels, demons and green men, and combining them with contemporary queer fashion and fetish references. Both projects open on Saturday 18 July.
More information
Hospital Rooms at The Art House
30 September-31 October, Main Gallery
TAH is delighted to welcome Hospital Rooms to Yorkshire, with a celebratory exhibition that invites us to consider how contemporary art can reshape experiences of care within some of the most complex mental health settings in the UK.
Hospital Rooms is an arts and mental health charity that commissions permanent artworks in mental health wards, working with leading contemporary artists and NHS trusts to transform clinical environments. This exhibition celebrates their recent Yorkshire project that brought 15 artist commissions into forensic wards and Psychiatric Intensive Care Units at Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield, and Kendray Hospital in Barnsley.
Sunshine Child
12 September-24 October 2026, Tiled Gallery
Step Into the wonderful world of Sunshine Child! Bursting with playful ceramics, expressive characters and vibrant colour, this new exhibition invites visitors into a universe of imagination. Through hand-made objects and joyful forms, Sunshine Child celebrates connection and the playful child that exists within all of us.
Based in Wakefield, Sunchild Child’s practice combines craft, illustration and storytelling, creating distinctive genderless characters that reflect shared human experiences in abstract, colourful and unapologetically playful ways. From moments of happiness and silliness to feelings of care and togetherness, Sunshine Child transforms the Tiled gallery into an immersive and uplifting space filled with humour and wonder
Refugee Week Celebration Day 2026
Saturday 20 June, 10:00-16:00, free
Everyone is welcome!! Join us for our annual Refugee Week Celebration Day – a free day of creativity, connection and community. Through music, exhibitions, workshops and shared experiences, the day celebrates the stories, cultures and contributions of people seeking sanctuary and those who have made Wakefield their home.
Throughout the day, visitors can take part in free creative activities, live music and drumming performance, collaborative screen printing, food stories and recipe sharing, and free Persian tea served in the spirit of welcome, hospitality and community.
These free drop-in activities are for all ages, and take place alongside the launch of three new exhibitions exploring themes of identity, memory, belonging and solidarity.
More information
PRINTED
11 July 2026, 10:00-16:00, free
PRINTED is a celebration of all things made on paper – an exciting free market dedicated to showcasing the diverse, creative world of paper-based practices! The PRINTED Market is a vibrant gathering of contemporary artists and designers working in a wide range of paper-based disciplines. We’ll be showcasing everything from printmaking and photography, to bookbinding, zines, risograph printing, illustration, and more.
More information
