The Art and Craft Online Exhibition 2020

This popular annual event took place online for the first time ever this year and proved to be very successful and enjoyable. It was open for viewing from Sat 14th until Mon 30th November.

It was organised as a replacement for the usual live exhibition held in Whitchurch Village Hall, which sadly had to be cancelled. All residents (both past and present) of Whitchurch and Goring Heath parishes were invited to send in digital images of their art, craft and photography, as well as entries on the theme of 'Happiness'. Children who attend our three local schools (Whitchurch Pre-School, Whitchurch Primary School and The Oratory Prep School) were also eligible to enter, regardless of where they actually live.

There were 208 entries, submitted by 71 entrants, which included displays of art & craft work from our three local schools. It gave everyone the opportunity to see and share the results of the creative talent in our community. There was a wonderful variety of artwork, craftwork and photographs from young and old, showing a very high standard.

There was no judging for the various cups and awards this year, for obvious reasons, but people were encouraged to cast their votes for their favourite entry or entries while they browsed through the exhibition online. This online voting idea was clearly very popular and there were approximately 2,000 votes recorded, widely spread across the entries.

This winning entry was:

'My Daddy Collage' which was created by Tess Higley (in the 6-8 yrs age group)
Congratulations to Tess for this very imaginative creation!

This was not the only entry to prove popular with the viewers and the following entries also received high numbers of votes. Well done everyone!

'Happiness is me cuddling my Mum' by Katie Newman (0-5 yrs)
'Loving Coldness' by Scarlet Higley (6-8 yrs)
'Eye eye' by Mallory Ross (9-11 yrs)
'Rainbow Butterfly' by Lucy Robb (9-11 yrs)
'Fireworks Night' by Eliza Kemp (9-11yrs)
'If I fits, I sits!' by Sarah Dixon (adult, in the Happiness category)
'Blue Mountains' by Suzanne Howey (adult, art)
'Secret Poppy Field' by Jim Donahue (adult, photography)
'Needlefelt Beatrix Potter baby mobile' by Lorna Woolhouse (adult, craft)

Pictures of all these entries can be enjoyed again by looking at the website Gallery.

My very special thanks for making this online exhibition happen must go to Adrian Dixon, who designed and implemented the web facilities for submitting the entries, together with the software for selecting and viewing all the exhibits.

The online hosting for this exhibition was kindly provided by The Reading Foundation for Art. The Foundation was established as a charity in 1974 to create a collection of significant works of art for Reading Museum. The Foundation is keen to promote art in the local area and was pleased to help our 2020 Art and Craft exhibition.

Sally Woolhouse (sally@wotarts.co.uk)