TAS Wessex Area celebrate with Art Bytes

Art Bytes in partnership with The Arts Society, TAS Wessex Area,  

TAS Kington Langley & Chippenham Museum

Chippenham Celebration & Exhibition Event 2025

The success of 2024 allowed us to think about how we could maximize and extend our reach nationally. The Arts Society became a national partner with Art Bytes and encouraged societies to support Art Bytes in their local schools and use their Community Grant to pay for the registration.

46 societies supported 70 schools representing a 50% increase in schools registering. In Wessex, TAS Wessex Area once again provided sponsorship for schools and help with the exhibition and refreshments as well as providing the sketchbook prizes to be handed out at the celebration Event.

Acting on feedback from the 2024 event planning started between Art Bytes, Chippenham Museum and TASKL to increase our ability to make the 2025 event the best ever.

We wanted to have more venues to make the event more distinctive and have separate primary and secondary sessions.

Chippenham Museum once again offered tours of their exhibitions and funded the extended workshops with local artists.

This year the workshops lasted for 40mins and were specialist ones for primary and secondary students. These were held in the Council Room in the Town Hall

Again, the Neeld Hall was the Celebration Event venue with the racked seating out this year and refreshments in the Neeld Foyer Café.

Finally, the Yelde Hall was to be the exhibition space and was to be open for three days after the Celebration Event so that parents, families and visitors could visit and see the work. Previously the exhibition was put up on the morning of the Celebration and then taken down immediately afterwards. 

 In 2025, with The Art Society national support, the South West Region involved 22 schools with over 300 students taking part. Again, this year funding for local schools was provided by the Local Youth Network.

The Arts Society film crew filmed the build-up and the event, interviewed students, teachers and volunteers.

The Celebration Event was exciting as Monkton Park Primary School won the National Community Engagement award and we also won two regional awards – one secondary and the other primary.

The workshops were a great success with time for focused involvement.

Refreshments were very popular thanks to TASK volunteers and the extended exhibition was visited by over 300 enthusiastic visitors.

Chippenham Town Council funding provided the frames for first prize winner’s artwork.

Quotes from people on the day – ‘Art needs to be celebrated so by The Arts Society doing this exhibition it brings it into focus’, ‘Thank you, without The Arts Society we wouldn’t have this wonderful exhibition’

Heather Leach Chair TASKL and TAS Head of Arts Volunteering