I first had the idea in 2013. I had just moved into my flat above the gallery in Lion Street and my first grandchild had been born. Living in the border town of Hay-on-Wye was so deliciously exciting that I just wanted to hug everyone and become a Hay Hugger. And I did. Then COVID arrived and we all distanced ourselves making ourselves separate. My three week exhibition ‘here in Hay we hug’ at The Table in August ‘26 with t-shirts, posters and postcards is intended as a hopeful humorous reversal of this trend.

Photograph yourself hugging next to my mannequin in the window of the gallery, post on IG tagging @thetablehay, and you could win yourself a free t-shirt. Otherwise order through the website and carry on hugging.

This celebratory exhibition is also raising funds for my Schools on Tobago Art Mural Project (STAMP). We have painted the first mural with the schoolchildren at Castara Primary School but there are forty more Primary Schools across the island and they all want to paint their own mural. Any profit made from sales of Hay Hugger merchandise will benefit all those Tobago schoolchildren.

I could not have realised this madcap project without the talent and unfailing good humour of iconic photographer Billie Charity.