We are thrilled to have been invited to run some activities at the new MET – the Mobile Event Tent – in Preston city centre, on the site of the old Indoor Market next to the Flag Market. Our thanks to Preston City Council and to Professor Charles Quick at In Certain Places, UCLan for the opportunity.
We are busy putting plans together so watch this space for more info but following on from the feedback we received from Making A Mark 2021 and the most popular activities, it will include performance and drop-in workshops with the Worldwise Samba Drummers and Life Drawing with others still being planned, with opportunities for everyone to join in.
Meanwhile please put Friday 3rd June, the day of the Queen’s Jubilee, in your diaries – we’ll be at the MET all day with actual times to be confirmed. Do come along, say Hello and join in. See you then
After posting online and on Twitter last year that we had been celebrating our 10th birthday in 2021, Twitter decided we were under age and so suspended our Twitter account @Oxheys Despite reporting this error and numerous attempts to seek account restoration, their “support” simply goes around in endless circles – it is impossible to actually make contact with a human. We have pleaded with them to restore our account but still either get no response or a stock email saying the issue seems to be related to a previous report so has been added to that. 6 months later we still have no active Twitter account!
Plans are ongoing for running Making A Mark 2022 on the Flag Market in Preston city centre on 23rd July 2022, for which we are grateful to Preston City Council for their ongoing support. The event will be on a smaller scale this year due to uncertainties ongoing from the pandemic but please do put the date in your diaries, come in to Preston City centre and enjoy some art, some samba and some creativity. More detail will be made available soon. See you then
Our Making A Mark event this year although successful, did not go quite as we had originally planned due to Covid-19 lockdown measures and having been postponed from 2020. Some of the activities could no longer go ahead and some artists could not take part while others were no longer practical or possible, so a complete rethink was needed. The participating artists were fantastic, in most cases adapting their proposals to meet some ever changing guidance as we waited until just a few weeks before the planned date before things could be finalised. We are very grateful to them for their flexibility and support and for being part of such a fantastic event on July 17th.
Worldwise Samba Drummers lead the parade through Preston City Centre on Saturday 17th July as part of Making A Mark 2021. They received second place in the public vote for the favourite activity on the day and were followed by dozens of people as they marched through the city, holding up the traffic down Fishergate and then down to the main road and back up through Friargate to the Harris Museum and Gallery.
At the recent Making A Mark event on Preston Flag Market, we asked visitors to leave their feedback and to vote for their favourite artistic activity or installation. We had an amazing response, with lots of very positive feedback so huge thanks to everyone who filled in and left their feedback forms. Over 98% of visitors said they would attend a similar event in the future with over a third mentioning the lovely atmosphere. We were very lucky with the weather however and being the first event as lockdown lifted that no doubt helped.
The results have been checked and verified and we are delighted to announce the winners are:
At Oxheys we have always firmly believed in community and making or facilitating art in the community is what we do and what we enjoy. In the lead up to our Making A Mark event on Preston Flag Market on 17th July 2021, some of our artists ran workshops in the community which were even more important when so much activity had stopped due to the pandemic.
Evelyn and Caroline ran two pre-event workshops at Preston Market and covered various book making, card making and related subjects. An unexpected opportunity then let them run two more workshops, one at the community cafe in Ashton, which was a great venue and was welcome as not much activity had been taking place in the area due to the pandemic.
Thank you. A huge thank you to Preston, the City Council, all the wonderful artists and everyone who joined us and took part in this wonderful day on Saturday. It was the biggest and most successful Making A Mark event which was fitting as we celebrated it’s 5th anniversary in Oxheys’ 10th anniversary year. What a day!
After months of uncertainty due to the various changing coronavirus restrictions, we are excited to confirm that Making A Mark will definitely be taking place this year on the Flag Market in Preston City Centre on Saturday July 17th 2021 11am til 4pm. Whilst some restrictions are still in place, after close discussion with Preston City Council it was felt that, providing everyone exercises common sense and respect for others and providing certain considerations were taken into account that the event could still take place.
Still entitled “Changing World” it couldn’t be more relevant – our world has certainly changed in the time since this event was first planned and sadly, not all of the activities originally planned can go ahead and not all of the artists who were originally booked are able to take part. However, artists are nothing if not creative so some whose original plans couldn’t go ahead due to the restrictions, have rethought and replanned their activities so that they can still be part of it. Those who sadly have been unable to do so will hopefully be able to join with us for a future event.
After some discussion with Preston City Council we are pleased to advise that the new date for our Making A Mark event for 2021 has been confirmed as Saturday 17th July. Previously we advised this was to be on the 10th July but has since had to be changed due to coinciding with another event scheduled for that day. So Saturday 17th July it is – we hope to see you then, by which time we all hope the current restrictions will have been lifted.
