WORK from more than 30 Moretonhampstead artists is now part of the first exhibition at a new art gallery for the town.

The gallery is part of Green Hill, a new community-owned building that opened in December 2011. The exhibition is comprised of paintings, photographs, watercolours, ceramics, sculpture and performance.

Green Hill is the flagship project of the Moretonhampstead Dev-elopment Trust, which involved the asset transfer of the town's old primary school and its £750,000 capital conversion into a mixed use, community-owned building.

It includes artist studios, the new art gallery, a heritage centre and archives, a dedicated youth centre, community and commercial offices and workspace.  

The gallery is run by a steering group made up of local artists. Working hard with the development trust they aim to develop a high calibre programme of work, exhibitions and outreach to encourage visitors to the area and to promote a culture of lively, thought provoking and celebratory art.

In the exhibition's first 'Local Open' phase, the work is unselected, and every artist who applied will have at least one piece hung. The second phase is a 'Selected Open', made up of works chosen by a panel of artists living outside of the parish boundary.

Performance artist Lucy Patrick will be testing the boundaries between art and real life in her daily performance 'No. 67'. Lucy said: 'In this interactive piece I will be dressing up as a cleaner and collecting dust and dirt off visitors' footwear. The performance is about challenging visitors, artists and staff at the gallery to reconsider their respective roles within that space.'

Entry to the exhibition is free. The Local Open exhibition will run until February 18.

The exhibition will run from February 25 to March 17. The gallery is situated at the top of Fore Street, and is open from 10am to 4pm from Tuesday to Saturday.