SALISBURY Arts Centre has been transformed into a house of fairy tales with a family orientated exhibition inspired by fairy tales, myth and folklore.

The House of Fairy Tales is an arts project set up by Gavin Turk and Deborah Curtis in 2007 to champion the role of creative play in art and life and bring critically engaged visual arts practice to children, young people and their families.

It includes works by artists from the Salisbury region such as sculptor Charlotte Moreton and ceramicist Julie Ayton as well as from further afield.

The project also features some items on loan, such as an etching and aquatint by Elizabeth Frink (on loan from The John Creasey Museum, Salisbury).

Launched over the weekend of August 7 and 8 when members of the public were invited to add characters and stories to the clay story mountain and paint or draw an animal or object on the Metamorphoses Mural.

The mural’s story is based on the Salisbury legend that the Bishop of Old Sarum shot an arrow in the direction he would build the cathedral. The arrow hit a deer and the deer finally died in the place where Salisbury Cathedral is now situated.

Instead of drawing the cathedral where the deer finally rested, artist Ellie Curtis drew a tree to symbolise the circle of life where things that die transform into other natural life forms.

Children who visit the Arts Centre are being invited to add creatures and other natural forms to the tree.

The mural will evolve during the exhibition’s run, which ends on September 18.