Knitted "Christmas dinner" among the Brighton & Hove Artist Open Houses highlights

From Hove and Portslade to Fiveways, Seven Dials to Rottingdean, seaside neighbourhoods will come alive with arts and crafts displayed in the homes of a vast range of artists and makers. This year's festival takes place on November 25-26 and December 2-3 and 9-10, free entry. Among the highlights will be Knitmas Dinner, a complete knitted Christmas dinner by Kate Jenkins.

Spokeswoman Nicola Jeffs said: “Celebrating its 41st year, the focus of the winter festival is Christmas, with venues selling a range of artworks and handmade crafts as unique gifts. Many houses also offer a glass of something mulled and a chance to meet the maker - perfect for a winter weekend. Houses are online, so you can choose an area of town to explore, or simply look for your favourites on https://aoh.org.uk/.

“The Artists Open Houses 2023 Winter Festival offers a range of delights such as work by celebrated painters Clara Wilkinson and Faye Bridgwater and makers including Kate Jenkins' extraordinary crocheted food plates. Meanwhile, make sure to see Judy Dwyer’s fabulous sewn creatures and Helen Twigge-Molecey’s beautiful mouth-blown glass Fungi sculptures. Christmas shopping-wise don’t miss 11 Welbeck open house for great textiles, jewellery and ceramics.

“Further highlights include The Studio Gallery for work by print-maker Hannah Forward, as well as Emma Carlow’s brilliant Mexican influenced clay whistles. For a different experience visit The Pink Door open house for a family show, including photography performance art and spoken word performed by AFLO. the poet.

“When buying from AOH for Christmas you are safe in the knowledge that your money is going straight to the maker and that you are supporting artists’ careers in the process. There is a fantastic choice of work to buy this Christmas, including ceramics, textiles, paintings, jewellery, original prints and many other artworks by both emerging and established artists.”

Judy Stevens, AOH director, said: “We are delighted to launch this winter's festival with some well-known houses returning for 2023, as well as a range of new venues to explore. This time of year in Brighton & Hove is always magical as the cold weather arrives the open houses provide a great opportunity to buy gifts for friends and family in the warmth of artists' homes. It's a great way to discover new arts and crafts from Sussex makers and meet members of the local creative community. We hope you will join us to visit open houses in your neighbourhood, as well as those further afield, and support our fantastic range of artists and makers across the city and beyond.”

A new addition for Winter 2023 will be the charity Outside In, at Hove Museum, who will take part in Artists Open Houses for the first time. Outside In www.outsidein.org.uk provides a platform for artists encountering significant barriers to the art world and its national open exhibition, which features 80 artworks on the theme of humanity will be opening at Hove Museum of Creativity (November 25- January 21).