Cheltenham Paint Festival launches new fundraising initiative

The wonderfully vibrant Cheltenham Paint Festival, now in its third year, has recently  launched a brand new crowd fundraiser scheme offering exclusive limited edition art work and ‘supporter’ or ‘sponsor an artist’ packages in return for contributing to the success of this year’s event.

The festival, which fills the town with colour and attracts top notch artists as well as hundreds of visitors each September, has recently had to make the difficult decision about the scale of this year’s event due to funding.

Festival organiser Andy Davies said “Despite our best efforts our budget is looking like it will be a third less than last year. We have support from Arts Council England, Cheltenham Borough Council, Cheltenham BID and The Brewery but some of the money we were expecting has not materialised.  This means we are still around £7,000 down.”

The festival costs in the range of £30,000 which includes bringing a host of well-known international and national artists to Cheltenham and supporting their paint, accommodation, all safety equipment, fees and expenses. This gives the town an opportunity to have some really world class arts on their doorstep.

The team at CPF decided to set up this Crowdfunder because they had lots of people get in touch asking how they can support the festival after a post on the festivals social media pages explaining the current situation.

The CPF team said - “We are massively touched by all of the positive messages from the public and contributions from the artists. With your continued support, hopefully we can deliver an incredible third year with even bigger names!”

They have updated their online shop with several packages.

For £10 you can be a ‘Festival Supporter’, get a nice feeling from doing something good, unending thanks from CPF, and be amongst the limited group of people who will be invited to a top secret free paint festival event.

A £30 ‘Sponsor an Artist’ package will give you a hand-written thank you in return for providing the paint for a randomly selected artist at our festival. It will be due to you that they are invited to present artwork, so go and see your sponsored artist at work say hello.

For £100 you can pick up an ‘Art Pack’, giving you a selection of exclusive artworks from the festival artists. This lucky dip could include original art, prints, stickers and other artwork with a guarantee that the value will be well in excess of the pack price.

Other special gifts include limited edition, screen printed artist T Shirts for just £18 from My Dog Sighs and SP Zero, with more items being added to the online shop over the coming weeks.

For anyone wishing to build their brand with the festival, CPF still have sponsorship packages available and there are other ways you can financially support the event so please do get in touch.

Cheltenham Paint Festival is based in and around the town from September 2nd-8th.

To check out the crowdfunder go to: https://cheltenhampaintfestival.bigcartel.com/ or visit the Paint Festival website on: https://www.cheltenhampaintfestival.co.uk/