SWINDON will be showered with art this weekend when more than 170 pieces are left in places around the town for people to take home for free.

Free Art Friday – a global movement kicked off by street artist ‘My Dog Sighs’ more than 10 years ago in Portsmouth – involves artists leaving work on corners around the town for members of the public to pick up for free.

This year Sarah Harris, a local artist as well as a full-time statistician, hopes to kickstart the movement in the town with a mass-drop of art this weekend.

The 47-year-old from Stratton said: “There are now about 170 pieces – which are individual pieces and also little collections – which will be distributed around the town from early in the morning on Saturday.

“They’ve all be done by 55 artists from Swindon and the surrounding areas. I have been overwhelmed with the number of pieces that I’ve been sent, from artists from Swindon and from further afield.

“At the moment I’m storing them in three bedrooms – my bedroom, and the spare room, and in my son’s bedroom so he can’t have any sleepovers until after this weekend.”

The launch of the Swindon event is set to coincide with the opening of the Smoke and Mirrors exhibition in the Jack Rabbit in Crombey Street on Friday afternoon.

Some art will be dropped during the evening, but the majority will be dropped during Saturday all over the town by Sarah and a team of four volunteers.

She said: “It’s been hard work getting it organised and I’ve had a lot of help from the artists who’ve contributed and the people who’ve helped to orgnised it.”

“We’ll drop it in any places where the public goes so not along residential streets.

“We’re just asking that nobody is too greedy. We want everyone to be able to enjoy the art but ask that people take only one or two pieces home, not ten, and leave some for somebody else to enjoy.”

For more information, visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/FreeArtFridaySwindon.