Who are we?

Menston Arts Club was founded in the early 1960's (see Our History page). We welcome both novice and experienced artists, meeting each Monday from 7.30 to 9.30 p.m. at Kirkland Community Centre (119 Main Street, Menston, LS29 6HT) to share our interest in art. Run by the members and for the members, we try to include a wide range of media, styles and interests.

The syllabus (see our programme page for the current calendar) includes demonstrations by leading artists, workshops (with and without guidance), illustrated talks, life classes, social evenings and 'critique evenings' where artists can bring their own work for appraisal and positive feedback.

We meet weekly from September to June except for a few weeks over Christmas and Bank Holidays. The club holds two annual exhibitions of member's work every year, May and November, at Kirkland's. Members can exhibit three framed pictures and a portfolio containing up to fifteen mounted but unframed artworks. Alongside the exhibition of pictures there is a Craft stall which includes items hand-made by our members. The exhibitions also include a raffle and 'people's choice competition' voted for by visitors. We also produce our own Calendar featuring member's work.

Extracurricular events vary each year and have included “plein air” excursions, exhibitions, visits to galleries, sketching and painting outings and visits to places of interest to artists. In June 2019 we visited Rosemary's Brushes where Rosemary gave us a demonstration of how the best art brushes are made. It was a wonderful day!

Our members regularly exhibit their work locally and have recently been shown at Ripon Cathedral, Ilkley Art Show, Leeds Grammar School, St. Gemma's exhibition and on the Big Screen at Bradford. Our new website also features member's artwork.

Menston Arts Club membership costs £70.00 per year with no joining fee. We are restricted to 80 members by the room we use for our meetings, currently we have a few spaces, if you are interested in joining us please use the contact form.