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Brenda Chapman, David Dean-Saunders and Jill Smith at the exhibition's launch

BASINGSTOKE Art Club is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a combination spring and retrospective exhibition in Fairfields Arts Centre.

In March 1948, Leslie Belton, an art teacher who worked locally, called some art students together to discuss the idea of setting up a club to cater for those who were interested in the subject.

A committee was formed and, less than two months later, the first exhibition was mounted in Brinkletts Hall (now demolished), Winchester Street, featuring 92 exhibits from 30 artists.

To make the walls useable, the artists were given permission to wallpaper the entire space with newspaper pages, hung upside down to avoid people reading them instead of looking at the art!

Annual exhibitions have continued uninterrupted ever since, moving to the old town hall in 1951 and to the Central Library in 1971.

On its 40th anniversary, the club noted that "the dream is still there that one day we shall have a proper arts centre in Basingstoke", something which was achieved with the opening of Fairfields, where the club is now based.

Over the years, exhibitions have been opened by many distinguished guests, including the Duke of Wellington, Sir Alexander Fleming and Lord Dorchester.

Further information on this exhibition - which runs until Tuesday, April 29 - is available from Fairfields on 01256 321621 or Jill Smith on 01256 770027.

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