ArtsXstra

ArtsXstra is a successful group of Cheshire-based artists working in a variety of media.  We aim to mount exhibitions, provide workshops and demonstrations in places not normally associated with the arts, and to offer one another support and encouragement. *Set up in 1996 by Gill Broadhurst and Judith Quinn, local ceramicists, Moving Clay soon evolved to include artists from disciplines as varied as ceramics, painting, printmaking, textiles, wood, glass and jewellery.  Members are encouraged to explore all kinds of opportunities for exhibiting as well as to learn new skills from one another, and to share their expertise with others, particularly those who may be excluded from the arts for one reason or another.
The group exhibit their work throughout the British Isles, often mounting shows in leisure centres, corporate headquarters, vacant shop premises and shopping centres as well as the more usual gallery settings.  Through funding secured from North West Arts and The Mabel Evens Trust, they have been able to purchase their own secured exhibition stands and cases which gives them the flexibility to bring their shows to places that would not normally have the facilities to do so.

Recently the group has also been sponsored by Jobling-Gowler Solicitors in Macclesfield and has been invited to mount an exhibition each year in November/December in their Park Lane offices.  The group have also shown in The Triangle, Manchester and Knutsford Civic Centre, and in an empty showroom in Macclesfield town centre for the acclaimed ‘Macclesfield Art Shop’ project. For the last three years, as part of the Macclesfield Barnaby Festival, which is celebrated in the month of June, ArtsXstra has exhibited at Incubation Arts Ltd, Dukes Court, Macclesfield and this has been very well received and the group continue to mount exhibitions throughout the North West.

Due to the large membership of 2D artists and other disciplines within the group, it was decided in 2011 to have a name change to facilitate all disciplines, and therefore artsXstra was evolved.