Central Library celebrates Paint Fest with carnival of creativity

Children can enjoy a free day of activities at Central Library as part of this weekend’s Paint Fest.

Families can drop into Central Library for a Paint Fest Family Fun Day between 11am and 4pm on Saturday (31 August).

Children aged three to 11 will be able to make mandala patterns, mythical creatures and monsters, magic water colour bookmarks, pavement art, bags and pencil cases, and more. They can try different techniques including foam, fabric, stencils, sponges, straws, chalk, as well as traditional brushes.

The library will supply white tote bags or pencil cases for children to paint. Or they can bring their own small, clean, cotton items, including t-shirts.

Families can play a Paint Fest treasure hunt, and giant games including skittles, Connect 4 and Jenga. The library is also making giant board games, which families will be invited to help paint. The finished games will be available for families to play in future.

There will be a professional face painter, story times, word games, and a selection of children’s and adult books to giveaway.

The day has been organised as part of Swindon Paint Fest, which will see local, national and international artists create street art across the town on Saturday (31 Aug) and Sunday (1 Sep).

Then, from Monday 2 to Saturday 28 September, Central Library will host Paint Fest Exhibition, a free exhibition featuring of some of the large mural boards painted during Paint Fest.

Councillor Marina Strinkovsky, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Placemaking, said: “I’m excited Central Library is part of this year’s Paint Fest. The family fun day and exhibition are a wonderful way for families to enjoy trying different creative activities for free.

“We’re proud to support Paint Fest which does a great job of brightening up our town as well as getting the community involved in amazing artwork, and we were very happy to provide a number of locations across the Borough for their incredible art.

“As well as this excellent event at Central Library there are a number of other great activities taking place this weekend and I encourage as many people to take part as possible.”

Caryn Koh, one of the Paint Fest organisers, said: “We’re excited to have the library as one of the Paint Fest event partners. The activities they’ve planned really complement the rest of the programme.

“It’s a really accessible way for families to be involved and try different things, not just those who are good at painting. And the exhibition is great for those who are not able to visit the street-based painting or workshops, or follow the mural trail.”

See the Paint Fest website for details of the other activities happening across Swindon.

Paint Fest also links with the ‘Marvellous Makers’ theme of this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. Children can pick up a free pack at the Family Fun Day or at any Swindon Library until 8 September.