EXCITING NEWS!
Sculpture in the Valley returns to Potton Hall 27 May to 26 June 2022 from 10am – 4pm.
You can book tickets here or turn up and pay on the day at Potton Hall.
Adults £6. Waveney & Blyth Arts members £5 (you will receive a discount code via email).
Concessions (adults with limited mobility) £2.
Under 18s free (no ticket required).
(Dogs on leads are welcome too!)
Special Events
Syzewell Gap Ceilidh
Saturday 25 June 7.30 – 10 pm
In the week of the summer solstice, we will be drawing our trail to a close with a celebratory ceilidh in Potton Hall’s wonderful recording barn overlooking the beautiful wildflower meadow and the views beyond.
Dance the evening away on Saturday 25 June to the infectious rhythms and tunes of Syzewell Gap, one of the region’s foremost ceilidh bands. Experienced and enthusiastic Norwich based caller Jon Hooton will lead everyone through the dances. The band plays British and European traditional music with an East Anglian flavour.
To make it even more of a special evening, the yurt café will serve a bistro-style menu from 6pm onwards – booking essential at www.potton-hall.co.uk – but if you prefer, you may bring your own food to share at the picnic tables outside the barn.
The barn has its own bar which will be open from the start of the ceilidh, but again you may bring your own refreshments.
Curator’s guided walks
Find out more about the artists’ work and the themes they are exploring on one of these fascinating guided walks led by curator Grace Adam. Discussion is very much encouraged…
Book here for Sat 25 June 3pm: meet at reception
Book here for Sun 26 June 11am: meet at reception
£8/£6 W&BA members (under-18s free)
See what our creative members are up to…
Update – Sculpture in the Valley 2022
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Potton Hall – 27 May to 26 June
This year we are excited to welcome new exhibitors as well as regular Sculpture in the Valley artists and makers. Between Two Worlds has been interpreted in interesting and imaginative ways, with works including figurative, abstract and site-specific responses. Artists will be able to attend the Site Day on 27th March to meet and discuss with the curatorial team.
Potton Hall provides a beautiful environment for the trail, so do spread the word – and encourage friends and family to enjoy a day with brilliant art, entertainment and good coffee!
More on this year’s trail here
Jan Dungey
Sad news travels fast, and some of you will already have heard that Jan Dungey died recently.
Jan was well known and admired in this patch, not least for being a founder of Waveney & Blyth Arts in 2010, and our guiding light even as MS increasingly limited her work. Way before that, having moved to Bungay in 1984, she was centrally involved in exciting projects in and around Bungay – Bungay Community Arts, Black Dog Arts, Ash Flint and Snail, BungayNet and many more.
Her Company of Imagination was a group of women artists and makers who created site-specific outdoor promenade performances. Jan’s work with local authorities (including setting up SeaChange Arts in Great Yarmouth, now Out There Arts) gave her the skills to pioneer the idea of cross-sectoral partnership funding (something Waveney & Blyth Arts also benefitted from). Projects around here included The Landing of Arkadia, The Castle Keeps Secret and The Cycle of Birds. Some of you will remember taking part in these imaginative and innovative events. The Company’s work also extended to other parts of the country.
Before all that, her singing and saxophone playing and membership of the Cunning Stunts theatre company had introduced her to this region via the Albion Fairs. And even after the MS diagnosis, her Lucy Fur’s Angel Band did several gigs around Bungay.
Those who knew her know what a unique inspiration she was. Those who didn’t will have felt her influence one way or another. We are all grateful to have had her among us; she is very much missed.
A link to The Guardian obituary is here.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jan/28/jan-dungey-obituary
MORE NEWS FROM THE FRONTLINE
Including an invitation
The interim management group has met again since we last updated the membership. Spadge Hopkins (chair), Jade Nice (treasurer), Brian Guthrie (secretary ) and Simon Raven (wise owl) have been joined by Vicky Russ (who among other things chairs the Beccles Lido board, and has already agreed to be our newsletter editor).
As well as starting to sort out the newsletter and making plans about 2022’s activities, we have resolved to start turning Waveney & Blyth Arts into either a community interest company or charitable incorporated organisation (CIC or CIO) before the extraordinary general meeting on 5 March. That’s where the invitation comes in.
What are CICs and CIOs?
Waveney and Blyth Arts is currently an association: we have a constitution but no legal standing or charitable status. We’ve managed ok like that for 11 years, but it does leave members potentially vulnerable financially if something went wrong. And it limits our fundraising possibilities.
So we are proposing to become a CIC or CIO. This official status is designed for social enterprises that want to use their assets and any profits for the public good. Many CICs also establish registered charities and are therefore able to access more funding, and benefit from other financial concessions.
Our CIC/CIO will need a board of trustees, whose liabilities are limited as long as they adhere to their responsibilities as unpaid directors. These responsibilities are not onerous and are there to ensure their commitment. We invite interested members to step forward. We are seeking between five and nine trustees with the capacity to meet no more than six times a year and to spend a few hours each month on correspondence and other work. Trustees are unpaid in general, though CICs are allowed to pay them for discrete items of work or contracts where appropriate.
We are looking to develop a board with an appropriate mix of skill and experience to meet the constitution and objectives of W&BA. The qualities that we are looking for include management, finance, people, organisation and marketing; experience of the charitable sector and fundraising would be really useful too. We are also hoping to hear from artists with curatorial experience in any discipline. People with experience in events management, communications, digital marketing and social media would also be valuable.
If you’re interested in becoming a trustee of the new CIC/CIO, email brianguthrie45@gmail.com.
A wonderful collaborative W&BA project on Halesworth Millennium Green
Spell Songs in the Green was initiated by Halesworth Community Choir with W&BA and was intended to culminate in a live community-based performance involving all participants on Halesworth Millennium Green in June 2021.
Due to the impact of Covid it’s now a unique creative film, which we hope will have a lasting legacy. The process of filming and recording the singers, dancers and school children has ensured a sense of joy and community has remained central to the project.
The project has brought together creative professionals and local adults and children to highlight the beauty and fragility of nature and threats to wildlife, by using powerful and complimentary creative language and art forms.
Melinda Appleby is an East Anglian writer/researcher who specialises in creative connections to nature and place.
Previous Looking Out columns are online and available to read here.
Melinda believes there are important links between nature and culture, and this underpins her work – her own writing, the courses she leads in landscape writing and in her research into the relationship between people and landscapes.
Melinda is on Waveney & Blyth Arts’ Management Committee and is working with Brian Guthrie on the 2021 Two Rivers Book Festival.
If you’re a member you get the e-newsletter, it’s one the perks!