Carole Hamby is focused - juggling her time between this year's Kendal Windows on Art programme in September, and winding down her own exhibition at the Owl Barn, in Ulverston.

She is a woman with boundless energy and enthusiasm for all things artistic.

Originally involved in dance, she has choreographed the transition from performing to visual art to become one of the region's leading painters in the abstract mode.

Kendal Windows on Art was her vision which she's nurtured into a bigger and better event year-by-year.

Streetfest is this year's exciting new project to come under the KWoA banner.

A Kendal town centre fiesta of stilt walkers, unicyclists, plate spinners, acrobats, jugglers and wandering minstrels.

A colourful spectacle across the town's main shopping areas on Saturday, September 8 (10am-4pm), with musicians popping up in the National Westminster Bank, the Prelude restaurant and other retail outlets at Elephant Yard.

"Kendal Windows on Art isn't (yet) a multi-million enterprise, but we are working on it.

The aim is certainly to benefit not only our local artists, but also, in the long run, tourism and the economy in and around Kendal, for everyone's advantage.

"What I hope most of all is that people are beginning to realise the event is for them and a good thing to be involved in."

From Saturday, September 1, until September 16, Kendal will be awash with art.

Shop windows across town will host paintings, sculptures and other art created by more than 60 artists.

And 80 venues altogether will take part in KWoA related affairs.

Chris Bostock holds a storytelling workshop in the library on September 1 (11am-12.30pm) and Westmorland Orchestra conductor and popular local musician Barry Sharkey plays piano and chats about composers painting pictures, in Every Note Tells a Story, at the Brewery Arts Centre on Tuesday, September 4 (8pm).

People's legends come under the spotlight at the Castle Dairy Restaurant when Nick Hennessey sings and plays on Thursday, September 6 (8pm), and Carole herself steps in at Abbot Hall Art Gallery in a day-long workshop (10.30am-4.30pm) on Tuesday, September 11, studying the contemporary creations of artist Paula Rego, in Movement Makes its Mark.

Well-known wordsmith Maggie Norton gets in on the action with a workshop for writers at the Riverside Hotel on Wednesday, September 12 (10am-4pm) and one of the three Farm Projects is in the creative hands of Robert Henfrey, at Crooklands Hotel and Farm Shop, on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 11/12.

The others are at Sizergh Farm Barn Shop with Duncan Ibbotson, Tuesday-Thursday, August 28-30; and K Village Outlet Centre, Kendal, with Robert and Duncan joined by Pam Williamson, from September 3-9.

Finale time is at the Brewery on Tuesday, September 18 (8pm), with the awards ceremony, and a recital from one of the great virtuoso violinists, Marat Bisengaliev, accompanied by Benjamin Frith on the Grizedale Steinway.

A complete programme of events is available from mid-August at Kendal Tourist Information Centre and Kendal Library.

Further details on 01539-720471.