Happy New Year everyone!

It’s been crazy in the Artweeks office for the last three weeks, ever since the 1st of January when we had teetering on our desks, metaphorically-speaking, four hundred and twenty six exhibitions newly signed up for the 2014 festival. That’s a lot of entries to edit, images to check and venues to map. It’s harder than you think planning a coherent route through 1000 square miles - thank goodness for Jo’s enormous table, multi-coloured dot stickers and chocolate digestives! I’m very pleased to announce therefore that all the information has been squashed into a sensible order and passed over to our new festival guide designer-printers, John Good, to turn into pages.

Meanwhile, the Oxfordshire Artweeks board had their first meeting of the year and have chosen a cover design for the 2014 festival guide, using an image submitted by ceramicist Lucy Butterwick, who will be exhibiting in Charlbury this year. We’re delighted to have plumped for a pot as we felt it is important that the cover should sometimes show three-dimensional art by one of our many talented designer-makers.

Lucy makes simple handbuilt forms decorated with glaze and lustre, and her work has been shown in the UK, Ireland, France and the USA. With echoes of ancient cultures and the natural world, her pieces create a sense of stillness and contemplation. She tells how visits to Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, USA and Europe have all influenced her work which reminds me….

I’ve also written my first For Art’s Sake column for The Oxford Times who, with Hamptons International, are kindly sponsoring Artweeks again this year. Did you know you can travel the world through Oxfordshire art? See http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/focus/10957921.For_Art_s_Sake___Oxf... Art?
to read how far you can journey during this year’s festival!

And artists - we’d love to hear your stories and see the work inspired by them.
Have YOU captured the Caribbean on canvas, brought Ireland to Islip or Cairo to Kidlington?