Made With Many is exhibiting artwork created during Well Creative Festival in the Swansgate Shopping Centre over the festive season.
In the frantic run-up to Christmas, why not take a few minutes out of your shopping errands to relax and enjoy Art On The Street? This exhibition, currently installed in the windows of the empty shop unit next to Greggs Bakery in the Swansgate Shopping Centre originally planned to run for a week, and has now been extended to run until Tuesday 7th January 2025.
It features artworks made during October’s Well Creative Festival by local artists Catrina Hill, Deana Winn, Jane Bell, Jean Edwards, Olivia Wilson and Samantha Brockway. The six artists were commissioned by Made With Many’s Canvas youth group as part of the day-long Well Creative Festival, to create new artworks inspired by Wellingborough town centre. Placing themselves around the town centre festival site, the artists captured a variety of interpretations of the brief in an eclectic mix of styles and techniques, from watercolours to textile art, sketching and surreal acrylics.
Fiona Stevens from Swansgate Shopping Centre commented, “We are truly honoured to be hosting the Art On The Street exhibition in our centre over the festive season, and are delighted to once again be working with Made With Many to present excellent local artworks to our valued customers.”
The Well Creative Festival took place in Wellingborough town centre earlier this year on Saturday 5th October, clocking up over 5600 engagements in the arts from shoppers and visitors to the town centre. The festival animated Wellingborough town centre with an abundance of intriguing and playful performances, including live arcade games, music, dance, wandering giant slinkies and of course the six artists included in this exhibition who were busy creating their artworks and having conversations with curious members of the public.
Artist Jean Edwards said of her involvement, “I’m an urban sketcher so I often sit outside to draw and paint what I see. I enjoyed being part of the Art on the Street of the Well Creative festival – it was a sunny early autumn day and there were lots of families around enjoying taking part in the activities so there was a lovely atmosphere. The Market Square was transformed with colour, which I hope my sketch shows.“
Lily Viney, Producer at Made With Many added, “We are thrilled to be extending our Art On The Street exhibition until the new year, thanks to the generosity of exhibition hosts, Swansgate Centre. The exhibition not only celebrates the artists’ work, but also the fantastic legacy our Canvas youth group created producing our first ever Well Creative festival in October 2024.”
The Canvas youth group who organised Well Creative Festival with Made With Many, are recommencing their creative sessions in the new year with a new Project Co-ordinator Sophia Madden, after recently bidding a fond farewell to former group leader, Becky Carrier who has moved on to other exciting creative projects.
You can visit the exhibition during shopping centre opening times, which are 8am to 6pm from Mondays to Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sundays and Boxing Day. The centre is closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
For more information about the exhibition, participating artists, the Canvas youth group or Well Creative Festival, please visit www.madewithmany.org
About Canvas
The Canvas youth group has been set up to enable young people to get creative and use that creativity to make a difference in Wellingborough. The project aims to develop young people’s transferable skills and their creativity as well as giving them a platform locally to make a difference in their community.
About Made With Many www.madewithmany.org
Made With Many are a community-led arts programme which produces events and activities designed to inspire more local people than ever before to take the lead in experiencing, creating and taking part in high quality arts and cultural activities. Through conversations with local people and community decision-making panels, we put local people at the heart of commissioning artists and producing new and exciting events.
Made With Many is part of a national Creative People & Places (CPP) network, funded by Arts Council England to increase engagement in the arts in areas where people have fewer opportunities to get involved. CPP is about more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in art experiences in the places where they live. There are 39 independent projects, each located in an area where people have traditionally had fewer opportunities to get involved with the arts.
About Arts Council England https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/creative-people-and-places-0
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high quality cultural experiences. We invest public money from Government and The National Lottery to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.