COLOURFUL paintings and striking photographs could soon be dotted around the city centre as art lovers prepare to put Chester back on the cultural map.

Just two weeks after the Abode hotel hosted the first ever Chester Arts Festival organisers are already dreaming of making next year’s event bigger, better and more diverse by scattering the galleries around the city.

Organisers are celebrating following the successful launch of the festival, which they hope will become a regular fixture on the city’s summer programme, which raised more than £2,000 to support women’s cancer charities and local children’s hospice Claire House.

The three day festival began with a charity evening which saw local businessmen and art lovers bid on limited edition paintings and prints with hundreds of people pouring into the hotel to admire the colourful paintings and buy artwork for their homes.

Now organiser and art lover Laura O’Hare is preparing for next year’s festival, which she says will be even bigger and better with more young people getting involved and a greater range of artwork spread around the city for everyone to enjoy.

“The response from the festival has been fantastic,” said Laura.

“It was great to see the business and the arts community fuse together in this way in order to promote our local talent. Chester Arts Festival is most definitely here to stay and we’ll be back next year on a much bigger scale.”