Discover Gather Give Contemporary Arts Fair

Open to the public Nov 14 to 15th 2026 at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall CV37 6EF

Menu

Tag Archive: review

1. Contemporary Arts Fair Discover:Gather:Give #Cafdgg 2021

   November 20, 2021 10:25 am Leave a Comment

   After our contemporary arts event Discover Gather Give I put aside a few weeks for reflections, review and assessment, listening to the comments made by visitors, artists and volunteers and how I felt the event went.

   It was the first actual live event after my husband had died last year during the Covid lockdown and he was an incredible support both mentally and physically in putting the event together. I really was not sure how I was going to feel about doing the event without him, however I cannot shout loudly enough my thanks for the support both expected and unexpected from family, friends and our marvellous exhibitors; I am truly grateful and touched by your kindness.

   It was a grand weekend, with our exhibitors really pulling out all the stops to make the event visually sumptuous, elegant and a joy for visitors to buy at every exhibition space.

   The Private View had a solid number of visitors enjoying the WILD EVE  https://www.wild-eve.com/drink-the-wild  long drink with the best sourdough bakery in the area making our delicious food https://www.morbakery.co.uk  and even though it was Bonfire Night near two hundred people joined us over our very jolly evening with a number of sales taking place.

   Over the weekend there was a constant flow of visitors milling around. I was at the door hand sanitising visitors as they entered and chatted to many as they left the beautiful town hall with bags and packages of all sizes commenting ‘I’m so glad you are back’, ‘I’ve been waiting to buy from Claire Henley’ and ‘We love coming to see the artists as they are a really good standard of work’, ‘It is great to see so many quality artists together’, plus many more positive comments and welcome back’s!

   I realised that our visitors had really missed our high quality live event as there is nothing like talking to an artist who shares their enthusiasm and passion for their artwork, to talk through commissioning a piece of work from them or buying a card to remind themselves about the artist – thank you for your support of our event and especially of our inspiring artists.

    

   I will be putting on our next #Cafdgg over the weekend of November 18th to 20th 2022 at the Town Hall, so do pop it in your diary now

    

    

2. After the Fair…

   November 20, 2019 3:05 pm Leave a Comment

   In the first few weeks after curating the glorious Contemporary Arts Fair Discover:Gather:Give I am slowly settling down and giving myself time to reflect on the event; to me one of the most important undertakings to achieve.

   I read with interest all the exhibitors reviews, remember the comments made by visitors as they arrived and left carrying bundles and bags of artwork, of the social media responses and suggestions from friends and family – every single one essential to enable me to develop #Cafdgg into a live and relevant event.

   I value and learn from each comment sometimes more from the brutal than the kind, as it takes an experienced exhibitor to compare #Cafdgg with numerous other events they have attended to widen my eyes and for that I am grateful. All  reviews are welcome as I can learn something from every one.

   For me the most effective way of learning from the reviews is to let them sink into my mind as I do other things – the moment before I fall asleep, whilst gardening, doing tai chi or walking up a mountain and inevitably a solution will float through and I can assess the validity of it before the process starts again.

   It is like making a piece of art; you know your starting place and yet how do know when your thought process is complete?

   Each time I curate an event it takes weeks of thinking, envisaging what it may look like on my virtual mental tour before I even start on the actual planing. The time between now and March is vital as for each event I plan the change in focus of it  – more jewellery and woodturning, different price points, less painting and illustration, introducing basketry, silversmithing or blacksmithing, or adding demonstrations and workshops – all ideas to be dashed or built upon.

   In  March 2020 exhibition spaces will be allocated to the artists who have applied to exhibit with us and it is the correlation between my plans and the artists skills that pulls together the setting up of a flowing, inspiring and enjoyable event for both the visitors and artists alike.

   At the moment I am open to all of the ideas as they float into my head as I, snooze, walk, dig and do the White Crane as I rest and recuperate.