Art pays – artist events over four weekends last year brought over 30,000 visitors and an estimated £1 million flooding into the North Wales economy.
Those are the figures from the North Wales Open Studios Network, a collaboration between two of the region’s major arts organisations, Helfa Gelf and the Anglesey Arts Weeks.
They paint an encouraging picture of the co-operation between the two which saw over 350 artists throw open their studios with visitor numbers up by 23 per cent on the previous year and sales up a massive 74 per cent in the teeth of a recession.
Sabine Cockrill, Project Co-Ordinator for the Helfa Gelf Art Trail, said: “Helfa Gelf covers the counties of Gwynedd, Conwy, Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham, and by working in co-operation with Anglesey Arts Weeks we have been able to pool our resources.
“This has enabled us to raise awareness of the artists in the region both locally and across the border, to encourage cultural tourism and to help support artists both by giving them a marketplace and by running courses which enable them to turn their art into successful businesses.
“We have been able to showcase the enormous diversity of art being created and the talent that is here, from conceptual and digital art to more traditional painting and sculpture.”
The North Wales Open Studios Network is run by rural development agency Cadwyn Clwyd and is paid for through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) through the Welsh Government’s Rural Development Plan and is part of a three-year plan to revitalise rural communities and their economies.
The Anglesey Arts Weeks run through April while Helfa Gelf takes place on four weekends in September and was so successful that in 2012 the participating artists sold nearly £50,000 worth of their works.
Sabine Cockrill added: “In a recession that’s a really encouraging result for the project and shows that it’s working for the artists.
“We also help artists with business development, providing them with the tools to develop their practices, not just their art work but also their business practices and that’s an economic benefit to the region.”
