Member Activities

Ferini Gallery presents a new selection of paintings for Spring 2020, featuring many new and regular artists on 6th March to 26th April.

Open Fri/Sat/Sun 11am – 4pm
27-29 All Saints Road, Pakefield, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0JL

www.ferinigallery.co.uk

[email protected]

01502 562 222

On 25th April, Suffolk Poetry Society and Inside Out Poets present Poetry Soup.

“Light verse for dark times.”
A selection of humorous, insightful and inspiring poems served with a mug of delicious soup.

Saturday 25th April, 12 – 2pm

The Avenue Theatre, Gippeswyk Ave, Ipswich, IP2 9AF

Tickets £5

Email [email protected] to reserve your ticket. Tickets also available on the door, subject to availability.

A free exhibition by Spadge Hopkins and Drew Whitemore

2D and 3D. Sculpture, light, shadow and projection.

14th – 20th February 2020.
10am – 5pm daily.
The Longshed, Tidemill Way, Woodbridge, IP12 1FP

SpadgeHopkins.co.uk

It’s a Leap Year so Let’s Leap into Song!

Saturday 29th February – ‘Leap into Song’ with Pakefield Singers. Pakefield Church Hall Sunningdale Avenue (NR33 7DB) 2pm to 5pm. £5 including tea and cake.

Come and sing with Pakefield Singers and Vetta Wise in a light hearted romp through some fun musical favourites.
What better way to spend the extra afternoon this Leap Year than singing?

See www.pakefieldsingers.com for more information or phone 01502 573733 to book a place

Painting / Art Holidays in Calabria, Southern Italy!

Stay at 4 star luxury Grand Hotel San Michele. Discover, paint and draw at Sila National Park, Southern Italy. Explore hill top towns and villages, towers, coastline and much more! Led by local Suffolk-based artist Kasia Posen.

Here’s the bit about the estate where we stay:
The hotel is set within 44 hectares of green offering a peaceful and relaxing landscape right next to the sea. From the hotel terraces you can see the Aeolian Islands and gorgeous sunsets. On certain days you can even see Stromboli the volcano out at sea on the horizon, a spectacular sight. San Michele produces fruit and vegetables for the hotel, breakfast is laden with homemade jams, fg, orange, plum, strawberry…. they supply 75% of the hotel’s food ingredients. The farm also produces a range of wines. A swimming pool is available as well as a private beach and large terraces for relaxation and orange groves to stroll through. The surrounding towns and villages are beautiful, with perfect views of the coastline down below. Paint and draw everyday with the option to relax and enjoy your surroundings.

5 Night Drawing & Painting Holiday
24th-29th October 2020
£635 Sharing per person / £695 Single per person.
Partners and Friends most welcome, non painters discount.
Suitable for all abilities, tailored painting tuition.
Beginners most welcome. Own projects accommodated.
Possible to pay by instalments.

To book or to find out more visit the website here

Email [email protected] or contact Kasia on 07769 283 165

Prices include
All drawing tuition, art materials, 2 meals a day (half-board – large breakfast and 3 course dinner) accommodation, trips out, airport transfer from Lamezia airport on the start and end date of the chosen holiday. Lunch menu / light snacks at the hotel. Packed lunch available or cafe on days out.

Prices don’t include
Flights, travel insurance. You will need to arrange your own fights to Lamezia Terme. Regular fights to Lamezia from Stansted. You can book extra nights at San Michele if this suits you better.

Crabbe Poetry Competition 2020

First Prize £600
Second Prize £300
Third Prize £150
Plus two highly commended prizes of £75 each

Sponsored by Fairweather Law Ltd Solicitors at Aldeburgh, Felixstowe and Leiston.

We are delighted to welcome Martin Figura as our adjudicator for the 2020 Crabbe Poetry Prize.
Martin is a poet, teacher, retired army major, qualified accountant, Randy Newman fan and photographer. His most recent books were Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine, Whistle (Cinnamon Press) and Shed (Gatehouse Press).
He has taught poetry, photography and performance to students from reception classes, MA Groups, support groups, prisoners, excluded pupils and all sorts of other people.
Martin has performed the shows related to his books from London Roundhouse to StAnza and from Ledbury to India via the Edinburgh Fringe and Norwich.
The shows received awards from the Arts Council Fund, Saboteur Best Spoken Word Show Award and Whistle was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Prize for New Work in Poetry.

The closing date for the competition is 15th June 2020.
CLICK HERE to enter online.

Entry fees: £3 for each poem.

We need two copies of your poem, one with and one without your name. Copy the poem onto two pages in a single document with your name on one page only. Upload in either Word or PDF format.

You may enter multiple poems by staying on the page, uploading each poem and clicking Add to Basket each time.

Make any postal queries to:
The Competition Secretary,
The Old Coach House,
Water Lane, Rickinghall,
Diss, Suffolk,
IP22 1EL

Or email [email protected]

The competition is open to anyone who was either born, educated, working or resident in Suffolk, or is a Suffolk Poetry Society member.

All winning poems (including commended poems not attracting a monetary prize) will be read, preferably by their authors, at a celebratory Awards Event on Saturday 3rd October and will be included in the 2020 Crabbe Poetry Prize Anthology.

Anthologies can be pre-ordered at the cost of £2.50. For those unable to attend the Awards Event, these will be posted free of charge. Subsequent orders will attract an additional postage and packing charge of £1.50.

Note that you can only upload one poem at a time. To enter several poems, add them to the shopping basket one at a time as separate items. It might appear that you can upload a number on the same order, but only the final one will show on your order and the rest will be lost.

Competition Rules:

• Entrants should either have been born, or educated, work or be resident in Suffolk, or be a member of Suffolk Poetry Society (see information below).
• Poems should be in English and a maximum of 50 lines.
• Poems must be the writer’s own work, not published, broadcast, on a website, or currently entered in any other competition.
• Each poem must be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper and submitted in DUPLICATE with the fee. The poet’s name should appear on one copy only.
• The adjudicator’s decision is final.
• No entrant can win more than one monetary prize.
• Only winners will be notified. Winners will be listed on the website in September 2020.
• The Press will also be notified of the winning poets and poems.
• Copyright of the poem remains with the poet, with permission to the Suffolk Poetry Society to publish any winning poem free of charge.

Suffolk Poetry Society will be hosting their 7th Festival of Suffolk Poetry on 9th May 2020 at a new venue – Stowmarket Community Centre

The event will feature: George Szirtes, André Mangeot, Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Nicola Warwick, Barbara Strangward.

There will be two workshops in the morning (10:00-12:30).

George Szirtes’ workshop The Adventures of Constraint:
“We may imagine poetry, like all art, to be a product of the free play of the spirit. But spirit is a creature of language and language has its own games and ideas that offer liberation through conflict. Or better still, a dance in which spirit and language move to patterns that demand something of both. “

André Mangeot will lead a workshop called Poetry, Politics and Contemporary Issues :
“If poetry is our response to the world around us, can we afford to ignore the urgent and troubling global issues now affecting us all?   But if these are perceived as ‘political’ subjects, should poetry engage or steer clear?  Can the two still combine in subtle and interesting ways to produce memorable poems?   We’ll look at how a number of poets have walked this difficult tightrope, discuss their various approaches, and use these examples to kick-start new work.”

During the afternoon (12:55-17:30)
the Poetry Cafés will display their wares.
Following them there will be an Open Mic. Sign up on arrival.

In the evening (18:30-21:30) 
featured poets George Szirtes and André Mangeot will read.
Michael Bartholomew-Biggs will present an extract from his book Poems in the Case as a play reading enacted by readers from SPS. Poems in the Case is a murder mystery located at a poetry workshop. The book will be available for purchase on the bookstall, which will be open all afternoon and evening. SPS members are invited to sell their books through the bookstall.

Lynne Nesbit and Colin Whyles will perform the final songs from the song cycle Islands of Love, the first six songs of which were performed in the 6th Festival of Suffolk Poetry.

Click here to get your tickets now

Artists in the first years of the 20th century re-imagined how a variety of materials could create different kinds of art. Sculpture, drawing and painting all became gloriously mixed up. Fiona Fitzgerald will tease out the importance of these experimental approaches for the development of contemporary art.

This talk links to the Royal Academy’s Picasso and Paper Exhibition.

It will take place at The Cut, Halesworth on Wednesday 26th February at 10:30am, costing £8. For more details, visit Fiona Fitzgerald‘s website.

Emilia Symis is a recent Fine Art graduate from Norwich University of the Arts and was born and raised in and around Stowmarket. ‘A Feast for the Senses’ promises to be a vibrant, fun, multisensory experience that leaves you feeling conflicted and slightly uncomfortable, but eager for more. With themes of nostalgia, Emilia draws inspiration from the weird and wonderful dishes from the 70s, iconic foodie film references and sweets from her childhood.

For more details, visit The Corn Hall‘s website.

From 1st to 29th February, CraftCo in Southwold will be hosting their next exhibition – Prints + Pots. The show includes work from Phillipa Champain, Caroline Fish and Liz Taunt. Meet the makers on Saturday 1st February from 2pm to 4pm.