ON THE HOME SKETCH

from RTWT Autumn board preview

by rtwtogether

COLOURING IS COOL

Art Week paints the town red... and all the other

Art Week! colours!

Promoting town centre pockets of creativity, Art Week encouraged members of the public to make a masterpiece!

The RTW Together Business Improvement District brought the first Art Week to Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre with a week of activities from August 22 to 29. A programme of arts and crafts related classes, workshops and online talks were offered to the public FOR FREE, with 547 spaces available to secure a place across 20 different events.

Items up for grabs included photography classes and watercolour painting on The Pantiles, making moving toys with Whirligig Toys at the Amelia Scott, hand tied bouquet floristy workshops at The Cove, bath bomb making at Lush, design a duck at Manic Ceramix, embroidery, still life, and glass making at Glass by Claudia. The timetable offered a mixture of activities for both adults and children, and sessions took place in businesses represented by the BID across the town centre. BID Director for Royal Tunbridge Wells Together, Sarah-Jane Adams, designed the concept of Art Week to showcase the town’s creativity: “Royal Tunbridge Wells is such an

FREE FACE PAINTING AT THE CLOCK TOWER

aesthetically pleasing town, with a high concentration of makers, artists and creative businesses, as well as a long history of being immortalised in works of art. We wanted to highlight some of these businesses, and allow families and individuals to come into the town centre to enjoy a free activity, learn a new skill and discover a new local business. We hope there was range of options for everyone, whether you’re an art buff or stick figures are your limit!”

One business owner who took part, Phil Reid, of The Cove, High Street, says “The Cove were super excited to be involved in Art Week, we think it’s a fantastic idea, to be

“People had the opportunity to learn something new and discover a new talent!”

LEFT: FLORAL FUN MAKING HAND TIED BOUQUETS WITH THE COVE

able to provide people the opportunity to learn something new, discover a new talent, and do that through town centre businesses.”

The week proved to be an overwhelming success, with many participants sending in their thanks and feedback after completing a workshop.

One such happy customer was Shabana, who said, “I would like to thank all those involved in making Art Week come to life. It was the last part of the summer holidays when all fun had already seemed to be had, but the activities available for Art Week were exactly what my boys needed. They were looking forward to some of the listed activities and were throughly satisfied taking part. The businesses that were involved were amazing at what they did. Some of the businesses had

ABOVE: A YOUNG LUSH FAN BUILDS A BATH BOMB

LEFT: A COLOURFUL CRAFTING SESSION AT LUSH, ROYAL VICTORIA PLACE

never done anything like this in the past but they smashed it! Special credit to the staff at Walsh Bros jewellers - my boys are into gem stones and have an extensive collection and this session was very fun, interactive and educational. We would love to take part in the activities in the future and look forward to more businesses opening their doors, sharing their talents and crafts with us.”

RTW Together rounded off the week of free fun with an outdoor event, offering face

READY FOR BATTER

Julian, Tunbridge Wells Hotel painting, a glitter bar, balloon modelling and colouring book giveaways at the Calverley Precinct clock tower, all at no charge. Our arty stilt walkers were also a hit with young creatives.

Sarah-Jane Adams concludes: “We received such overwhelmingly positive feedback for Art Week, that we’re certainly planning on bringing it back for 2023! Our youngest participant was 18 months old, ranging up to couples in their 70s. Groups of friends, mothers and daughters and families with young children all took part in activities, and there’s room for us to provide even more choice and sessions next time around.”

For details of future free town centre events, follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @rtwtogether ■