Joshua Lyness, Potter in Residence, Loaf Pottery Crawfordsburn helps Mayor of Ards and North Down, Cllr Richard Smart launch Creative Peninsula with showing him some handy pottery skills.

Creative Peninsula, Northern Ireland’s largest celebration of Art and Craft was officially launched in Ards and North Down recently.

 Now in its 17th year, this thriving annual event brings together local artists and craftspeople to dem­onstrate their skills and showcase their work.

Taking place from Fri 3 - Wed 15 Aug 2018, Crea­tive Peninsula, organised by Ards and North Down Borough Council, offers free and bookable opportu­nities for people of all ages and levels of experience to see, learn about and even ‘try their hand’ at a host of different art and craft forms practiced in the lo­cal area. Featuring, open studios, tours, exhibitions, workshops, demonstra­tions and more, Creative Peninsula is an ideal way to experience what the lo­cal art and craft industries have to offer.

The programme kicks-off with ‘Creative Peninsula in the Square’ at Conway Square in Newtownards on Friday 3 August. For one day only the space will be transformed into a tented arts and crafts village with more than 30 artists and makers displaying and selling their work. Free demonstrations includ­ing throwing on a potter’s wheel, acrylic painting, pastels, printing sculpting and wool spinning will run throughout the day.

New to the programme for 2018 is the Late-Night Art Tour. Prepare for an evening tour with a differ­ence! Hop on a late-night Art Bus to visit some of the Creative Peninsula open studios for an insight into how the artworks are creat­ed. Enjoy nibbles or a glass of wine/craft beer at each location and an opportu­nity to chat to artists and makers. Taking in a total of five studios, the tour with depart from and return to North Down Museum on Wednesday 8 August.

Mayor of Ards and North Down, Councillor Richard Smart said: “With over 20,000 attendees each year, Creative Penin­sula has become one of the most inspirational, educa­tional and vocational crea­tive festivals attracting people from all corners of Northern Ireland. Ards and North Down is very fortunate to have one of the largest concentrations of artists and craftspeople living and working here and unsurprisingly the area has a thriving creative industry. We are delighted to be able to offer this event again which allows artists and craftspeople showcase their knowledge and members of the public to learn.”

Arts and Heritage Man­ger for Ards and North Down Borough Council, Emily Crawford also commented: “Earlier this year Ards and North Down launched its new ‘Blue:Green, Creatively Connected’ Strategy for tourism, regeneration and economic development which we will follow to bring prosperity and growth to the Borough. This strategy makes use of the Borough’s three par­ticular strengths, our land­scape, the creativity of our people and our proximity to places of opportunity. Our distinctiveness is de­rived in a large part from these three assets and the synergies between them and our creativity is an important part of this. We are delighted to have such a talented and skilled industry and to be able to play homage to this via this festival.”

The 2018 Creative Pe­ninsula brochure is avail­able to download at visi­tardsandnorthdown.com/creative-peninsula Tickets for bookable events are also available from this website.

You can pick up a pro­gramme or find out more information on all the events on offer from Ards Arts Centre, Ards Crafts and North Down Museum, at any of the local visitor information centres (Ards, Bangor and Portaferry) or by contacting the Council directly on 0300 013 3333.