NEW Alresford town centre is set to come alive this summer with “face finders” as residents and visitors of all ages hunt for colourful ‘faces’ hidden in windows around the town.

The activity is designed to offer visitors and residents the opportunity to enjoy the town centre in a somewhat unusual way, discovering the wide variety of shops and eateries in Alresford.

In its second year, the participants’ mission is to hunt for 25 masks which have been hidden on Broad Street, West Street and East Street. Each mask is accompanied by a letter which must be written on the entry form next to the photograph of the mask. Those who manage to find all of the masks are entered into a draw to win prizes such as craft kits, haircuts, wine and gift vouchers, all donated by local businesses.

Just as importantly, the face-finding mission gives pupils at Perins secondary school the opportunity to display their artwork in town centre shops. Each of the masks has been handmade by a year seven pupil after a cultural arts day during which visual artist Teresa Paiva demonstrated the art of mask making.

Lorna Billington, head of art at Perins School, said: “Although the children all had access to the same materials, they managed to come up with completely individual designs, and all in the space of 45 minutes. It is great to work with visiting professional artists and year seven had a fantastic day of creative arts activities.”

The face-finding activity is being co-ordinated by Winchester City Council’s newly-appointed market towns support officer, Katherine Lemon, whose position was created in response to the success of the market towns development work undertaken to date by the economy and arts team, and the desire of the towns involved (Alresford, Bishop’s Waltham, Denmead and Wickham) to see even greater achievements.

Steve Miller, portfolio holder for estates and economy at Winchester City Council, is proud of the success of the team.

“Katherine has already proved to be an excellent addition to the team,” he said. “We need this extra resource to ensure our market towns remain fit for the future. We are building capacity among all four of our market towns to achieve more and more in a highly competitive environment. The Alresford face-finding mission is a great example of showcasing some brilliant businesses.”

The free face-finding mission runs from tomorrow to September 3. Entry forms have been distributed to infant and junior schools and are available in shops and restaurants in Alresford, the library and community centre.