Our Community | Community Art | Rollington Installation | Purbeck Young Artists | Purbeck Youth Music | Art Workshops | Sketch PAW
Our Community
We want art to be accessible to everyone, so we offer year round community arts activities and provide a support network for our artists across Purbeck. We hold our annual visual and performing PAW Festival once a year in late May/early June.
“The Purbeck Art Weeks (PAW) Festival celebrates art in all its various forms. It seeks to inspire and support visual and performing artists to achieve their potential, involves people from across the community and encourages everyone to participate and to enjoy a wide range of arts.”
Young People and PAW
We support young people by running exciting workshops in local schools, as part of our Purbeck Young Artists Scheme. These are led by experienced art educators and supported by a range of valued local funders.
During the Festival the imaginative work created by some of the 500 young people who participate in our schools art programme, is on display at Rollington Barn.
We also help to fund Purbeck Youth Music, who enable young people in the area of the Isle of Purbeck to participate in instrumental and vocal lessons, workshops, and performance opportunities.
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Community Art Projects
Working in the community brings people together. Swanage, seafront boasts a trio of ceramic murals created by people from across the Purbeck community. We have created three murals as part of the Wareham Library Garden regeneration project and helped to fund a Sea Life Bench in Swanage.
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Rollington Installations
At our Rollington Barn exhibition, there is a corner of the Byre which is set aside to house a collaborative community installation that all visitors are encoraged to get involved in.
The first installation was the Renewal Tree, created by Sue Lansbury, which evolved over the course of the 2021 PAW Festival. In 2022 there was a new installation, also created by Sue, where visitors were invited to continue to contribute to the process.
In 2024, Charlotte Fereday will be creating the ‘Spirit of Rollington in Stitches’. She will be inviting everyone who passes through to sit with her for one minute to be sketched, with all the sketches being incorporated into a massive stitched wall hanging.
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Art Workshops
A variety of workshops take place throughout the year. Some are run by PAW artists and are open to all, others are run for PAW artist to help them grow as artists and give them useful help with marketing, social media, running a business and so on. These workshops are informative, explorative and practical, as well as loads of fun!
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Visual Artists Forum
Our Visual Artists Forum helps artists to network and exchange ideas. We have regular social meetings and chat in our Facebook Forum.
Sketch PAW
Our Members are able to join the Purbeck Arts Club Sketching Programme which regularly includes sketching at Concert Rehearsals during the PAW Festival.
Our Member Andy Knill offers free ‘Art for Fun’ activities all year round at his studio in Swanage. Have a look at his website for more information – andyknillartstudio
In some years we sell sketchbooks at Rollington Barn and asked you to carry them with you around the festival, and draw and sketch whatever inspired YOU in PAW and Purbeck.
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Bursaries
If you want to develop a career in visual and performing arts, PAW could be your launch pad.
PAW Bursaries are awarded to those with exceptional talent who want to take the next step.
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Chamber Music in Purbeck Homes
Our series of Chamber Music in Purbeck Homes, such as Smedmore House and Creech Grange, is part of our winter programme. By becoming a Friend you are entitled to priority booking for these very special evenings and you can help fund our work as well as receiving regular updates of events.