Open Call – Sculpture in the Valley 2022
Waveney and Blyth Arts (W&BA) is pleased to announce that we have secured our second residency in the delightful grounds of Potton Hall. In 2021 we had to roll with all the restrictions imposed by the pandemic but managed nevertheless to produce a memorable trail in a tranquil but varied environment Sculpture in the Valley drew plaudits from visitors, as well as a wide range of sales. This year again, most of the exhibits will be for sale and in some cases additional smaller items can be specially commissioned from the artists through W&BA. While we cannot rule out further Covid-related problems, we are confident that we have the means to provide an extensive and safe outdoor celebration of contemporary, three-dimensional creativity, showcasing regional artistic talent (as well as one or two practitioners from further afield) in this, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year.
More on this years trail here
Applications for artists here
Good news from the annual general meeting! 
Waveney & Blyth Arts is not folding. As you know, the management committee was reluctantly proposing dissolution, on the grounds that there were too many unfilled gaps of one sort or another. Well, some new energy arrived, in the shape of Spadge Hopkins. You may have seen his metal cormorants at Sculpture in the Valley. He’s also something of a cultural and social entrepreneur, involved in running a successful youth centre in Framlingham. He told the AGM that W&BA was ‘too good to burn’. Instead, he asked for two or three months to some up with a workable future for it, working with the management committee and perhaps some new blood.
This was the proposal, put formally to the meeting and accepted unanimously:
It is proposed that W&BA form a new management committee chaired by Spadge Hopkins, with any other current and/or new members who wish to continue/volunteer. This committee will review the current operation in pursuit of delivering the aims of the constitution and report back with a programme for action to an extraordinary general meeting.
Not surprisingly, the dissolution proposal was dumped, also unanimously – and happily all round.
Read all about it in the W&BA draft minutes – 2021 AGM.
And you’ll be hearing from us in the new year.
Season’s greetings.
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.
W&BA Walks 2021
We had a great series of four walks in 2021. Savour the Sandlings with Ivor and Jean Morrell in June sold out and was enormously enjoyed by all. Industrial Great Yarmouth Photography Walk with Mark Cator in July was a big hit, Walking Right up your Street with Dean Parkin in August sold out and everyone was Wild About Bungay with Terry and Chris Reeve in September.
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- Westleton Common
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- South Denes Road, Great Yarmouth
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- Dean Parkin
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- Spring Fox
See what our creative members are up to..
MJP Theatre – New opportunity
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‘Elemental Expressionism’ by Veronica M Worrall, Art Photographer
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Poppyland – 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭
Read More
Find more creative member events →
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.
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