Discover Gather Give Contemporary Arts Fair

Open to the public Nov 13 to 15th 2026 at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall CV37 6EF

Menu

Tag Archive: stratford-upon-Avon

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. Have you got the date in your diary?

   October 9, 2021 7:27 pm Leave a Comment

   November 5th for our very jolly Private View from 6pm to 8.30pm and November 6th and 7th Open to the Public from 10.30am each day, we close our doors at 5pm on Saturday 6th and 4pm on the 7th.

   I have managed to keep it a free entry to all visitors so you can come as many times as needed over the weekend to have a good look at the artwork and meet the artists.

   There will be hand sanitiser at the door, at the top of the stairs and upstairs by the cafe entrance, so please be covid aware.

   Any questions, please contact me on Judith@discovergathergive.co.uk

3. Our first online Arts Fair

   November 30, 2020 11:25 am Leave a Comment

   Over the weekend of October 30^th to November 1^st when we would normally be doing our fab Arts Fair at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall due to COVID-19 we went online by setting up a YouTube channel Discover Gather Give Arts Fair https://bit.ly/35QHRNh .

    

   It was a huge success for our first cyber outing with over 7,880 views of over 80 videos sent in by our artists. The videos ranged from shorts of 15-30 seconds to longer pieces of up to 30 minutes. The range was incredible, and they are still online now, so do pop over and look through them.

    

   It is fascinating to dig into the analytics and find out that unsurprisingly we had more female viewers than male, although they put in a good show of nearly 40%, and our age range of 18-24 and 55-64 years were the most popular, with the 30+ years coming in a close third.

    

   One fact that really surprised me was where our viewers came from; the UK and USA were to be expected but Belarus, Philippines, and Chile? So surprised and pleased that we can access the global markets.

    

   It brought home to me that as artists there are no limits to where you can sell your work, it is just getting your name out there and how accessible you are to your potential collectors.

    

   So I have decided that I will do another online fair in February 2021 using the skills I have learnt curating this year’s event – least of which is not to get the giggles, drop my phone whilst recording, sit in a squeaking chair or mince my words up into gobbledygoop!

    

   If you want to join us, then email me on judith@discovergathergive.co.uk