THIS year’s Purbeck Art Weeks (PAW) Festival theme is ‘Out of Depths’, it has been announced.

The district-wide event, which runs at a number of different Purbeck venues for two weeks from the end of May, will also include plenty of workshops where visitors can get hands-on experience.

Festival spokesman Charlotte Heath said this year’s theme “gives young and older people plenty of scope to let their imaginations run riot on dinosaurs, local history and myths, and creatures from the sea.”

A dinosaur created from clay tiles and emerging from Tilly Whim caves is being made by students from The Swanage School and The Purbeck School.

This project, supported by local businesses, will join the ceramic Community Tree of Life on Swanage seafront.

Other attractions this year include a carved stone plinth, depicting the early life of Purbeck - from the Jurassic period to the Vikings. Students from the Swanage School have been hard at work carving this at the Burngate Stone Carving Centre, supported by local sculptor Carlotta Barrow.

Burngate Centre tutor Alan Davis said: “Students in both groups have had a great time being involved in the projects.”

Meanwhile, Swanage School art and design tutor Tori Farren said: “We are very excited to be involved in this Purbeck Art Weeks Project with ceramicist Dawn Newlove from Sunshine Ceramics.

Students have also been working with members of Wareham Seniors Forum to create a series of brightly-coloured flags. These will be displayed at various PAW events.

This year also features the Purbeck Young Artists scheme, with artist-led workshops taking place at 13 local schools in the Bovington, Wool, Wareham and Swanage areas.

The art created at these workshops, inspired by this year’s theme, will be shown at a Rollington Bar exhibition.

Tickets and programmes for all events are available from purbeckartweeks.co.uk and tourist offices in Wareham and Swanage.

The festival runs from May 23 until June 7