WOAA got underway with its first exhibitions in the spring of 1973.
Music, drama and dance, film and photography, literature and art were all represented by different panels with its centre in the Gallery of the Town Hall. The panels would meet in various villages and organise exhibitions, lectures, films and live performances involving both amateur and professional talent.

Work by Michael Brockway, a skilled watercolourist were on show along with
Claerwen Holland, using a fusion of drawing with water colour
Ann Hinds, landscapes
John Birkhead, landscapes and chairman of WOAA
Margaret Ralston, (John's wife) exotically decorative panels of Eastern subjects
G.K. Horner, architectural studies
Anthony Bayes, richly coloured work

This page gives an outline of when and how the West Oxfordshire Arts Association was formed and how it was to be run initially at least.
Saturday May 26th 1973 was the first day of the first exhibition in the Gallery, the upstairs room in the Town Hall

In December 1975 prizes were awarded in the young writers' competition organised by WOAA.
In the picture, judge John Skinner is giving a prize to Liz Matthews of Eynsham who won 2nd prize in the under 14s poetry section.
On the left is Catherine Hooper of Abingdon who won 1st prize.