THE recent Basingstoke Festival of Art and Crafts was a wonderful celebration of work by local artists, showcasing the breadth of talent in the local area.

The displays included paintings in wide variety of styles, photography, sculpture and a variety of crafts including pottery, wood turning, jewellery, fused glass and silk painting.

The festival raised over £1500 and all proceeds will be donated to the nominated charities: The Ark Cancer Centre Charity, Basingstoke Young Carers and Basingstoke Dial-a-Ride.

The festival was opened by Basingstoke’s Luis Morris, who worked as a banknote designer at De La Rue before becoming a freelance artist in 1998.

In his opening speech, he commented: “I wish the festival had been in existence when I started out as an artist”.

The festival, first held in 2013, was the brainchild of then Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Councillor Martin Biermann and his wife Chansopha.

It was so successful that Cllr Biermann decided to lead the committee of artists from local groups to organise it again this year.

In his closing speech he commented: “I was very impressed by the quality and variety of artists in the borough and I wanted to provide a forum to display their work to the wider public”.

Current borough Mayor, Councillor Roger Gardiner, attended the festival with his wife on Sunday afternoon and drew the raffle, which included original artwork donated by exhibitors at the festival.

The festival organisers would like to thank The Hampshire Court Hotel and their sponsors and supporters.