With Guildford Festival of the Arts on the horizon from the 1st-4th October 2026, it’s a timely reminder that some of the most important art isn’t found in major galleries, but in community spaces across the country.
Art is everything
Art is integral to our society. Before we had written language, we were drawing on cave walls. We have always used images to communicate, to tell stories, and to make sense of the world around us. Even now if you were stopped in the street by someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you, a drawing could communicate when words couldn’t.
And art is everywhere. It is on our phones, on our televisions, in the illustrations of the books we read, and the photographs we scroll past every day. It is in the mass-produced prints hanging on our walls, and the murals we walk past without thinking twice.
We consume art constantly, often without even realising it. The question isn’t whether art belongs in our communities, as it already does. The question is whether we are giving enough people the opportunity to make it, experience it, and be a part of it. That is where grassroots art comes in.
Bringing everything to you
For independent and emerging artists, local exhibitions can provide something that the traditional art world doesn’t always offer: a chance to begin. They can be the first opportunity to put a piece on a wall or to meet an audience.
And for audiences, they can make art feel a little less distant. You don’t necessarily need to know your Cubism from your Surrealism, or have a degree in art history, to walk into a local exhibition and find something that makes you stop.
Grassroots art brings creativity out of the gallery and into the places where people actually live. It creates opportunities for artists to be seen, but also opportunities for communities to see themselves reflected in the creative talent around them.
More than a place to hang a painting
For many artists a local exhibition is a launch pad, before gallery representation, commissions, and collectors, local opportunities are willing to put their work on a wall. Artist and curator Helena Safari believes grassroots exhibitions are vital for exactly this reason:
“I think grassroots art and local exhibitions are incredibly important because they give artists opportunities to be seen, connect with new audiences and develop their careers outside of the traditional art-world institutions.”
Art right around the corner
But the benefits don’t stop with the artist. Local exhibitions bring creativity directly into the communities around them, giving people the opportunity to discover artists they may never encounter, meet one another, and experience something inspiring close to home. For Safari that sense of connection is just as important. She believes local exhibitions can give communities a “real sense of identity and pride” whilst making art feel more accessible and inclusive.
There is something particularly lovely about discovering the person whose painting you’ve just been admiring lives just five streets away. The art suddenly becomes less distant. It isn’t hanging somewhere hundreds of miles away behind a gallery entrance that might feel intimidating. It is here, made by someone who is a part of the same community as you.
Removing the barriers
For all the talk of making art accessible there is a fairly obvious problem: exhibiting art is expensive. There is the cost of materials, framing, transport, and studio space – before an artist has even thought about exhibiting. Then there are submission fees, which can make the prospect of showing your work feel like a financial gamble; pay to submit, cross your fingers, and hope you make the cut.
For artists who are already balancing their creative work with another job those costs can be enough to make exhibiting feel out of reach. It is something Guildford Festival of the Arts is actively trying to address. In 2025, artists could submit as many pieces as they wanted for free. This year the festival has introduced one submission per artist for free, with the majority of the festival itself also free to attend.
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For Charlie Cuff, co-founder and director of Guildford Festival of the Arts, the reasoning is simple: there are already plenty of open calls. Charlie doesn’t believe that artists should have to pay simply for the chance to be considered – particularly when there is no guarantee that their work will be accepted. The festival isn’t designed around making money from artists or audiences, where workshops do carry a fee. The profit goes directly into supporting local artists.
Accessible to all
It is a small but significant distinction; accessibility isn’t simply about making an exhibition free to walk into. It is also about considering who is able to get their work through the door in the first place, and that matters because the people exhibiting at grassroots events aren’t necessarily full-time artists with studios, agents, and a catalogue of previous exhibitions behind them. Many are creating alongside other jobs and responsibilities; they are fitting their creativity into whatever space they can find.
For those artists, it can be the first time they see their work taken seriously outside their own home. It can be the beginning of a network, a new audience, or the confidence to keep going. If art is something we believe belongs to everyone, then access has to work both ways: audiences need opportunities to experience it, but artists need opportunities to be seen.
Taking art into the community: Guildford Festival of the Arts
Guildford Festival of the Arts is a particularly good example of what grassroots art can look like when accessibility is built into the festival itself. Now in its second year, the festival has seen a 260% increase in submissions compared with 2025 – with this year’s programme spread across 14 venues throughout Guildford. It is a pretty impressive jump for an event that is still in its infancy, and suggests that there is no shortage of artists wanting the opportunity to be part of something local.
But the festival isn’t just about getting artists into exhibition spaces. A big part of its appeal is getting audiences into places they might not otherwise go. The festival’s art trail encourages visitors to explore Guildford, moving between venues and discovering artwork along the way. Rather than expecting people to make a conscious decision to spend an afternoon in a gallery, the art becomes part of a wider day out.
You can wander into somewhere you’ve never been, discover an artist you’ve never heard of, and hopefully find yourself having a conversation about something you didn’t expect to see.
There are even a few incentives to keep people moving along the trail, with festival-goers able to claim a free pint or glass of prosecco at participating pubs, thanks to sponsors Shepherd Neame.
The local touch
It might sound like a small thing, but it is exactly the sort of approach that makes grassroots arts events feel different. Art isn’t being presented as something that requires a particular level of knowledge, a certain type of clothing, or a willingness to stand very quietly in a large white room while pretending you understand the installation in front of you; it is there in the community.
And that community aspect is something Charlie Cuff is particularly passionate about. The festival aims to encourage people who might not consider themselves creative to interact with art, whilst giving local artists a platform to reach people who might otherwise never encounter their work.
The result is something bigger than an exhibition. Grassroots art doesn’t need to compete with the grand galleries of London to have value. Its strength is that it can do something those institutions simply cannot: put local creativity directly in front of the people who live alongside it.
Perhaps that is why the response to Guildford Festival of the Arts has been so significant. The increase in submissions suggests that artists want these opportunities. Fourteen venues suggest that the town has the appetite to host them. All that’s left is for people to go and see what is already happening on their doorstep.
The value of being seen
With all the talk of galleries, exhibitions, open calls, and art trails, perhaps grassroots art ultimately comes down to something rather simple: being seen. Being seen as an artist. Being seen as part of a community. And being given the chance to discover creativity that might otherwise have passed you by.
Art doesn’t have to be expensive, exclusive, or intimidating. It just needs a wall, an audience, and someone willing to give an artist a chance.
