Forest of Dean Art Trail 2026: Inside farOpen's Open Studios

Why this corner of the Gloucestershire-Monmouthshire-Herefordshire border has become one of the best places in the UK to meet working artists, and how the farOpen art trail gets you through their studio doors

FarOpen 2026 runs 4 to 12 July: 127 artists, 55 venues, free entry, every venue open at least 10am to 3pm daily, across the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley.

Every year more than a hundred artists across the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley open their studios. No ticket needed. Just the creator or maker, their work, and usually a kettle on.

It's called FarOpen, and in 2026 it runs from 4 to 12 July. This year the trail is packed into a shorter window than usual, so a bit of planning goes a long way. Across those nine days you can visit 127 artists at 55 venues, all free to enter, with every venue open at least 10am to 3pm each day.

That's the event. The bigger story is why so many artists ended up here.

Why artists settle in the Dean and Wye

Sit on the bank of the Wye at Symonds Yat and you start to understand it. The river cuts through steep wooded gorges. The light changes by the hour. The Forest of Dean covers the high ground to the east, an ancient woodland with its own weather and its own quiet. Cross the river and you're into Monmouthshire and Wales. Few parts of England give you this much landscape in such a small space.

Artists have followed that landscape for generations and Ross-on-Wye is the birthplace of British tourism. Painters come for the light on the water. Potters and stone carvers enjoy the materials and the room to make a mess. Photographers are drawn by the mist that sits in the valley first thing. The list is endless and artists are more accessible, in a way that they’re not in Bristol or the Cotswolds.

What you'll find on the 2026 trail

FarOpen is broad. Walk one day of it and you might see oil and watercolour painting, ceramics, jewellery, stone carving, kinetic art and willow weaving, with plenty more besides. Some artists have spent decades at it. Others are a year or two in. The range is the point and part of the beauty of this arts trail.

The venues are just as varied. Some are professional studios you'd never normally get inside. Others are private gardens opened up for the week, or pop-up shows in village churches and cafés. Part of the fun is the route itself.

The result is a community of galleries, converted barns, chapels, front rooms and locations full of art culture and creativity. You drive or cycle a country lane, follow a hand-painted sign down a track, and find three artists working out of a barn you'd never have known was there.

This is the bit a normal gallery can't give you. You see the work in progress, the tools, test glazes, and sketches pinned to the wall. Most artists are happy to talk through how a piece was inspired and many run live demonstrations or workshops if you fancy trying something yourself. If you've ever wanted to throw a pot or have a go at willow, this is the week to do it.

You can also buy directly from the person who made the work, often for less than you'd pay in a gallery, and take home something with a story behind it.

A shorter trail this year, so plan ahead

In previous years FarOpen was spread across a longer run. For 2026 it's tighter, 4 to 12 July, which makes planning essential.

With 55 venues spread across the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley, you won't see everything in a day. The trick is to pick a cluster of venues in one area and leave time to stop for lunch or a walk between them.

The FarOpen website features an interactive map and brochure showing every artist and venue, so you can plan a route before you set off. Work out which two or three clusters you want to cover, mark your must-sees, and build the day around them.

Make a weekend of it

The trail is a good reason to come. The area is a good reason to stay.

You're in one of the most scenic parts of the UK, with walking and cycling routes running right past many of the venues. You could spend the morning in a handful of studios, walk a stretch of a river in the afternoon, and still be home for dinner. You can take a look at some of the best loved locations in the region here.

The food scene boasts  Michelin stars, AA Rosettes across several kitchens, and a Royal Warrant-holding smokery, much of it built on producers working a few miles down the road. So a day on the art trail slots neatly alongside a proper lunch and somewhere good to stay the night.

To turn the trail into a weekend, our directory of places to stay and places to eat is the easiest way to pull it together. Pick your studios, find a bed nearby, and reserve a table to avoid disappointment.

Craft you can enjoy all year round

FarOpen is the week, but artists welcome people through the door year-round, from potters running classes and woodworkers to mosaic workshops you can book and enjoy.

Spend a morning at the wheel with Eastnor Pottery or Hot Pot Pottery, where a first session walks you through a few techniques and you leave your pieces behind to be glazed and fired.

At Hart's Barn Cookery School, the same hands-on idea runs through everything from bread making to fire cooking out in the courtyard.

The Wobage Makers Gallery has trained countless people the old craft of willow weaving: foraging baskets, Catalan platters and garden obelisks. What makes this even more special is the willow’s grown at the bottom of the ancient Perry orchard by Clyde himself who runs the workshops.

Let’s not forget about Rachel Shilston - Inspiring Creativity where craft and creativity combine perfectly. Offering a range of different experiences, enjoy creating your own mosaic. Catering to a range of group sizes and occasions.

Across the rest of the area you'll find printmaking, jewellery and stone carving days, often run one-to-one or in small groups by the maker themselves.

You come for an afternoon and leave having actually made something, which tends to stay with people longer than a fridge magnet. Our Crafts and Creativity experiences pages list what's running through the year.

Our things to do section is a great place to find inspiration.

Galleries and outdoor sculpture

FarOpen and the year-round studios are about meeting the makers. For art you can simply turn up and look at, the area has galleries and outdoor sculpture well worth a visit too.

The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail has been turning the woodland itself into a gallery since 1986. It runs 4.8 miles through mixed woodland from Beechenhurst, with work by leading artists tucked among the trees: giant stained glass, grand wooden structures, flame-like shapes hanging in the canopy. Some pieces are left to weather and be reclaimed by the forest, so no two visits are quite the same. Allow two to three hours for the full loop, or take one of the shorter cuts. There's a café, parking and a play area at Beechenhurst, and the free map and audio guide are worth downloading before you go.

Over near Tintern, the Wye Valley Sculpture Garden hosts one of Wales' largest outdoor summer sculpture exhibitions. Artist Gemma Kate Wood has spent twenty years shaping three acres of lawns, herbaceous borders, an orchard and a pond into a setting for contemporary work in glass, stone, bronze, ceramic and wood. The 2026 exhibition runs from 24 May to 14 September, with more than 50 artists and around 143 sculptures. It opens Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons through the summer, with homemade refreshments and live acoustic guitar on most Sundays. You'll find it directly opposite the Old Station at Tintern, a few minutes from Tintern Abbey.

A short drive east, just north of Gloucester, Nature in Art is the world's only museum devoted to art inspired by nature. It fills a Georgian mansion with work spanning 1,500 years, 60 countries and more than 600 artists, alongside a sculpture garden and a changing exhibition programme. Its artist in residence scheme means you can often watch an artist at work and talk to them while you're there.

Plan your visit

• Dates: 4 to 12 July 2026, nine days only
• Hours: every venue open at least 10am to 3pm each day, some longer
• Cost: free entry to all venues
• The numbers: 127 artists, 55 venues, every discipline from painting to stone carving
• Map and brochure: plan your route at farOpen.co.uk
• Book ahead: The studios are free to walk straight into, but restaurants and accommodation get busy over the trail duration, so call ahead and book your table or room before you travel

Visitors fall in love with FarOpen because it lets you behind the scenes for free. You meet the people who make beautiful things for a living, watch them work, and head home with a piece bought straight from its maker.

The artists love it for the flip side. An open door brings them new faces and direct sales without a gallery's cut, plus the chance to talk about their work with visitors. That two-way pull is why it comes back year after year.

Start at farOpen.co.uk to see this year's artists and map your route. Then let Visit Dean Wye help with the rest of it, somewhere to stay, somewhere to eat, and a walk or two between studios.