Head to Folkestone any time of the year and you’ll see art – even when you may not realise that’s what you’re looking at.

Forget paying to see world famous works: these ones are free and available all year round. Some you will stumble across without even meaning to, some you will have to look a bit harder to find. The Folkestone Artworks have been surprising and delighting visitors and locals and will soon be joined by another.

Kent artist Tracey Emin’s Baby Things can be found hanging from railings, or just lying on the kerb, but if you touch them, you’ll feel they are bronze casts and not woollen mittens or cardigans. The pieces are reminders of Folkestone’s high teenage pregnancy rate, similar to that of Margate, her home town.

At the harbour see if you can see Carrancas by Tonico Lemos Auad, a fist which disappears when the tide is in, and has been a fixture for long enough that algae has begun to grow on it. It was inspired by Brazilian boat figureheads, which were used as symbolic talismans to protect sailors.

A now weathered sculptural pavilion a short walk’s distance with the unlikely name of Steve is by Sarah Stanton, while a stone’s throw away is Folkestone’s answer to Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid – the Folkestone Mermaid, by Cornelia Parker. The lifesize cast of Folkestone resident Georgina Baker, is a monument of the people, for the people.

A few years ago Yoko Ono visited to see her inclusions unveiled. Her Skyladder projects a beam of light saying Earth Peace in Morse code, and the same statement is carved in stone, which looks out over the area.

Another thought-provoking creation is Mark Wallinger’s Folk Stones. At the top the zig-zag path near the Leas, it’s made up of 19,240 individually numbered stones signifying the number of British soldiers killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Michael Sailstorfer’s Folkestone Digs may have caught the world’s attention as thousands of people descended on the beach to find 30 pieces of gold buried there, but the excitement lingers on and you could still be a winner, as not all of them were found!

A NEW ADDITION

A piece by world famous graffiti artist Banksy is set to join the Folkestone Artworks.
Art Buff returned to Folkestone in October, after a court battle to bring it back.

The artwork emerged during the last Triennial event, with Banksy listing it on his website saying: “Part of the Triennial. Sort of.”

The Creative Foundation, which runs the Quarterhouse, plans to display it again as part of the artworks, but it has not yet been confirmed when or where.

THE WORKS

Folkestone’s permanent public art collection of 27 works was originally commissioned by the Creative Foundation for the Folkestone Triennial, but is now a permanent display.

The collection is free to see all year round. Works by Tracey Emin, Mark Wallinger, Richard Wilson, Cornelia Parker, Richard Wentworth, Nathan Coley, Hamish Fulton, Adam Chodzko, Cristina Iglesias and Paloma Varga Weisz among others are all on show whatever the weather.

Every three years, the Creative Foundation stages one of the biggest visual art exhibitions of national and international importance, the Folkestone Triennial. The next one is next year. For details of the next triennial and the artworks, visit folkestoneartworks.co.uk or creativequarterfolkestone.org.uk.