Curtains for arts week until 2009
Last updated 12:39, Friday, 16 May 2008
A TRADITIONAL celebration of creative talent in Wigton has been cancelled – but residents are rallying together to bring it back bigger and better next year.
Wigton Windows Week has seen displays of art work take over the shop windows of around 30 shops lining the town’s main streets.
The week-long celebration of all things artistic has been a town fixture since 1998, encouraging visitors to the town to see the exhibitions and opening parade and giving local artists a boost.
But after the town’s business association recently folded due to dwindling interest and members retiring, there has been no-one to organise this year’s event.
Alana Huntington, owner of the Glasshouse cafe and Fledglings gift shop, said Windows Week revitalised the town.
“It would bring people in to look at the art and it was a good thing for the artists. One of its successes was the fact that people knew whose work it was.
“But there were lots of business people retiring in the town and it was agreed that the association would disband.”
However, Jude Stoll, a glass artist from the town and member of Wigton Free For All, was loathe to let a town tradition die out. She and a newly-formed Wigton Public Arts Group have vowed to revamp the event and bring it back next year.
“It has been a way of enlivening the town and bringing people in to see what Wigton is all about. It’s something that Wigton is known for and shows the town in a positive light – I have talked to a lot of people who are disappointed that it’s not going ahead this year,” she said.
Jude has big ambitions for the Whit week event she hopes will boost the local economy in the years to come.
“I’m going to approach the Arts Council for funding. I don’t think people realise how much goes into organising this and we want to employ someone to organise this properly.
“We want to expand it and have some other events going on during the week – it could eventually become an arts festival.”
Jude is calling for residents to come forward to help the group get the revamped Windows Week off the ground. “We want to see if there are people out there who want to help us make it bigger and better than last year,” she said.
Alana, who said she is hosting exhibitions upstairs in the Glasshouse to keep artistic momentum going in the town, added: “I hope the Wigton Windows Week continues, I really do.”
n Anyone who can help organise next year’s event or who has some fresh ideas for attractions, is invited to a meeting of the Wigton Public Arts Group on Thursday at 7.30pm in the Glasshouse. For more information call Jude on 016973 45656 or via email at judestoll@gmail.com.
