High Wycombe woman opens African Christmas exhibition for charity
15 November 2013
This weekend a Buckinghamshire woman will mark 22 years of bringing unique African art back to the UK by opening a Christmas exhibition at Fillingdon Farm in Piddington near High Wycombe.
Entitled ‘Festive Flavouring’, the exhibition will open on Saturday 16th November and showcase plenty of new work as well as many seasonal favourites. The proceeds from entry donations and money raised from refreshments will go towards UK charity Farm Africa which is working with smallholder farmers in eastern Africa to help end hunger, for good.
The Zimbabwean born Deborah Digby has been collecting African art for 22 years, travelling to remote corners of eastern and southern Africa to buy high quality, hand-crafted African art: vividly coloured paintings in oils, pastels and watercolours; stone sculptures and figurines from Zimbabwe; jewellery made from African silver as well as ostrich shell and woven sisal; beautifully painted salad bowls and cushion covers, cards and gift-tags.
The art is sold year-round from the farmhouse and twice a year Deborah stages open exhibitions in the grounds of the farm, like this one, where members of the public are welcome to browse and to purchase items. To find out more about Festive Flavouring exhibition please visit www.fillingdon.com
The 48 year old mother of three was born and grew up in Zimbabwe before coming to the UK where she set up her business in 1991. Since then she has returned each year to seek out talented artists in remote corners of Kenya, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Each item brought back to the UK for sale on her Fillingdon farm is carefully hand-selected and bought directly from the artists, all of whom Debs meets personally so as to establish a rapport and ongoing relationship.
Deborah explained, “I support Farm Africa because while we are based in the beautiful English countryside many of our crafters come from African rural communities and I want the exhibition to raise funds that can help support rural families. I personally like Farm Africa’s approach to helping provide long term solutions to hunger rather than short term fixes; by supporting the charity I am helping people sustain themselves.”
The exhibition is free and will be open daily 10am–5pm between 16th– 24th November 2013.
Ends
Images are available on request.
Farm Africa press office:
Matt Whitticase mattheww@farmafrica.org 020 7 067 1237
Ngaio Bowthorpe ngaiob@farmafrica.org 020 7841 5156
Notes to Editor:
About Farm Africa
Farm Africa supports farmers living at subsistence level, constantly at risk of crop failure, to build food and income security so that they can grow a better and reliable future for their families.
By focusing on ‘climate smart’ agricultural and forestry techniques, building market links and adding value to production, Farm Africa unleashes the entrepreneurial abilities of the farmers and rural communities they work with.
This is the time to turn challenge into opportunity for African farmers. Farm Africa believes passionately that smallholders can and will play a key role in achieving rural prosperity in Africa.
To help more farmers beat hunger for good please visit www.farmafrica.org
About Art of Africa
Established in London 1991, Art of Africa hand-selects the best in original art and craft from countries across eastern and southern Africa, and presents it in the rural aesthetic beauty of the scenic Chiltern Hills.
Contemporary paintings, modern sculpture, decorative and functional ceramics, distinctive jewellery and unique crafts are on show twice a year at the popular exhibitions held at Fillingdon Farm.
Art of Africa website: www.fillingdon.com
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