An art event in Oxfordshire has seen over 700 visitors since opening just three days ago.

The 10-day exhibition opened to a private viewing last Friday at number 16, Sheep Street, in Bicester.

Thanks to the generosity of Sarah Gadsden, a landlady of W.E. Black Ltd who provided the venue, Oxfordshire Artweeks coordinator and organiser of the event Graham Perryman had a space to host the exhibition.

Graham, the director of Dragonfly Framing, enlisted the help of local businesses Teknos and Cristal E Services, for painting and cleaning, respectively. Makespace Oxford helped with funding and Bicester Village provided volunteers to help decorate.

The exhibition is open from 10-5 from Monday to Saturday, and 10-4 on Sunday, and is housing the work of 28 artists from Bicester and surrounding villages.

Graham said: “Without Sarah we couldn’t have done it in the town centre, she’s fantastic for letting us do this.

“I’ve been an Oxfordshire Artweeks coordinator for the last five years. We’ve run exhibitions either once or twice in each of these years.

“Overall I’ve ran 14 exhibitions, and Friday’s private viewing event was the best one yet. We had 170 people turn up.

“The people were lovely, and everyone was really appreciative of the art. The visitor’s book was filled with wonderful comments.”

Oxfordshire Artweeks is now in its 40th year and remains the UK’s biggest artist open studios and pop-up exhibition event.  

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1