Art in many an unexpected place has annually become a feature of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend in Crickhowell and surrounding area as 38 venues open their doors to welcome visitors during the Crickhowell Open Studios. Businesses in Crickhowell embrace the event by offering window display space for artists making the town a veritable feast for the eyes and pointing visitors in the direction of exceptional art and craftsmanship much of which is inspired by the Bannau Brycheiniog and Black Mountains.
At the heart of the “trail” the Oriel CRiC Gallery in Crickhowell has this year added an additional attraction by running an Open Art Competition and will mount an exciting exhibition of selected work from well over four hundred entries by both professional, emerging and amateur artists. This has been made possible with generous donations of prize money and funding by the EUs Interreg IVB NEW programme together with the Welsh Government’s Targeted Match Funding Programme.
Suzette Pratten curator at the gallery said, “We have been overwhelmed by the tremendous response to the first Crickhowell Open Art Competition and by the exceptionally high standard of entries. The Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Rural Alliances support has enabled us to create a wonderful opportunity for artists to be part of an exhibition that will attract thousands of visitors and add to the vibrancy of this annual event which has become such a popular addition to the tourism calendar. We look forward to showing the work of 105 selected artists in what promises to be a very exciting show.”
Carol Williams, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Tourism Growth Officer added, “Suzette Pratten and the staff at CRiC need to be congratulated on developing the idea of an open art competition which enable emerging and amateur artists the opportunity to exhibit alongside professional artists.” The exhibition officially opens on the evening of 23 May and continues until 19 July 2014.
Free brochures which act as a guide to the studios are available widely at Tourist Information Centres and other outlets or from the Crickhowell Resource and Information Centre, Beaufort Street, Crickhowell, NP8 1 BN Tel 01873 813667 Further information can also be found on www.visitcrickhowell.co.uk gallery@visitcrickhowell.co.uk