Art for All - Stephen Raw

Every year at the festival we commission an artist or artists to create an artwork based around what we are doing, and then make a limited edition print of each of these pieces .Hold on, Free Art, there must be a catch? Well, there is. But we think it’s a bonus, not a catch! There’s so much great stuff to visit around site to do with the Visual Arts programme, as you can see from these listings pages, and here’s your incentive to get round them all! In each Visual Arts venue onsite you’ll find one of 6 different rubber stamps.Visit all the venues and print all 6 of these onto the special form you can pick up from the info desk in The Hub & then hurry to the Scriptorium in those 3 rooms to claim your free limited edition print. We will be giving them away ‘til we run out. So don’t delay and get collecting when you arrive on site.This years print will be by Stephen Raw.Stephen Raw (born London 1952) has lived in Manchester for the last thirty years. He has been a self-employed artist and designer since he returned to Britain from two years teaching at the National Arts School in Papua New Guinea.Stephen’s work is varied, from paintings in exhibitions through to cover designs for Carcanet Press and his commercial lettering for a variety of clients, including leading publishers, architects and design groups throughout Europe. ‘Fundamental to all my artwork’ Stephen says, ‘is a love of language and how that language is given a visual dimension through signs we simply call letters: never-failing sources of inspiration. Letters are images in themselves and, for me, that’s more than enough to be getting on with.‘You can hear Stephen talk about his work in the Scriptorium on Sunday at 6.30