Experience Days at Great Yarmouth Museums

Great Yarmouth Museums are offering a schedule of five unique one-day workshops in February and March, with behind the scenes access to the museum collections and sessions with the curator, a costume designer and artists in residence.  The days are fully catered with lunch and refreshments.  Materials and equipment are included in the £45 fee.  The events are delivered in partnership with Norfolk Adult Education and the Community Partnerships Forum.  Advance booking is required, call 01493 743930.

8th February 2012  Undressing Queen  Elizabeth 1
An exploration of Elizabethan costume and a look at the sonnets and poetry that give insight into love and lust in the Tudor England.

15th February 2012 Costumes and Creativity
A chance to explore the stored collection of costume, textiles and accessories held in the museums and to work with a designer to make your own 1960′s handbag whilst learning the tricks of the trade.

29th February 2012 Inspiring Seascapes
Gt. Yarmouth Museums has a stunning collection of seascapes in its art collection, ranging from Cotman to Maggie Hambling.  Philip Harvey is artist in residence on this workshop and will teach the techniques used to create such artworks.

7th March, 2012 Hand Painted Glass
Based on the collection of ornate decorative glass at the Elizabethan House Museum,  this workshop will teach techniques to enable you to create your own painted glass.

14th March 2012 The Secrets of Watercolours
A great opportunity to explore the reserve art collection kept in store, with explanation of the techniques used in watercolour paintings provided by an artist in residence.

For more information phone 010493 743930 or to find more details on the Norfolk Museums website, click here.

The World in Great Yarmouth

Call for Participants

Time and Tide Museum of Great Yarmouth Life are planning an exhibition for 2012 and are looking for people who would  like to share their story with our local museum.

Time and Tide museum was developed in consultation with local people to present their stories and ensure the community was at the heart of its displays. The diversity and richness of our community is forever growing and has developed significantly since the museum was first opened.

As a transient maritime community, changing and welcoming new influences is nothing new to Great Yarmouth. The presence of the port has long meant that people come and go with the boats and the seasons and trade relations across the North Sea, especially with Europe, have been important to the town’s prosperity. Sailors returning from world-wide journeys would bring back exotic objects, which have become part of the museum’s collections via the Sailors’ Home. At the height of the herring boom thousands of Scottish workers followed the fishing fleet to set up home here for the duration of the herring season.

For 2012 we are developing an exhibition to explore the journeys of people and objects to Norfolk, in particular, Great Yarmouth. The exhibition will reveal the paths those objects and people took to reach Great Yarmouth and celebrate the cultural diversity of our museum collections and the communities of our town.

We would like to tell the stories of more recent settlers, alongside objects which tell of Great Yarmouth’s historic cultural and trading exchanges taking the Olympic Values of Respect, Excellence and Friendship as our starting point. We want this exhibition to explore the world-wide cultural influences and histories that contribute to Great Yarmouth’s history and identity today.

We are looking for individuals, families and community groups who would like to share the story of their journeys to and lives in Great Yarmouth to form the core of the exhibition. We would like people to lend us something that is important to the story of their journey to display and share with others. We’d also like to interview as many people as possible to give them the opportunity to tell us why and how they came here and to present this an oral history. It would be wonderful to have photographs as well to add to the variety and colour of the exhibition. We plan to show all the contributions in our exhibition galleries alongside museum objects from our World Cultures collections. The exhibition will open at the end of March 2012 and run until the end of September.

If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved, please contact:
Alison Hall, Exhibitions Coordinator on 01493 743945 or email alison.hall@norfolk.gov.uk

Participants Submission form which can be copied and printed off, or alternatively, contact Alison at email address above to request an emailed or a hard copy.

John Sell Cotman on Yarmouth

Reading ‘John Sell Cotman 1782-1842′ edited by Miklos Rajnai (SBN 0-906969-19-0, Arts Council and Herbert Press, 1982), I came across this passage in a letter written by Cotman  to Frances Cholmeley, 13.April.1812: “I cannot call it paradise for I have no authority sacred or profane that introduce ships of any kind nto that region of delight…. My small garden leads me on to the road (Southtown Road) …Then , a green meadow, then the view along the banks of which, directly before my house, lies the condemned vessels of every nation, rigged and unrigged in the most picturesque manner possible.  Then, our merchant vessels from an Indiaman, Greenlandman, to a collier pass and repass every ebb and flow of the tide.  From my house…we reach the sea in about 3/4 of a mile, on which rides at times the Navy dimly moved in view.  Today at sea a frigate and an open brigg came to anchor.  In short I have never saw so animated a picture as this spot affords, it is always changing, always new.”  The river is not picturesque as it was - there are certainly no green meadows between Southtown Road and the river! – but it is still a dramatic scene as the workmanlike ships come and go, manoeuvring  on these fast flowing waters with such apparent ease, and the mood constantly transformed in the ever-changing light.

Rainbow over the Dolphin, from  Bollard Quay, June 2011

Retroskate Annual Gala

Retroskate (Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth) is holding its annual gala on 26th -27th November.  The event includes figure skating, basic skills, free, duo free, novelty and club show and will include an exhibition from Christopher Fox, the current Great Britain Junior champion. . Entry is £6 for one day, £10 for both, under 5s free, concessions £4. All day cafe. For more information tel 01493 854349

From the Retroskate website (http://www.retroskate.net/index.htm): 

RetroSkate (GY) Community Interest Company has been established to the provide the residents and visitors of Great Yarmouth a dedicated roller skating venue. The status of the CIC means thats we provide benefit to the community and is a form of Social Enterprise.

Great Yarmouth has a vast history in roller skating and has produced more national champions as a percentage of population than anywhere else in the country. The loss of facilities, some 20 years ago came as a great shock to the town as it was still extremely popular. Small artistic groups struggled on by using community sports halls. RetroSkate has develooped from one of these sessions run by North Sea Rollers with the collaboration of 4 people who bring together a wealth of experience and qualifications in both work and roller skating. We are passionate about roller skating and the many benefits it brings its participants at all ages and levels. It is also an activity that the whole family can participate in. Plus, Its FUN!

Also see Great Yarmouth Artistic Roller Skating Club : http://www.retroskateartistic.net/

Lardal Kantori Norwegian Choir concert

As part of the much loved Norwegian contribution to the Christmas Fayre running from 2nd – 4th  December, the Lardal Kantori Choir will performing at St. Nicholas Church on Saturday 3rd December starting at 7.30 pm.  The 35 strong mixed choir will be accompanied by soloists Filip Haakestad and Gjeril Songvoll, a talented soprano and a lead performer at last years Oslo Opera Festival.  Tickets are £7 and are on sale at the Priory Centre, Priory Plain, or online at www.gytcp.co.uk/events.  For more information call the Town Centre Partnership on 01493 745828.

Gorleston Community Choir

The 90 strong Gorleston Community Choir will be commemorating Jackie Whiting, the choir’s founder, with a Christmas Celebration at St. Andrews Church on 9th December, 2011 starting 7.30 pm.    Jackie Whiting, who was an active member of the church and founded the choir in 2009,  died in September 2011 after a short illness.  Her son Christopher has taken over as musical director and this concert which features carols and seasonal music.  Entrance is £5 and tickets are on sale at St. Andrew’s Church Officer (Tuesdays and Thursday 9-12.30 pm, Wednesdays 2-5 pm and Fridays 9.3 pm) or phone 01493 656078.

Facebook site:  http://www.facebook.com/GCCSing

National Open Art Competition

  (Click on image to enlarge)

Call for entries.  Are you an artist who finds it difficult to access the art world, whether due to health, disability or social circumstances?  Submit your work for the national open art competition and create a gallery on the Outside In website.  Submit your work online for free from 22nd July 2011 to 20th July 2012.  Selected works will be shown at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, West Sussex from 27th October 2012 to 3rd February 2013.  Click here to find out more. or phone 07735 568531.

Barrington Farm Surgery Days: 28th November 2011 and 1st February 2012.  Click here to find out more.  To book your place contact 01692 650633 or email roar_art@hotmail.com

A Christmas Carol

The Original Dusmagrik Theatre Company will be presenting a new version of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” at the Gorleston Pavilion from the 17th – 19th November. 

With lyrics by Chris Blackwood and music by Piers Chater Robinson, the show faithfully follows the original story interspersed with rousing chorus numbers and delightful solos played live by a band under the direction of John Stephens.  Jonathan Rust, currently a second year musical theatre student at City College Norwich, is taking the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge. The show is directed by Mary Carter with choreography by Catherine Cook and Gemma Mays.

The show will run from Thursday November 17th to Saturday November 19th at 7.30 nightly with a matinée on the Saturday at 2pm.  Tickets £10 adults, £8 students, £6 children from Box Office 01493 662832 or book online www.gorlestonpavilion.co.uk

Great Yarmouth College of Art Building

Great Yarmouth College of Art, November 2011, copyright GYBC

Work on the College of Art building is now complete, ready for occupation by Flagship Housing.  The neglected college was becoming an ever more tragic sight., so it is good to see it refurbished by Flagship Housing for conversion to flats. The building works were undertaken by Wellington Construction under the architect Paul Dunthorn of Design Partnership. It is a listed building so the exterior has been returned to its former glory at any rate.  Above is a photograph of the building taken on completion, and below one prior to works!  See also  http://eastcoastnet.org/uncategorized/great-yarmouth-art-college/ for further photographs, and click here for information about the history of Great Yarmouth School of Arts and Crafts, later Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design.  Many artists such as  Emrys Parry, who taught at the College for many years, Bruer Tidman, Nick Ward, Janice Burgoyne and others, talk about their memories of the College in the Conversations with Artists on the Transitions site.

Great Yarmouth College of Art prior to works, copyright GYBC

Greyfriars Health Centre completed

Greyfriars, October 2011, photograph by B.Heriz

This building which used to look very sad indeed has now been restored for NHS use.  Work was also done on the church earlier this year, and the two buildings, along with the refurbished Ship Public House, next door, also for NHS, now present an attractve street facade.  The same can be said for the back of the buildings, and particularly the old fire-damaged Congregational Hall on Howard Street which had lost its roof and was completely derelict  prior to this restoration and the addition of a further storey.

Greyfriars NHS Centre, Howard Street, from the car park

Entrance to the Congregational Hall in 2010

The Congregational Hall, October 2011