Bewdley Festival organisers attended an awards ceremony to honour those they had nominated as cultural champions.

Festival volunteers Kathryn Key, Carole Swingler and Jos Swingler and sponsor Bob Davies, of Robert Arthur Davies Ltd independent insurance advisors went to the Arts and Business awards.

The reception was held at the Jaguar Car Visitor Centre in Birmingham, on Thursday, March 29, to honour 23 Jaguar Land Rover Cultural Champions for Arts and Business. Four of those appointed champions were nominated by Bewdley Festival.

The awards recognise, applaud and celebrate the work of individuals and businesses who have shown outstanding support and commitment to an arts or cultural organisation in their community.

Speakers Philip Spedding, director of Arts and Business, Les Ratcliffe head of community relations corporate governance and social responsibility for Jaguar Land Rover, and Stephen Howard, chief executive of Business in the Community all stressed the importance of such support for the arts during the economic downturn and praised the cultural champions for making the best contributions to the arts in the Midlands.