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The PYA Exhibition

PAW’s core mission is to make art accessible to as many young people as possible within the Purbeck area. Each year, we collaborate with talented local artists who bring a wealth of expertise to deliver fantastic school workshops across Purbeck schools. Over the years we have built strong ties with local schools to champion and encourage creativity, reaching around 500 Purbeck Young Artists participating in creative activities each year. This year marks a record involvement from schools, partnering with seven artists on a diverse range of workshops, including: glass art, puppet making, painting banners, clay making and 3D art using recycled materials and interactive art. The workshops and artwork are centred on the festival theme, which this year is ‘Birds’ and a couple of schools used their PYA workshops to be creative around the nightingale theme of The Whispering Dome community event. We invite you to view the inspiring results on display in The Byre at Rollington Barn’.

As always, we extend our sincere appreciation to The Friends of the Festival and to all our generous sponsors for their invaluable support of our work with young people. Their incredible kindness makes it possible for us to ignite a passion for art in as many schools as we do. Our thanks also go to the participating schools and teachers for recognising the value of art education and helping create such remarkable pieces of artwork.

The PYA exhibition kicks off with its opening ceremony on Friday May 22nd, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. This wonderful event promises art, live music, and even an opportunity to try some art yourself. We can’t wait to see you there for some creative fun!

The feedback has been incredible from the teachers, parents, children and visitors to the exhibition in 2025. 

‘We painted a banner with our whole class and it was so much fun. I can’t believe that we made this amazing piece of art in just a day, I’m really proud!’

‘The children in my class were absolutely buzzing with excitement and took so much from their workshop. It really boosted their confidence in their artistic abilities and they had the opportunity to work collaboratively on an art piece that we can display in the school and that they can proudly say that they made.‘

‘I wish we could do art like this every day, it was one of the best days ever!’