The second ever Ganmain Arts Festival on Ford will be held on June 24 and 25.

The Art Festival will transform Ford Street with art from local artists in different disciplines to be featured in storefronts, businesses and the town hall.

Organiser Myfanwy Colette said that they have tried to improve even further on the event after last year’s great success.

“We were amazed how wonderful it was last year, so we’ve tried to improve on it,” Ms Colette said.

“We’ve increased our artists this year and we also have a art studio here now which will be open but our biggest display will be in the town hall.

“What we aim for is a fun for families, it doesn’t cost anything and just to come have a pleasant day wandering around.”

The festival was created last year when Myfanwy’s stepdaughter Rosemary Ashton wanted to showcase her paintings in Ganmain.

The paintings were done while she was in Ganmain to help take care of her late father and featured local farmers as well as the Ganmain landscape during harvest season.

Both Ms Colette and Ms Ashton seized the opportunity to also include other local artists and transformed Ford Street into a gallery in late June last year.

“Last year we had our inaugural art festival because we lost our local doctor and his daughter is an artist who did a lot of painting in town and she was coming to show her paintings,” Ms Colette said.

“So we thought we might turn it into more than one person so we invited local artists to come along and present their paintings.

“It was a very successful weekend so we decided to make it an annual event.”

There will also be 20 paintings on show during the event from a local art group from the 70’s which consisted of local women, one of which was a art teacher at the arts and craft school.

Various business and groups in the community will also be participating on the day, either making art or showcasing pieces.

The Fisher and Farmer gift shop who stock art from a few artists in Wagga will be holding meet and greet with some of the artists for interested parties to attend.

The schools will be combining in order to create a display in the park with giant multicoloured lollipops which each student will have a chance to paint on.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 8 June 2023.