Art exhibition a success

Village school and church in East End to benefit from proceeds of exhibition

A two-day art exhibition in East Woodhay last weekend has raised around £12,000 for a village school and church.

A record number of paintings by more than 50 well-known local artists were sold at the 19th annual Artex 11 exhibition at East Woodhay Village Hall, Heath End.

“We had people arguing over pictures and queues to buy,” said Fiona Coyne, who has been organising the event, with a team of around eight helpers, since last October.

“I imagine it's a record in terms of the number of paintings sold. There were lots of red (sold) dots and some artists sold out their boards,” she added.

Around 1,000 visitors passed through the doors over the two days and Mrs Coyne put the success down to a different approach to publicising the exhibition this year.

“We expanded the publicity by extending e-marketing, to more websites and the excellent weather also helped,” she said.

Proceeds of around £10,000 to £12,000 raised from 20 per cent commission on sales of paintings, plus the proceeds of a raffle, refreshments and entry fees, will be divided between St Martin's primary school and St Martin's Church.

For a review of the exhibition, see Arts, page 33 of the March 17 edition of the Newbury Weekly News