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PAST EVENTS

Here, we look at some of our top events at Westbury Arts Centre.

The Bee Fest @ Westbury Arts Centre

Westbury Bee Group held their second Bee Festival on 22nd and 23rd July 2023 and had a fantastic turn out on both days. To find out more about the Festival and the Bee Group, please click here

Westbury Young Artist of The Year 2023

The Westbury Young Artist of the Year 2023 Awards were held at Westbury Arts Centre on Saturday 15th  and Sunday 16th July.  Many of the entries were of an impressive standard and the Judges had great difficulty in selecting the winners in each of the three judging categories.  After great deliberation the overall winner was awarded to a student from the Webber Independent school for her hugely imaginative and thought-provoking study.

Other notable and memorable works also received prizes and winners in each age group have an invitation to attend a workshop class with Frances Fox ( 5-9 age group) Lindsay Waring ( 10-14 age group) Robin Souter, (15-18 age group) and Joanna Stone to the overall winner.

 

The remarkably high standard of entries provided proof that art in our schools is still thriving, and Westbury is proud to help to contribute and develop contacts with our young local artists.

Milton Keynes Open

Milton Keynes Open was launched in 2019 to celebrate creatives in our community. With the introduction of Westbury Young Artist of the Year competition in 2021. We have exhibited over 525 artworks from around 415 artists with the youngest being just 3 years old. Artists have gone onto be a a studio holder at Westbury, hold individual exhibitions or develop their practice. If you were not able to view last years' exhibition, you can still enjoy the artwork through our online galleries that can be found below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view the online galleries, select the link to view each one. Please share with family and friends who are unable to view the exhibition in person. (Best viewed at 0.25 speed).

 

Gallery 1 - Artists A-F click here

Gallery 2 - Artists G-M click here

Gallery 3 - Artists N-R click here

Gallery 4 - Artists S-Z click here

Westbury Young Artists

Gallery 5 - Winners click here

Gallery 6 - Young artists A - Z by Year Group click here

Gallery 7 - Entries from schools click here

 

Heritage Open Days

Westbury Arts Centre has been described as Milton Keynes' Hidden Jewel. Do you know that we have a surprisingly rich history that we researched in 2018 and produced a booklet and exhibition? Keep an eye on our social media for when the exhibition will next be on display. Every September we along with thousands of volunteers across England organise events to celebrate our fantastic history and culture. It's your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore.

 

 

View the exhibition below 

Winter Art & Craft Market

Our Winter Art & Craft Market takes place every November. It's a fantastic opportunity to purchase handmade unique items from a specially curated selection of makers and from the studio holders at Westbury. We were delighted to have the following makers with us in 2022.

Natural History at Westbury

Biodiversity at Westbury Arts Centre

In 2019 Kate Wyatt, a resident artist at Westbury and Milton Keynes' Natural History Society undertook a project to have closer look at our wonderful grounds and its biodiversity.

Kate Wyatt shares what biodiversity means for Westbury 'Biodiversity

The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.

Definition: 'Biological diversity' means the variability among living organisms from all sources including,inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species and of ecosystems.'

Westbury Biodiversity

Species, plants, mammals, birds.

Westbury has one of the last areas of gardens and grounds which one could consider wild, a variety of trees, some veteran apple and willow 150 years approx - recognised by the Tree Registry UK in January 2019. It is diverse and unusual and provides a much needed wildlife corridor and habitat for many different species of plants, animals and birds.

We are lucky enough to have a beekeeper with active beehives. There is also a wildflower meadow which was planted in the garden where there had been ancient ant-hills about five years ago. Brambles and nettles give a much needed shelter and food for different birds, woodmice, bank voles and watershrews. Westbury has a pair of moorhens who produce young in the spring, as well as a passing heron fishing occasionally in the moat/pond. There is a myriad of aquatic life in the pond as well as a population of very rare great crested newts both in the pond and in the swimming pool, these are a Grade I protected species and are particular to Milton Keynes.

Last year a pair of green woodpeckers nested in a hole in the willow tree by the pond, and successfully hatched two young, male and female, who were extremely noisy as they grew. These eventually fledged, first the larger one, then the other. They still called for their parents for quite some time, they are very vulnerable when they are on the ground and are not good at flying.

Lesser and common whitethroat, now increasingly rare, are and have nested in the gardens and also blackcap. Westbury has a couple couple of pairs of robins who are rearing young and blue tits nesting in the old apple tree in a hole. Jackdaws caw noisily down the chimneys during meetings in the house and build their nests on top of the chimneys. Bullfinches, another declining species, were seen in February, as well as great tits, magpies, blackbirds, who are at present nesting amongst the brambles over the cattle grid near the front gate. The bird feeders are extremely popular, particularly for the grey squirrels.

 

We have recently filmed a fox using the grounds, in fact there seems to have been quite a few foxes over the years, there may be a fox den in the bank of the moat. Badgers have been seen in the past. Hedgehogs have been tracked and noted in the garden.

Primroses, dog violets, wood anemones, celandines, nettles, brambles, honesty and a variety of planted flowers are present during the spring and summer. There is a patch of common comfrey near the barn which provides a much a much needed major source of nectar for bees.

Trees, bushes, hedgerows and low lying areas provide much needed shelter for many birds and other animals.

Westbury is on top of a hill and can sometimes be quite windswept but enjoys a unique habitat for many different plants, animals and birds and is of great importance especially with the decline of many species throughout Britain. Gardening is being done as sympathetically as it is possible to do, whilst encouraging wildlife as much as possible, maintaining a neater appearance in some areas which appeals to visitors and artists.'

The video footage below was captured over a few months in our grounds.

Milton Keynes' Natural History Society put together this report that goes into more details about what they have discovered in our grounds.

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