AN EXHIBITION of hand carved sculptures by a highly respected artist and wife of one of the Windermere Boys has opened.

Arza Helfgott's In Harmony runs until July 2 in Lake District Holocaust Project’s gallery adjacent to its permanent exhibition that tells the remarkable story of the 300 child Holocaust survivors who travelled from Prague to recuperate in the Lake District in 1945.

Arza’s husband is Ben Helfgott, who was one of the young survivors, known locally as the Windermere Boys, who stayed for a short time at the Calgarth Estate at Troutbeck Bridge. Ben is now president of the 45 Aids Society for Holocaust Survivors, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Yad Vashem Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Among his many distinguished awards is an MBE for his services to the community.

Arza exhibits both an ability to work with, and enormous sensitivity to, a variety of materials, including different types of wood and stone.

Director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, Trevor Avery, said that the beautiful sculptural work by Arza was a perfect inclusion in the LDHP programme. "Many of the visitors to our permanent exhibition about the survivors seek out a place to sit and reflect," explained Trevor.

"The best sculptors have a sensitivity to the materials that can bring out these inherent qualities of any raw material and in doing so they help us all in our understanding of our place in the physical world.

"We would place Arza in the highest realm of those sculptors who bring huge sensitivity to the material and who can extract the essence of what the material actually is. It is an ability and gift that can only be refined through continuous hard work. "The amount of refinement that is required for working with often unforgiving material is a quality that too many underestimate.”

The exhibition is located on the first floor of Windermere Library, open Monday and Saturday, 10am-1pm, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 10am-4pm.