What’s On at Crystal Palace Artist Open House 2025
What’s On at Crystal Palace Artist Open House 2025
Creativity Lives Here
This September and October, Crystal Palace Artist Open House invites you to explore the work of over 70 local artists across homes, studios and community venues.
Join us for a month of creativity, connection and celebration.
Where: The Paxton Centre, Anerley Hill (Google Maps link)
When: Monday 1 Sept - Sunday 5 October 2025
Preview Exhibition
A taster of what’s to come. View one piece from every participating artist in this group show at the Paxton Centre.
Printed brochures with artist listings and maps will be available to pick up.
Where: The Paxton Centre, Anerley Hill (Google Maps link)
When: Friday 25th September 2025 - 18:00-21:00.
Launch Event (invite-only)
A special evening to launch this year’s Open House. Artists, sponsors, volunteers and local press are invited to celebrate the start of the event with drinks, networking and a first look at the work.
Crystal Palace Artist Open House
Where: Across Crystal Palace
When: Saturday 27 – Sunday 28 September 2025
and Saturday 4 – Sunday 5th October
Time: Open 10am–5pm daily
Homes, studios, gardens and local venues open their doors for a weekend of art, design and community. Expect painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and more from Crystal Palace’s creative talent.
For printed map version of the venues and exhibiting artists, visit The Paxton Centre on Anerley Hill.
For full listing of our venues and artists, please visit our 2025 page.
Creative Workshops
Get hands-on at one of our creative workshops running alongside the main event. Visitors are welcome to observe sessions in progress, but most workshops must be booked and paid for in advance.
Pottery Taster Workshop
Where: The Paxton Centre, Anerley Hill
When: Thursday 2nd October 2025
Time: 17.00 - 21.30
Price: £45 per person
Have you ever wondered and wanted to try your hand at building with clay?
Yes? then this Pottery Taster Workshop is for you.
Taking place during The Crystal Palace Artist Open House Festival to celebrate local creativity you too can be creative, no previous experience needed. We will be making trinket boxes or butter dishes using various decorating resources to design your own individual ceramic piece. You'll receive guidance and support in the vibrant and inspiring art gallery setting, The Paxton Centre. Your unique piece then will be glazed by me, workshop tutor Beth with a colour of your choice ready to collect two weeks after the workshop.
Portrait Drawing Crash Course with Jonny Kemp (Day 1)
Where: Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Saturday 27th September 2025
Time: 10am - 12 noon
Price: £25 per person (personal assistants attend free)
In this creative crash course, you will explore different ways of starting a drawing and the essentials of drawing features of the face, taking your cue from a clothed artists' model.
The session, run in partnership with Crystal Palace Artists' Open House, is designed to be friendly, welcoming, and informal, with tuition by award-winning artist Jonny Kemp, who appeared on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023.
En route to completing a long portrait at the end of the session, you will learn how to:
Use guidelines to get the correct angles and measurements
Sculpt features by looking at the planes of the face
Drawing materials are provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Tea and coffee included. Email hello@packedlunch.org for details.
Portrait Drawing Crash Course with Jonny Kemp (Day 2)
Where: Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Sunday 28th September 2025
Time: 10am - 12 noon
Price: £25 per person (personal assistants attend free)
In this creative crash course, you will explore different ways of starting a drawing and the essentials of drawing features of the face, taking your cue from a clothed artists' model.
The session, run in partnership with Crystal Palace Artists' Open House, is designed to be friendly, welcoming, and informal, with tuition by award-winning artist Jonny Kemp, who appeared on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023.
En route to completing a long portrait at the end of the session, you will learn how to:
Use guidelines to get the correct angles and measurements
Sculpt features by looking at the planes of the face
Drawing materials are provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Tea and coffee included. Email hello@packedlunch.org for details.
Taster Collagraph Printmaking Workshop
Where: Jackdaw, Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Sunday 28th September 2025
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Price: £45 per person (all materials included)
Explore the tactile and expressive art of collagraph printmaking in this relaxed 2-hour workshop for adults. You'll create two textured plates - one to experiment and one final print to take home, using water-based inks and a printing press.
No experience needed. We’ll start with a demo, then dive into playful mark-making and hands-on printing. All tools and materials provided.
Wear old clothes or bring an apron
Small group – max 8 people
All welcome, from beginners to practising artists
Come away with your own original hand-printed artwork and a deeper appreciation for this exciting process.
Cut, Colour, Collage: Create Your Own Concertina Art Book Workshop
Join us for a fun, hands-on workshop where we’ll explore the playful side of collage and mark-making to create your very own mini concertina book of abstract artwork.
We’ll start by making our own collage papers using a variety of materials—crayons, oil pastels, acrylic paints—and experimenting with mark-making and textures. This part of the session is all about freedom and fun. There’s no right or wrong—just colour, creativity and expression.
Once we’ve built a collection of unique painted, patterned, and textured sheets, we’ll begin to cut, tear, and reassemble them into new abstract compositions. You’ll be guided through the process of assembling your collaged pages into a small concertina book (with around 4–8 pages), creating a beautiful sequence of images that speak to each other like a visual family. One page might echo another across the book, forming connections, rhythms and surprises.
You’ll leave with a handmade book filled with your own abstract creations—something you can treasure, display, or use as a springboard for future work.
What’s included:
All materials and tools
Step-by-step guidance throughout
A relaxed, welcoming atmosphere
Your finished concertina book to take home
Who it’s for:
This workshop is designed for adults of all creative abilities—whether you're an experienced artist or simply curious to try something new. No prior experience is needed, just a willingness to explore and enjoy the process.
Group size: Minimum of 8 participants to keep it personal and supportive.
Come and spend a few hours being creative and connected. We can’t wait to see what you’ll make.
Where: Jackdaw, Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Saturday 4th October 2025
Time: 2pm - 6pm
Price: £45 per person (all materials included)
Oil-paint-on-glass Animation Masterclass
Where: Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Sunday 5th October 2025
Time: 10am - 3pm
Price: £75 per person
With BAFTA-nominated, award-winning artist-educator-animator Oscar Wyndham Lewis.
En route to completing your own animated loops, you will:
Be introduced to seminal works exemplifying the oil-paint-on-glass animation technique
Learn general principles of animation practice and those specific to oil-paint-on-glass
Gain greater proficiency in animating and learn best practice with animation apps, with a step-by-step approach to instruction drawing on intuition and creativity
Learn mark making specific to oil painting on glass panels, including ‘moving’ the paint to engender movement
Bring to bear and share individual techniques/methods in oil painting or animating, embedding skills and proficiencies that lend themselves to moving-image making using oil paints on glass
This experience is part of Recorder - our latest moving-image production - and brought to you in partnership with Crystal Palace Artists' Open House 2025.
As a bonus, all participants will have the option of their work being included in the film, gaining both a film credit and experience with the production process.
Portrait Drawing Crash Course with Jonny Kemp (Both days)
Where: Cooper’s Yard Studios, Crystal Palace
When: Sunday 28th September 2025
Time: 10am - 12 noon
Price: £42 per person (personal assistants attend free)
In this creative crash course spread, you will explore different ways of starting a drawing, the essentials of drawing features of the face and the importance of light and shadow, taking your cue from a clothed artists' model.
The session, run in partnership with Crystal Palace Artists’ Open House, is designed to be friendly, welcoming, and informal, with tuition by award-winning artist Jonny Kemp, who appeared on Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2023.
Drawing materials are provided, but feel free to bring your own.
Personal assistants attend free. Email hello@packedlunch.org for details.
Tea and coffee included.
£42.00
