Exhibitions

2025 sees the return of the BLACK SWAN ARTS
YOUNG OPEN ART COMPETITION AND EXHIBITION.

The Young Open Art competition is a brilliant opportunity to showcase the artistic talents of all young people aged between 8 and 19 years. It is probably the largest art competition in the South West aimed exclusively at young people – it’s definitely the best!

The exhibition will run between Saturday, March 22^nd and Sunday, April 27^th 2025 in the prestigious Long Gallery at Black Swan Arts Centre in Frome, Somerset.

Photo|Frome returns in April 2025 with the theme ‘inEquality’. Through photography from internationally acclaimed, national and regional artists, we reflect on stories of global and local justice and equality.
Running from 5 April – 27 April, the festival team are following two successful editions with their most ambitious event yet, cementing Frome’s reputation as a vibrant national hub for photography.

Local artist/printmaker Maxine Foster is an MA graduate from the University of The West of England. Her work draws inspiration from the urban and natural environments, connected by an invisible umbilical cord. Time has profoundly affected her practice – having had one foot in the city and one foot on the coast since birth – which has emulated with the ebb and flow of the tide. The accumulation of Foster’s work is an ingrained, intuitive response to what is in front of her. She goes with the flow: the flow between the two personalities of her practice, reflecting their connections through water sources.

She works mainly in the mediums of monotype, intaglio and relief, occasionally introducing paint, frequently using palimpsest within the complexity of her multi-layered pieces. Inspired by her surroundings, these seemingly disparate urban and natural environments are linked by decades of unique erosion and decay, whether caused by natural or man-made interventions. Foster builds up complex layers, combining multiple print processes: layering up the substrate with dry-point etching, carborundum and collagraph, chine collé and monoprint collage.

An Aladdin’s cave filled with high quality vintage clothing, accessories and curiosities from the early 1900s – 70s. Free entry.

For more info follow @covenvintagecollective on Instagram.

An exhibition of watercolour paintings and cards by local artist, Linda Mannion.

www.lindamannion.com