Arts Cafe: An evening with Keith Ashford

For our next Arts Café, we’re really pleased to welcome sculptor and creative practitioner Keith Ashford.

Keith’s work explores structure, balance and space through a series of carefully constructed forms. Working with flat planes and industrial materials, his sculptures feel both solid and surprisingly delicate, shifting as you move around them and catch the light differently from each angle. What might first appear simple begins to reveal a quiet tension, where every element feels deliberate and held in place.

Alongside his own practice, Keith has worked extensively across education and community projects, collaborating with schools and developing creative enquiry through sculpture and digital media. His work also spans mould making, theatre props and set design, as well as gallery development, including time managing exhibitions and programmes at the Market Hall Art Gallery in Shrewsbury.

This Arts Café is a chance to hear more about how these different strands come together, from making and materials to working with others and shaping ideas over time.

As always, the evening is relaxed and open. You don’t need to know anything about sculpture, just come along, have a listen, and be part of the conversation.

About Arts Cafe

Arts Cafe is a monthly evening event bringing artists, makers and the wider public together in a relaxed, welcoming setting. Despite the name, it’s not quite a cafe, but there is usually tea, coffee and something sweet to keep things going.

Some may remember it as a much loved programme that ran in Shrewsbury years ago. We’re excited to be bringing it back at English Bridge Studios as an artist led, community focused series.

Each session offers a chance to hear directly from an artist or maker through informal talks, demonstrations and conversation. The format is flexible, with an emphasis on curiosity, exchange and shared experience rather than formal presentations.

Arts Cafe is open to everyone. No prior knowledge needed, just curiosity.