Herts Visual Arts Forum and South Mill Arts announce Big Makers

A spectacular exhibition of art and design is being shown at South Mill Arts Centre in Bishop’s Stortford during the weekend of 18th – 19th May this year. Artists from across Hertfordshire will show three dimensional work celebrating form, scale and texture.

The Big Makers Fair, where you can view and buy work direct from the artist, will be open on Saturday 18th May from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday 19th May from 10am to 4pm.

The Big Makers Fair will open up a treasure chest of contemporary creativity, revealing the artist as maker of beautiful objects. It will include pieces made from clay, from paper, and from glass, imaginative textiles, jewellery, furniture, individually designed homeware items, accessories, and gift. It will demonstrate how artists use a range of techniques to transform materials, realise their vision of beauty, and uncover a glorious range of hand crafted decorative and practical items.

Herts Visual Arts Forum (HVAF) is the only county-wide visual arts organisation for Hertfordshire. Embracing all visual arts, including full and part-time artists and makers, HVAF is run by an enthusiastic voluntary organising group. The Big Makers Fair is the first in our 2024 programme, which will also include the annual Big Art Fair in July and our flagship Open Studios event in September.

HVAF Chair, Sally Taylor, said, ‘We are excited to return to South Mill Arts, after our successful event last year. HVAF has a wealth of artists working in three dimensions, and visitors can expect to be amazed and delighted by the range of craftsmanship on show - textiles, silverwork, wood, glass, ceramics, paper sculpture, and more.’

For South Mill Arts, this show marks a new venture, as they look forward to engaging more with the visual arts in the coming months. Operations Director Paula Holland said, ‘We have wanted to have visual arts events at South Mill Arts to complement our extensive performing arts activities, and we are delighted to show the art of making in our large auditorium space. We look forward to more visual art activity in our arts space and in the museum and have a small advisory group looking at future exhibiting opportunities.’

Some of the artists that will exhibit their work include paper flower creator Chantal Fisher, Julie Walker of Swirl Accessories, and wood turner Keith Lucas. We will also have knitted gifts and accessories, homeware from several artist-makers, as well as hand painted furniture from Jacqui Warren, leather goods from Matthew Heaton of the Black Dog Leather Company, and much more!

For more information visit https://www.hvaf.org.uk/our-events/big-makers-fair