One of the newest hotels in Chester is being transformed into an art lover’s paradise for a new arts festival.
Local residents and visitors who have been travelling far and wide to see art exhibitions around the UK will be pleased to hear that the luxury Abode Hotel in the city will become a make shift gallery and exhibition hall for Chester’s first ever arts festival.
The hotel will include colourful portraits, hand crafted cushions and statues from well known artists that will be on display for art lovers to browse.
The Chester festival has been conceived and organized by art lover and solicitor Laura O’Hare who wanted to get artists together to display their work in the city walls. She believed that “art was largely missing” from Chester and decided to do something about it.
“There wasn’t really anything like this in Chester,” said Laura, who commented that the response from artists has been overwhelming and is already planning next year’s event.
“I wanted to get the community, businesses and artists involved in an event which would bring people into the city. Personally, I wanted to create an accessible arts festival that showcased some of the most talented artists in the area, and the response has been fantastic.”
Laura said that a successful festival this year could result in an even bigger event next year with more venues taking part.
One of the artists displaying their work at the festival is world famous sculptor Nick Elphick, who has had the honour of sculpting the Queen.
Nick said: “This is a really exciting event, not just for Chester but for everyone in the art world. It is fantastic to see so many people getting involved and being able to bring art to everyone. This is what Chester has been missing.”