Arts champions from across East Devon were honoured at the East Devon District Council Chairman’s Garden Party held at Knowle in Sidmouth recently

The 20 champions were nominated by their town and parish councils and they were invited to the party to thank them for their invaluable contribution to their local communities.

The following champions were nominated by their respective town or parish council.

• Tony and Jenny Fells (Axminster) are founder members of Axminster Arts, set up some twenty years ago to promote the arts in the Axminster area.

A cafe was set up and the profits were used towards the funding of bursaries for young artists.

• Retired teacher and journalist Anna Day Lewis (Colyton) thought painting might be a good way to use her time but became much more involved with sculpture. For the last 20 years she has been running three-day sculpture courses twice a year in the Peace Memorial Hall.

• Pauline Selhurst (Honiton) is a painting artist and restorer, who was responsible for the restoration of the large oil painting of Juanita Maxwell Phillips which hangs outside the town council offices in the Beehive. She is also well known locally for her own paintings and has held several exhibitions.

• Richard Barrell (Membury) runs a group, Sing for Your Health, which meets on Friday in the village hall. It also performs at various venues and events as the Membury Raucous Chorus.

Richard conducts the choir and composes some of the music.

• Rosemary Jacks (Musbury) is a local potter of growing repute and was responsible for designing and making the ceramic footpath markers for Musbury’s network.

Each plaque bore the footpath number and a depiction of the natural world - flower, bird, animal - relevant to the location.

• Elisabeth Miller (Shute) has been key to the Shute Theatre and Arts Guild (STAG) an amateur theatrical group based in Shute for over 20 years. She has directed many STAG productions which cover a large range of genres.

• Maggie Lane (Yarcombe) has given her services for a number of years in helping to create a voluntary music group in the village - starting with Maggie’s Men which morphed into Maggie’s Mix. She also developed the All Sorts Musical Instrument Ensemble.