The 30th exhibition of the Buckley and Mold Arts Society"

Library, The Precinct, Buckley

4 July 2000

This was the last exhibition to be held before the Society was disbanded.

PRESS RELEASE FOR EXHIBITION

THE BUCKLEY AND MOLD ARTS SOCIETY

(A brief history)

Welcome to Mold and Buckley Art Society's 30th annual exhibition in Buckley.

The present society was founded in late 1969 out of Buckley's historical "PAST &

PRESENT" exhibition at Hawkesbury, and begun its life in the January of 1970 as part

of the Buckley Young People's Cultural Association under Mr Frank Birtwistle.

The arts society started out as the "Buckley Art Society" and with a broader

expansion of the membership expanded its name to accommodate an annual showing in Mold.

Our history goes back much further than the late 1960's because the very first art club

was begun here in Buckley in 1945/6 and also at Hawkesbury, with such artists as

Herbert Parker, John Whormsley, William Roberts, William Ithil, Terry Martin, Hilda

Fennah, Charles Kelsall, Edward Messham and William MacAllister Turner P.R.C.A.

of Art Conwy to name just a few.

When the first club folded in the mid 1950's it was John Whormsley of the older

institution who made the link between the two by being one of the second club's

founder members, along with Darrel Catherall (first Secretary), John Kenneth Edwards

(first Chairman), Jennifer Jones (first Treasurer,) Douglas Thompson, John Taylor

Davies, Raymond Chesters, Joseph Chesters, and Vernon Hughes (Head of the Elfed

School Art Department).

The Society in its early years had as its President Mr Thomas Dempster Jones

photographer and painter whose international amateur achievements gave the society

an illuminating figurehead.

Each year since those early beginnings the society has undergone a wide and varied

programme which has included special exhibition visits to the country's major galleries, and well known guest artists from the locality and further afield have enriched the society's meetings over the years with oil, and watercolour & pastel painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, print making, glass engraving, Chinese brush painting, silk painting, and the arts of many other diverse crafts.

The society can also be proud of a membership that has produced accepted exhibitors

at Royal Artistic Institutions. The present society meets in the Elfed School Art

department during school term time on Thursday Evenings from 7.00 to 9.00 pm.

The society in its founding constitution was formed to encourage the visual arts

through lectures, exhibitions and instruction.

J. I. Chesters

Author: Chesters, Joe

The 30th exhibition of the Buckley and Mold Arts Society"

Library, The Precinct, Buckley

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