Art lovers are being encouraged to discover the wealth of artistic talent on offer in Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland.

Open For Art is a new exciting venture for south Dorset and attracted more than 100 people at its launch on Friday. (19)

Featuring more than 80 artists in more than 40 venues across the area, the event has been organised voluntarily by members of the not-for-profit arts organisation, Artwey, and has been financially supported by Weymouth BID.

The Open For Art launch took place at the Old Town Hall in Weymouth. The attendees of the launch included the new Mayor of Weymouth and Portland Councillor Kevin Brookes, new Mayor of Portland Councillor David Thurston and outgoing Mayor of Dorchester, Councillor Tim Harries at then end of mayoral year.

It also included sponsors Artwey CIC, Weymouth BID Ltd and Domvs.

The artists will be exhibiting their work across a variety of venues, including not only permanent studios and gallery spaces, but in offices, cafés and historic buildings.

A number of artists have also opened up their homes.

Open For Art has been primarily organised by Carol Cruickshank and Olivia Nurrish, artists with the Artwey group.

Speeches made at the launch commenced by recognising the beauty and history that Weymouth has to offer and how lucky the artists were to live and work in such cultural and historic surroundings.

Prizes were given out to young artists who had been recognised by the group as budding artists.

Carol thanked everyone for their support including the army of volunteers who have distributed more than 20,000 Open for Art brochures across the south of Dorset.

Cllr Brookes officially opened the exhibition and announced to the audience that this was his first official engagement as Mayor of Weymouth and Portland and was very supportive of all art and culture in the borough and south Dorset.

Nigel Reed, manager of Weymouth Bid said: "We are pleased to be supporting this promotion of local artists through the Open for Art event.

"We have helped ArtWey with their own marketing and through the We are Weymouth website and social media platforms we can reach a wider audience.

"A visitor newsletter detailing the Open for Art exhibition was sent to more than 6,000 people this week.”

Olivia Nurrish, co-organiser of Open for Art added: “I would like to thank our sponsors and also Nikki Davies from Wowz design who has helped design the brochure and branding for the exhibition, but most of all I would like to thank our artists for their hard work and willingness to open their studios and exhibit their work”.

The Open for Art exhibition will run until Sunday, June 4.

Visit weareweymouth.co.uk/event/open-for-art for further details.