JENNY Alexander, assistant curator of art at York Art Gallery, is to lead a quarterly series of guided whistle-stop tours of York’s galleries.

The inaugural free York Contemporary Art Walk will take in three independent galleries as well as Laura Belem’s installation, The Temple Of A Thousand Bells, at York St Mary, on July 11.

These walking tours will offer the chance to visit the pick of contemporary art exhibitions in galleries across York and to meet the artists or organisers too.

“We’re lucky in York to have some brilliant galleries showing fantastic contemporary art exhibitions,” says Jenny.

“The walks will be designed to give people an introduction to these galleries, to meet their owners and then hopefully come back and explore the exhibitions in their own time.”

The first walk, on July 11, starts at 5.30pm at York St Mary’s, Castlegate, and there is no need to book for this free event.

Jenny will give an introduction to The Temple Of A Thousand Bells installation and will then head to According To McGee, in Tower Street for a sneak preview of the New Visuality exhibition that will be in the process of installation.

The next stop will be the New School House Gallery, Peasholme Green, to see Jane Freud McAdam Freud’s sculptures of her father, Lucian Freud, in her Flesh & Stone show, seen below.

The final stop will be at Bar Lane Studios, Bar Lane, to take a look at Susanne Davies and Jack Cook’s exhibition, In Collaborations.

The guided tour will finish at 7.45pm, and the quarterly series will continue in October when the walk with take in different galleries and exhibitions, as will be the case for each walk.

Laura Belem’s The Temple Of A Thousand Bells, will be on show at York St Mary’s until November 4.

Her installation is composed of a thousand cast glass bells and a polyphonic sound piece, creating a 3D effect to the sound of a narrated story of a temple of 1,000 bells on an island that sank into the sea.

Jane McAdam Freud’s solo exhibition at the New School House Gallery focuses on a new body of sculptural work she created in the past year, based on sketches she made last year of Lucian Freud in the last weeks of his life. The show runs until August 25.

In Collaboration, at Bar Lane Studios until July 11, combines the embroidery-thread installations of Susanne Davies with the photography of Jack Cook. Davies responds to architectural spaces.

“My use of thread originates from personal and collective histories, the repetitive labour, and the materials involved connect to notions of the feminine and domestic,” she says.

Cook uses analogue and digital photography to capture the local characters of his hometown or the abstract compositions created by light dissecting architectural structures.

After New Visuality’s first collaboration with According To McGee, Melanie Alexandrou, Olivia Streatfield-James and Rosemary Milner will be given a three-week run there to parade their emerging talents. Expect wildlife to feature prominently, apparently, from July 14 to August 6.