Quill creative writing group competition result for the Ernest Peaford Award.

Competition results are in for this years Ernest Peaford Award.

The poems have been judged by Rupert Mallin.  There will be an award ceremony of trophy cup and three framed certificates on 13th Oct at 1.30pm , taking place at the group’s usual venue, ie; Newtown Methodist church hall , Northgate Street, Great Yarmouth.

Results are as follows;    “The Dance of Life”.

!st place  Heather Smith

2nd place  Susan Wooden

3rd place  Tamara Minns

83rd Annual Exhibition

Great Yarmouth and District Society of Artists are holding their  annual exhibition at the Library Galleries, Central Library, Tolhouse Street from 11th -18th September 2010, open 10.00 -16.00 hrs daily, except closed Sunday. 

Where the River Bends, oil by Eddie Bush

“A Duck out of Water”, ink, by Susan Marshall

Other exhibitors are Ginette Amis, John S. Applegate, Margaret Carver, Colin Challis, Geoffrey Chatten, John Dickson, Bill Ditcham, Fiona Gowen, Liz Haddleton, Sunarni Puji Lestari James, Jenna Kemp, Angela Lankester, Julian Macey, John R. Parke, Vivien Robinson, Paul Shreeve, Wilfred Sutton, Rachel Thomas, Lanyu Wang-Kemp. 

For more information about the society, how to become a member, see paintings by members or find out about the society’s work in the community,  click here

DREAMER’S GUIDE TO THE CITY

Artist, poet, writer and dreamer, Jonathan Tooke has just published “Asleep in their Form”, the first in a series of seven volumes under the heading “Dreamer’s Guide to the City”.

An exquisite psychogeographical text, beautifully illustrated with prints, this first limited edition volume, hand bound and printed on letterpress, must be a collector’s item! For more information, email to ormolupress@live.co.uk

Norfolk Tour of Britain

The Norfolk circuit of the Tour of Britain  race will begin on Tuesday 14th September 2010 from the Market Place in King’s Lynn and end mid-afternoon on Thursday 16th September on South Beach Parade in Great Yarmouth.

The riders enter Great Yarmouth at Bastwick for the final section of the race. The Tour continues on to Caister on Sea past the offshore Scroby Sands wind farm. The race then follows the coast to Great Yarmouth where it travels through the town along the River Yare, before reaching the finishing straight on the South Beach Parade near the Pleasure Beach Gardens.

As the crowds get ready for the riders to race through Great Yarmouth to the finish of Stage 6, SeaChange Arts will be throwing a pedal powered party to celebrate the occasion.

On Yarmouth’s seafront, from 11am artist, Kate Munro will be on hand to help indulge your bike in the travelling ‘Pimp Your Bike Trailer.’   Bring along your bike and decorate it with a little Victorian eccentricity.

At 11.45 and 12.45, the Think Bike Stunt Display Team provide a breathtaking stunt cycle demonstration, and then from 11am you’ll be able to step on board the Out There Pedibus. Take a jaunty journey around town or sit back and enjoy live music… in motion, from local groups The Ferries and Love Hate Fate.  The amazing Rimski and his pedal powered piano will also be on hand from 11.15 am, to regale the crowds with his unique blend of cycle cabaret while Johnny White brings us art-on-a-bike with his fleet of weird and wonderful kinetic sculptures. 

Bringing a little Gallic chaos to proceedings, French street arts company Generik Vapeur will be in Yarmouth’s Market Place at 1pm. Twelve rural bike-riding policemen are lost in town and cause mayhem and panic with a plethora of conflicting information.  Follow their antics all the way to the seafront in this hour of hilarious pandemonium.

For more information, click here

Great Yarmouth Herring Day

Original smoke stacks have been preserved in the once famous Tower Curing Works, now the premises of the award-winning Time and Tide Museum, where the ever popular Herring Day is held to celebrate the glory days of Great Yarmouth’s fishing industry with music, magic, stories and performance.  

The Silver Darlings cafe in the courtyard will be serving a special Herring Day menu –  ’A taste of October’.  For futher information tel 01493 743930 or go to www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk.

Great Yarmouth Community Cinema

Admission £2 adults, £1 children, refreshments available.  For more details or how to get involved with the Community Cinema, email gylcommunitycinema@hotmail.com.

Regent Theatre

The Regent Theatre, now Mecca Bingo, 85-87 Regent Road, Great Yarmouth, must have offered, I believe, the most beautiful surroundings in which to play bingo anywhere in the country!  Sadly Rank Group, the owners of Mecca Bingo, decided to close the bingo club in December 2011 as it was losing money and considered no longer commercially viable.  A petition signed by 382 people to keep the bingo hall open was unfortunately not successful in persuading the Rank Group to change its mind.

This Grade II Listed Building has been opened for guided tours as part of Heritage Open Days and each tour was, unsurprisingly, fully subscribed.  Opened on 26th December 1914, the whole building, which  was designed by architect Francis Burdett Ward, is lavishly but elegantly decorated in Louis XVI style.   

The venue was designed for both cinema and theatre and has a 30ft deep stage and a spacious auditorium with seating for 1679 in stalls and circle, including the wonderful box seats above (poorly photographed, I am afraid).  There was a separate entrance at street level to the restaurant, also beautifully decorated with ornamental plasterwork and once but no longer panelled in wood.  There were 30 staff in the kitchen in the basement, where the original oven is still in situ and where there is an open well which used to supply the kitchen with its water.

The theatre was taken over by Associated British Cinemas in 1929 but closed in September 1982.  It stood unused for a while before being converted into a bingo club and now operates as a Mecca Bingo Club.  It is a great credit to the proprietor that the wonderful original features of this building have been so wonderfully preserved.   Thanks are due too to the friendly staff who were most accommodating during the tour in 2010. 

It would be good to have better photographs if anybody is willing to share them!

The Norfolk One Act Playwriting Competition

Sponsored by June Owen of The Garboldisham Amateur Dramatic Society to promote playwriting for the amateur theatre.

Open to all Norfolk Residents aged 18 and over.

1st Prize £200

2nd Prize £100

3rd Prize £50

Typed entries preferred but legible, handwritten scripts will be accepted

Closing Date the 31st of October 2010

Entry forms and full Competition Rules and Conditions by e-mail from mailto://june@juneowen.wanadoo.co.uk or by telephoning 0845 6917962

THE UPSTAIRS GALLERY BECCLES AND GREAT YARMOUTH

The Upstairs Gallery has been named as one of BARCLAYS BANK top 100 businesses, for trading places. This means that PR is now going national for this award. The gallery is expected to have a major impact throughout the following months.

Supporting East Anglia, we encourage and support our own homegrown artists.  We are a not-for-profit organisation, we need your support too. We are currently seeking sponsorship and funding, if you are able to help, please contact the gallery, details are below.

The gallery is now expanding due to that popularity – trebling in size!

YOUR INVITATION

Extension to the gallery is opening on September 10th 7.30pm – 9.30pm. This coincides with a series of works by Harry Baker and John Midgley in the main gallery, this is an opportunity for all visitors to view the new extension, and talk to the artists about their work.

Michelle Payne, owner and manager of the Upstairs Gallery will be on hand that evening to discuss the new extension and the impact on the Greater Yarmouth arts communities, including schools and colleges.

Workshops

We are also planning to extend into workshops for the community – these will include adult workshops, incorporating oil/watercolour/mixed media, jewellery making, felt and silk workshops. A series of childrens after school art classes will also be available. Please keep up to date on the galleries websites: www.theupstairsgallery.co.uk

Further Artists information.

We are currently looking for new exhibitors, student to professional, community artists, college students, university degree shows, and much more to take pride of exhibitions and shows in both the Beccles and Greater Yarmouth Arts Galleries.

Workshop Tutors Required from September – Tutors for all media required, for new arts school in Greater Yarmouth.

FUNDRAISING SHOW December 2010

MAJOR Fundraising Show in BOTH GALLERIES for December 2010. We are asking for donated works from ALL artists, large or small pieces, for a major exhibition.  To take part please contact either gallery on 01502 717191Suffolk, 01493857574 Norfolk or deliver your work direct to the galleries throughout November .  Students, Amateur, Working and Professional Artists all required for this exciting show.

For further information on the articles or expansions, please contact Michelle on 01502 717191 or email bigartgallery@aol.com

The Big Society in Action – Great Yarmouth event

Notice from Volunntary Norfolk:

Great Yarmouth has a well-developed partnership approach to supporting community empowerment, supported by a rich and vibrant community and voluntary sector.

The “Big Society” places this work in a new context and provides both challenges and opportunities for Great Yarmouth – a small district with a very Big Society.

The Big Society event will take place at the Great Yarmouth Town Hall on Thursday 30 September and delegates will hear more from the experiences of Great Yarmouth from a range of perspectives, most importantly from residents who have contributed significant time and effort to improving their own communities.

Pertinent to this is the link between community empowerment and recent approaches to tackling unemployment. Delegates will also engage in action-based workshops which will grapple with some of the wider policy issues emerging from the Big Society and translate their meaning into practice.

The conference is aimed at both policy makers and grassroots voluntary and community organisations with an interest in the Big Society and the agenda for Great Yarmouth.

To register for this event go to www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/council-democracy/news-and-press/content_gybc-newpage.htm, complete the booking form and email it to Ria Day at rjd@great-yarmouth.gov.uk