Summer of art gets underway in market town
Oswestry’s ‘Summer of Art’ began with the opening of a textile exhibition at The Willow Gallery in Willow Street.
Oswestry Town Mayor, Cllr Olly Rose, attended the launch of the ‘Stitch by Stitch’ exhibition organised by two local textile artists Alison Holt and Suzette Smart.
"It is the second largest textile art exhibition outside London. It's running for 8 weeks and there are also demonstrations and workshops," she said.
"Art takes so many forms and Oswestry has always been a creative town."
Oswestry’s Summer of Art takes its inspiration from the national theme for the 2023 Heritage Open Days: Creativity Unwrapped.
This has inspired Oswestry’s Cultural Consortium, the group that organises February’s Love Oswestry festival, to "artify" Oswestry for the entire summer with a finale built around Heritage Open Days, taking place from September 8 - 16.
The centrepiece of the ‘Summer of Art’ is ART-efact, led by local artist Holly Maries. ART-efact will see artists use the fascinating collections housed at Oswestry Town Archives and Oswestry Town Museum to inspire their art. ART-efact has recruited four talented local artists to work with Oswestry’s cultural partners and places, telling the stories of the town through their work.
The project will culminate in a two-week exhibition, taking place during Heritage Open Days - England’s largest festival of arts and culture.
As well as ART-efact, Oswestry’s Qube has opened its summer exhibition ‘New Beginnings’.
More events are being developed including open-air art workshops, and some closed buildings could be opened to display the work of local artists.
A drama programme ‘Sense of Place’ will be running from the August 7- 10 at Hope Church with a performance at Hermon Arts on August 11.
It is open for up to20 young people aged 12 -14 to work with Royal Shakespeare Company Associate, Michael Corbidge, and includes creative writing, performance, and improvisation. The workshops are from 10am to 4pm each day and costs just £50 for the week. For more info, visit Stage Five Theatre’s website stagefivetheatre.co.uk/classes,
On August 16, one of the ART-efact artists, Jean Atkin, will deliver a creative writing workshop at Qube, inspired by the riches to be found in Oswestry Archives and Museum.
Those on the workshop can explore the past life of the town through its maps, lists, grocers’ ledgers, reminiscences, and old photographs. Jean will provide a range of prompts and ideas to bring to life the atmospheres, the familiarities, and the strangeness of Oswestry's past.
There will be theatre and music performed throughout the summer at Cae Glas Park culminating in ‘Culture Fest’ on September 9. Oswestry guided tours are held every Saturday at 11am from the Tourist Information Centre and there are history and poetry walks planned for September. More events will be added, with information available on facebook.com/LoveOswestryCC.
