A brand new arts and crafts collective will host their first exhibition this weekend in Hoe Street, on August 27.

The day will feature artists, photographers and craft makers. I met founder Sarah owens, 27, from Walthamstow, to find out more…

What is the art group called?

ART BOX

How did the group form?

It was three months ago that I first had the idea to exhibit my work. I had the work, I had the venue, but I felt like I didn’t have the confidence.

I booked the venue and walking home, my stomach in knots, I instantly called another artist friend of mine and asked them to join me to share the experience. Instantly my confidence grew so as soon as I got home I made a list of all the artists I knew that had never shown their work to the public before and I offered them to stand with me. With each hidden talent they had I found all of my worry started to disappear.

There’s a lot of artists out there whose nerves can hold them back - I know mine almost did. I wanted to offer an opportunity to artists for a free space to be themselves and to interact with other artists and to hopefully give them the confidence they gave me.

Most of us were strangers but now we are friends, it’s beautiful that art has done that.

Tell me about the exhibit

Well we are extremely lucky to be hosting our first event in Walthamstow as it’s got such a great art community, it was our main idea to have a very interactive event in order to hopefully meet some of them!

We have a sketchbook library, 13 different artists with a variety of styles and media, a few craft tables that are all completely different, and even some live music that will be played at certain times during the day.

What is planned for the future?

We hope to venture further as a group and to hopefully host more events. I’ve made some great friends, I hope to make more.

Mirth, Marvel and Maud, 186 Hoe St, Walthamstow, E17 4QH, Sunday, August 27, 12.30pm to 8pm.