Walk - Create - Breathe

Each year, tens of thousands of backpackers set out from their own front doors or from well-trodden routes across Europe, all bound for Santiago de Compostela. Most travel on foot. Others cycle. A determined few journey as medieval pilgrims once did, on horseback or accompanied by a donkey.

For some, it is a religious pilgrimage. For many more, walking the Camino de Santiago "The Way" is a secular quest: part travel, part endurance, part personal challenge. Weeks spent crossing a foreign landscape on foot offer something rare in modern life — space. Space to think. Space to feel. Space to step away from noise and rediscover what truly matters.

Vicky Lusted-May walked the Camino Frances with her husband, Norman, covering more than 800 kilometers'. Along the way, she encountered fellow pilgrims, shared stories, and experienced a quiet but profound renewal — a journey not only across the Pyrenees, and Spain, but inward toward self-discovery and personal fulfilment.

Before setting out, Vicky had researched the Camino carefully. Yet her goals felt distant and uncertain. Beneath the practical planning lay something far more tender: a desire to step beyond her comfort zone and gently heal the numbness and grief following the recent loss of her parents and two close friends. The walk became both pilgrimage and passage, a way through sorrow.

Her creative path had begun long before the Camino. Raised in East Sussex, Vicky started as an architectural apprentice before studying Art and Design at Eastbourne College of Arts and Technology. She later earned a BA (Hons) in Textiles at Manchester Metropolitan University followed by a Certificate in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. She went on to teach A-Level Textiles Technology and deliver creative courses for adult learners with disabilities and learning differences.

Yet family life and a demanding teaching career left little time for her own artistic expression. Years of balancing responsibilities led to burnout. Seeking a gentler rhythm, she embraced a more holistic life, teaching yoga, living seasonally, and immersing herself in nature.

Still, a quiet frustration lingered. A creative block took hold. Excuses gathered: when I have more time... when I feel more original...Imposter syndrome whispered persistently. Even when she did create, a harsh inner dialogue followed.

She had heard that the Camino provides — and it does. It offers hours of walking each day. Hours of silence. The steady rhythm of movement that shifts you physically, emotionally, and mentally. Life becomes beautifully simple: walk, eat, rest, repeat.

For Vicky, the Camino became a teacher. It asked her to trust — to trust the process, trust her resilience, trust her creative voice. And ultimately, to surrender.

This exhibition stands at the intersection of the Camino and the inner journey it inspired. It is about walking. About facing fear. About loosening the grip of creative paralysis and opening the heart in trust. It is about allowing creativity to flow again — naturally, courageously, and without apology.

Opening times - Wednesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm