On Saturday 5th October the first Chipping Norton Arts festival focusing on the visual arts and celebrating creativity, will take place across numerous venues in this thriving Cotswold town.

This new Arts Festival is the brainchild of CNArts, a group of renowned local artists and arts professionals, who formed a network of creatives last year and are keen to bring a range of visual art disciplines to Chipping Norton in a way not seen before.

“The Chipping Norton Arts Festival will be a celebration of creativity linked together by the theme of ‘CONNECT’,” says CNArts curator, Carol Harvey. “The theme of ‘CONNECT’, is relevant to many of the events on the day, including exhibitions and demonstrations of painting, drawing and printing by renowned local artists and a wide variety of exhibiting artisan Arts and Crafts makers in various locations around the town. There will be art to see and art to experience, with a wide range of workshops available for visitors to experience different art forms from figure drawing to printmaking, painting, fabric art, book art and comic book creation.”

Chipping Norton Town Hall will provide the exhibition space for Of All The People In All The World, created by internationally renowned arts group, Stan’s Cafe. This fascinating and thought-provoking installation uses grains of rice to bring formally abstract statistics to startling and powerful life in a way that is not only informative, but also visual stunning, and has never been seen before in Oxfordshire.

Chipping Norton Theatre is hosting not only a group show by members of CNarts on the theme of CONNECT but there will be screenings of; Shane the Chef, The Clangers, Horrid Henry, and Doctor Who, with Industry professionals explaining how some of these amazing shows are conceived and created.

“Whether you’re interested in arthouse or cartoons, sci-fi or comedy, there’ll be something here to catch your attention,” says Andrew Wildman (pictured), Chair of CNArts. “Chipping Norton has a longstanding reputation as an innovative hub of creative talent and is well-known for hosting outstanding events each year including pantomime, the Chipping Norton Literary Festival and music events from jazz to classical and contemporary. The one cultural event missing until now is a festival focusing on the visual arts. This is about to change.”