AN EXHIBITION featuring artists’ responses to a national newspaper article describing Weymouth as a ‘graveyard of ambition’ is at Weymouth Library until October 25.

Contemporary art exhibition The Waste Land is named after the same term that was used to describe Weymouth in an Observer article on the cultural worth of seaside towns.

The free exhibition, in the library’s Mulberry Gallery, presents artists’ work on themes of dystopia, literature and social concerns of the town.

Laura Mulhern, creative di-rector of arts company South West Artwork, said she hoped the exhibition would keep the debate going.

She said: “This isn’t about artists coming to the town’s defence, just saying it’s amazing or wonderful, but it’s a chance for people to say what they think.

“Yes, there are things that can be improved in the town but the article was quite one-sided.

“We want the exhibition to be a bit different and to help keep this issue on the agenda.”

Observer reporter Tracy McVeigh told the Dorset Echo after that she wanted her article to prompt action for young people.

Alongside the exhibition, South West artwork has asked beneficiaries of a youth programme to produce short texts that highlight their own feelings about Weymouth and the comments made in the Observer article.

Laura, who is a mentor on the b-roads youth programme, said: “We want to showcase the talent we have in this area and it’s also about giving young people a voice and helping them to realise there are employment opportunities in the creative industries in this region. The texts that the young people produce will be printed and framed to be hung alongside the artists’ visual work.

“Projects like this give young people something to work towards and be proud of.”

The exhibition takes its title from the poem The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot which outlined the social concerns of the time.