Artsheds

Artsheds was a Haverfordwest Festival Week project designed and produced by Pip Lewis and created in partnership with Haverfordwest Town Council, Haverfordwest Pop‐up Studios and the Riverside Shopping Centre as part of the Lab programme during the three year Confluence art and regeneration partnership.

Artists/artist collaborations from the Haverfordwest Pop-up studios were invited to submit proposals for activities/interventions to engage the public, specifically children and their families, for a minimum of 25 hours during the course of the festival.

The use of three six foot square pastel coloured wooden sheds was negotiated with the local authority and these were erected on three locations along the Riverside Shopping Centre for the duration of the festival which ran from Saturday 23 through to Saturday 30 July 2016.

The aims of the project were:

to provide a highly visible and accessible means of engaging children and families in a diverse range of arts experiences
to raise awareness of the contribution that the arts can make to regeneration among key decision makers

Over the eight days that the festival ran, over 900 people took part.

Alongside other contributions to the Haverfordwest Festival Week, Artsheds opened the door to Haverfordwest Town Council gaining a greater understanding of the Confluence arts and regeneration partnership.

A number of Town Councillors subsequently expressed a willingness to support other arts activities, such as the River of Lights lantern procession as well as actively looking for opportunities to develop a more strategic approach an annual programme of events in the town.

Find out more about the project and the artists that took part by visiting the Lab Haverfordwest website here

Feature image: Impressions of Haverfordwest by Ruth Sargeant and Gina Hughes