Kidderminster Arts Festival (KAF) returns in August and this year it is reinventing itself with a new format. The festival is organised by Wyre Forest District Council with support from numerous other groups. Once again there will be a fabulous line-up of performances and workshops in the town from August 11 to 25.

This year the district council has secured funding from Arts Council England to bring a spectacular final event.

Loz Samuels, the district council’s arts and play development officer said: “It is going to be great to see KAF back on the streets of Kidderminster.

“We’re very excited about the finale event. It’s called ‘BLOOM’ and will be part of the Paralympics Torch Relay celebrations. It’s a live projection event and will see Crown House in the centre of Kidderminster transformed into a large-scale multi-media artwork and everyone has a chance to be involved.

“We would like to thank the Swan Shopping Centre, The Penny Black and ReWyre for their support with this project.”

Crown House will be taken over on August 24 and 25 and there will be live projected images as the east side of the building acts as a seven-story outdoor canvas. The 40-minute extravaganza will be set to original music.

Peter Barber, of Urban Canvas, who is the man behind the paintings which now reside in Coronation Gardens and the ones in the canal tunnel next to St Mary’s Church, will be working on the project in collaboration with Urban Projections.

Peter said: “It’s a really exciting opportunity to use such an unusual canvas for our work.

“We hope to provide local people a completely new and exciting way of seeing their town centre at night, along with the opportunity to become involved in a unique piece of visual art.”

To be part of the project, you need to send four photographs in slightly different poses of yourself or someone you admire to arts@wyreforest dc. gov.uk using BLOOM as the subject. The person in the picture should either live in Kidderminster or have a strong connection with the town. You need to provide your name, contact details and those of the person in the picture, and explain why you should be part of the show.

Please make sure the photographs are landscape and taken on a dark background and also that there is a gap between the person’s head and the top of the photo (see the examples).

There is limited availability and photos may appear on either night, although all photographs will be included in an exhibition in the gallery at Kidderminster library.

The deadline for contributions is July 20 and for more information see the KAF facebook page http://on.fb.me/BloomKAF Funding has also been given to KAF by Worcestershire County Council through a Strategic Development Grant to support the growth of the festival over a two-year period. Loz added: “We will be working with experts to look at how we can make KAF bigger and better in the future.

“This is a very exciting time for KAF and a great reward for all the support and effort that goes into it from local artists, audiences, funders, and partners.”