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The
2002 Welborne Arts Weekend was a great success and has given us the confidence
to make it an annual event. We attracted about 400 people from across
the county, significantly more that our total of 130 for the one day event
in 2001.
The 'Awards for All' lottery money enabled us to double our exhibition
space by using a marquee, as well as paying our transport, publicity,
printing and security costs. The weekend included:
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Textured paper art
work made by children from local schools in workshops before the weekend
- run by Liz McGowan, one of the artists in the CAE (Creative Arts East)
touring exhibition.
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'Paper Works', the
touring exhibition from CAE.
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Work by professional
local artists from villages around Welborne:
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Work by villagers
from Welborne and Mattishall.
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A flower festival
in the church
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A concert in the
church.
We were fortunate there was a full-page feature on the Creative Arts East
exhibition in the Eastern Daily Press a couple of days before the weekend.
Many visitors said they had seen this. In addition, there were several
other mentions in the EDP and at least one other local newspaper and we
were mentioned on local BBC radio.
The weekend has indirectly helped in the formation of a new local artist's
organisation, Breckland Artists. The excellent relationships with CAE
and Breckland Artists will be key to the further development of Welborne
Arts Weekend.
Because our costs were covered by the lottery money, donations and commission
on art sales go towards maintaining the village hall and church. This
is an appropriate financial reward for the village staging the event.
This was the biggest event ever put on in the village of Welborne. Inevitably
some parts of it went better than others and we have learnt lessons for
the future - both what to do and what to avoid doing.