Translated by Reeds

Sian Croose

Finale of first Great Yarmouth Arts Festival

In the biggest parish church in England, Great Yarmouth’s St Nicholas Minster, for the finale of the first ever Great Yarmouth Arts Festival on Saturday 22nd September, naturalist, writer, broadcaster and raconteur Richard Mabey will make a rare public appearance to give the “spoken overture” to the third ever performance of a brand new choral work, Translated by Reeds, a Waveney & Blyth Arts original.

Richard Mabey came to fame forty years ago with his book Food for Free. Since then he has published over thirty books, won the Whitbread Biography of the Year, won the British Book Awards’ Illustrated Book of the Year, won the Botanical Society of the British Isles’ President’s Award and broadcast The Scientist and the Romantic, a series of five essays about his lifelong relationship with the natural environment, on BBC Radio 3. He also wrote and narrated the BBC TV films on Kew Gardens and the Yorkshire Dales and The Flowering of Britain became a BBC TV series. And as a journalist on countryside and art issues, he has written for The Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

Richard Mabey’s talk will form the first half of Translated by Reeds.

The second half will be a new, hauntingly beautiful, short choral work composed by Karen Wimhurst, with words by Diss-raised poet Joanna Guthrie, that will be sung by a new Waveney & Blyth choir, led by East Anglia’s answer to Gareth Malone, singer Sian Croose.

Translated by Reeds is written by Norfolk born Karen Wimhurst who also plays solo clarinet in the piece. Her music bridges jazz, folk and modern classical, and has been featured on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, and ITV. She has written original work for organizations as various as the Welsh National Opera and Sage Gateshead and has run education programmes for organizations as various as Opera North, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the English National Opera

As an instrumentalist, she is an acclaimed jazz musician. In the 1990’s she founded the Cauld Blast Orchestra, recipient of two Scottish Jazz Awards, and recently she has been performing with Zaum – the most exciting group in Europe today Penguin Guide to Jazz. Karen also has a long-term association with the environmental charity Common Ground and is now working with them on Apple Journeys in association with Cecil Sharp House and the National Trust. For more about Karen see www.karenwimhurst.co.uk

Sian Croose is Translated by Reeds Musical Director. She conducts Big Sky in Norwich and is co-director of the innovative music organisation The Voice Project, working with composers to create exciting and ambitious vocal performances with choirs of up to 150 singers. She has directed music education projects with literally thousands of adults and children and worked with composers, instrumentalists and singers from all over the world as well with organisations such as The Thames Festival, the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, The Sage Gateshead, Folkworks, 20,000 Voices, Northern Sinfonia and Dartington Summer School.

The Great Yarmouth performance of Translated by Reeds will also feature soloist Sianed Jones. Sianed is a multi-talented multi-instrumentalist and internationally acclaimed singer. She has worked as an actress, composer, instrumentalist and singer for The Royal Shakespeare Company, as a recording artist for various groups including the London Bulgarian Choir with whom she recorded the soundtrack to the Warner Bros film Troy. She also composed, arranged and performed music live on set for the Mike Figgis film, an adaptation of the Strindberg play Miss Julie.

Translated by Reeds will be an un-missable experience. Richard Mabey, followed by Karen Wimhurst, Sian Croose, Sianed Jones and the massed voices of the Waveney & Blyth Choir, who could ask for more?

Tickets for Translated by Reeds cost just £10 (or £8 for people on benefits, full-time students, and people aged over 65). Groups of 4+ pay just £8 each and, if you buy 10 tickets, you get one absolutely FREE!

You can buy your tickets for Saturday 22nd September at St Nicholas Minster, Church Plain, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 1NE in person by going into the Great Yarmouth Tourist Office on 25 Marine Parade, or via the St George’s Theatre Booking Office, King St, Great Yarmouth NR30 2PG, or, from 1st September, from St Nicholas Minster itself, or by ringing 01379 855 235, or by emailing nmstainton@gmail.com, or by visiting Waveney & Blyth Arts web site www.waveneyandblytharts.com/ourevents

“Translated by Reeds” has been made possible thanks to Lottery funding through Arts Council England and grant aid from Norfolk County Council.

Video features

For more about Translated by Reeds, watch Debra Hyatt’s two four minute videos.

The first is about how the choral project came about and the second is about the choir.

http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com/areawide-feature3/

http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com/areawide-feature5/

One day landscape workshop

The artist Sarah Cannell is running a rare one day landscape art workshop near Bungay on Tuesday 29th May and there are still places available – so don;t miss out – book now!!

You will learn how to use “Plextol” to transfer print black and white photographic images onto your own 3 foot by 2 foot piece of gesso-ed MDF and embed them in an original and startling full colour painting.

The workshop will cost £30 which includes ALL materials, including your own 3 foot by 2 foot MDF board.

You will also get the chance to show (and sell if you want) your painting in September – so you may make more than your money back!

For more information email jan@ollandstreet.co.uk
Web http://www.waveneyandblytharts.com

Burgh Castle Walk & Poetry Workshop, Saturday 5th May.

Don’t miss this fantastic Waveney & Blyth Arts Poetry Workshop.

Meet at the Fort Car Park at 11.30 .  Then, a shortish walk of about one and a half miles around the fort and down to the river.  There is much to see and read (information boards are very good).  The site is quite inspirational.

Walkers/workshoppers should arrive at The Fisherman’s Inn between 12.30 and Ipm.  The Inn serve good and reasonably priced food.

 The poetry workshop is to be conducted by Joanna Guthrie and will take place at the pub from 2pm until 4pm.  Poems produced will be laminated and put on display along a longer walk which will take place in September and will take in more of Breydon Water.

Wheelchair access from the Fort to the Fisherman’s Inn is difficult.  This could be overcome by any wheelchair user returning to the car park and then driving via the road to The Fisherman’s Inn, instead of taking the narrow footpath along the river bank..

 The cost for the workshop is £18.     For more information and to book your place email Janet Wright janetggv@yahoo.co.uk

Landscape Art Workshops

Waveney & Blyth Arts & Black Dog Arts proudly present three Landscape Art Workshops with Katarzyna Coleman, Sarah Cannell and Mary Spicer.  Demand for places will be high, so email Jan now to provisionally book yours. Email jan@ollandstreet.co.uk

Each workshop will start with a 3/4 mile stroll through the last enchanted land of “The Saints”, a few miles outside Bungay, stopping en route to choose, draw and photograph an inspiring view.  Your view will be the basis of your landscape artwork.

The three artists have been chosen because they each use very different approaches to landscape art and very different techniques.

Sunday 15th April 11am to 3.30pm St James Village Orchard, South Elmham Hall and Minster
Katarzyna Coleman uses all kinds of black and white media – from charcoal to chalk.  Views are built up in layers, partly erased with putty and plastic rubbers, fixed with fixative, built up again……….    The results are magnificent, massive, misty land and townscapes.

Saturdays  21st and 28th July 11am to 3.30 pm both days.
Mary Spicer uses texture, as well as colour. Adding all manner of texture pastes, acrylics, coloured inks, ripped, torn and reassembled paper, to her compositions she produces powerful 3D mixed media paintings of the farmed landscape, often scarred and criss crossed by farm machinery.

Dates to be confirmed
Sarah Cannell uses “Plextol” to transfer parts of black and white photocopies of printouts of photographs onto MDF.  Embedded in the picture plane these prints form mysterious black and white focal points in the midst of haunting, acrylic & mixed media, colour paintings.

 Completed works will be shown  as part of “Celebrate the Waveney & Blyth” September 2012 programme, when the public will be invited to walk and enjoy the views for real – and the views’ artistic interpretations.

Poetry, Arts and Eats at Ferini Art Gallery

Arts and Eats at the Ferini Gallery, Pakefield, Lowestoft on Friday 27 January 2012, 12 – 2pm

Local poets and painters converse in words and images 

We begin with a lunch of homemade and filling winter vegetable soup with homemade bread and cake/fruit and tea to follow. Local poets and artists will then present a response to each other’s work in words and images.

Cost £6. Please book with Ian Fosten at ian@fosten.com   or 0779 106 8080

Ferini Art Gallery 27 – 29 All Saints Road, Pakefield, Lowestoft NR33 0JL

Free training opportunity

MONTHLY MULTIMEDIA MAGAZINE SEEKS VOLUNTEER REPORTERS

Waveney & Blyth Arts is looking for volunteer reporters for a new monthly multimedia magazine.

The organisation would like to hear from anyone over sixteen who would like to have a go..

Thanks to an Awards for All grant from the Big Lottery Fund, reporters will get free training from media professionals, and free use of state of the art equipment, to make their own TV/video, radio/audio, photographic, and written magazine features.

The web magazine will carry nine multimedia features each month.

One feature will be about a creative organisation, like a touring theatre company, that works throughout the Waveney and Blyth valleys.

The other eight will be about creative organisations based in or around the eight towns of Diss, Harleston, Bungay, Beccles, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Halesworth and Southwold.

So if you would like to try your hand at video or radio production, photography, or journalism, this is your chance.

To find out more email jan@ollandstreet.co.uk  or ring Jan on 01986 895227.

Success in Tough Times

To all Waveney & Blyth creative movers and shakers!

Don’t miss Waveney & Blyth Arts arty party of the year! (and very short AGM!)

Come to “Success in Tough Times” from 10.30am to 3.30pm on Saturday 12th November at The Cut arts centre in Halesworth.

Promote your creative work or organisation at our “Arts Marketplace” or via a “2 Minute Verbal Ad”!

Share your ideas for “Celebrate the Waveney & Blyth” September 2012 with others at a “Conversation Café”!

Find out how to get funding and get audiences at one of our afternoon seminars!

At Waveney & Blyth Arts launch last November members said their top priority was to get a web site off the ground – and we have – http://waba.mustarddev.co.uk

And this November we are launching our new multimedia web site, designed by “Mustard Creative” – that will morph into a new Waveney & Blyth Arts monthly multimedia magazine.

At our launch last November we talked about organising new Waveney & Blyth celebrations in September 2011 – and we did.

Hear about the 1,000 plus people who came to the 30 different art, craft, poetry, music and other events and activities we organised (and publicised in many ways including 8,000 12 page booklets) and help us shape next year’s programme.

At our launch last November we talked about getting choirs to sing, and a composer to write, music inspired by the Waveney & Blyth.

Hear about how we have now raised money for singer and choir leader Sian Croose and composer Karen Wimhurst to write a new piece, run workshops for choirs, and perform the piece in Diss, Halesworth and Great Yarmouth next September. 

“Success in Tough Times” costs £20, which includes your 2011/12 membership fee, lunch and refreshments.

Book NOW by emailing your name, postal address inc post code, contact phone number and email address to mailto://jan@ollandstreet.co.uk

Celebrate the Waveney and Blyth

Waveney and Blyth Arts are celebrating this September with sixteen short walks to encourage people to explore the Waveney and Blyth area and appreciate how much it has to offer.  The schedule of walks runs daily from 3rd September to 18th September and include enjoyable creative activities.  Locally, there is a circular walk at Burgh Castle (1.5 miles) with artist Katarzyna Coleman on the 15th September and another at Breydon Water (2.5 miles) with poet and bird-lover Matt Howard.  The walks are free but you need to register in advance either on line at http://waba.mustarddev.co.uk 

All the walks are very tempting, such as the walk from Beccles to Geldeston on 11th September, which includes musician John Ward who will be performing on the village green.  A great walker who has the time might want to do them all!  Brochures providing information about all the walks can be picked up from libraries and Tourist Information Centres or downloaded from the website, or you can phone on 0845 299 6456.  The brochure gives the contact details of the local co-ordinator for each walk and provides information about length, with grading as to how easy or otherwise the walk is (Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS has teamed up with Waveney and Blyth Arts to support the walks with trained staff).

Waveney and Blyth Arts are also holding a Two Valley Poetry Competition to run from 1st September – 31st October, inviting local poets to submit  work that illustrates the life, landscape or history of the Blyth and Waveney River Valleys.   Participants can submit up to five poems with the chance of winning first prize of £100.  Entry details are on the website or can be picked up at the launch of the Walk the Waveney and Blyth Programme at the Seagull Theatre, Morton Road, Pakefield, NR33 0JH on 2nd September 2011, starting at 7.30 pm, tickets £6 booked  at the Seagull Theatre online by clicking here or tel. 01502 589726.

Big Winners

New volunteer run organisation, “Waveney & Blyth Arts”, has been awarded a £9,349 grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards for All programme.

The grant will mean that the organisation will be able to get posters and booklets designed and printed to publicise 16 short “creative” walks along the Waveney and Blyth valleys that will take place between Saturday 3rd and Sunday 18th September this year.

It will also mean that Waveney & Blyth Arts will be able to pay sessional fees to creative professionals to provide free creative activities on the walk routes.

As well as the walks the grant money will pay for a new, multimedia, web site, a camera and computer for shared use, and training for volunteers to learn how to make multimedia features for a new online monthly Waveney & Blyth multimedia arts magazine.

“We are thrilled with the grant” said Waveney & Blyth Arts secretary Jan Dungey. “Great Yarmouth and Waveney NHS are helping us organise the free walks – that will be strolls rather than hikes! – so that children and adults of all ages and abilities get the chance to enjoy the wonderful Waveney and beautiful Blyth – and be creative en route!”

The grant will also benefit the 200 or so creative community organisations in and around Diss, Harleston, Bungay, Beccles, Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in the Waveney valley and Halesworth and Southwold in the Blyth valley who will be able to get free multimedia features made about their work and published online in the new Waveney and Blyth monthly multimedia magazine.

Jan added: “The Waveney and Blyth valleys are crammed with creative

talent, from the visual artists who take part in the Harleston & Waveney Art Trail, to the people who perform in Diss Corn Hall, the Fisher Theatre in

Bungay, The Cut in Halesworth, the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft and venues galore in Great Yarmouth, to the singers in choral societies and bands, to poets, novelists and other creative writers, to circus performers, storytellers and puppeteers!

We hope the grant will help promote all these and put the Waveney and Blyth valleys firmly on the creative map”.

Waveney and Blyth Arts

New arts organisation, “Waveney & Blyth Arts”, got off to a flying start at its launch at The Cut arts centre in Halesworth in February 2011.

Over eighty creative individuals and members of arts organisations from music events producers to puppet, dance and theatre companies to writers, film-makers, artists and craftspeople came to The Cut to hear speakers, take part in discussions, pick up information and exchange ideas.

“Waveney & Blyth Arts” new President, author and naturalist Richard Mabey, got the day off to an inspiring start by talking about the Waveney and Blyth valleys’ distinctive identity and unique qualities.

The day’s schedule included a short AGM to elect the Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, eight Local Co-ordinators for Diss, Harleston, Bungay, Beccles, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Southwold and Halesworth areas, and eight Substitutes. The Local Co-ordinators and their Substitutes will represent their town and surrounding area at future management committee meetings.  The Great Yarmouth Co-ordinator is Thom Bailey from St Georges Trust, Maritime House, 25 Marine Parade, Great Yarmouth. NR30 2EN  who can be contacted at thomas@stgeorgestheatre.com and the  deputy local coordinator is Steve Drummond who can be contacted at sjdrummond1975@gmail.com.

Membership to Waveney and Blyth Arts is £10 per annum for individuals and is free for organisations and associations.  Please click here  to go to the website for more details about what membership offers and how to apply.

To profile the Waveney and Blyth valleys through the arts, September has been allocated as the Celebration Month highlighting events at all locations within the Waveney and Blyth region, so if you have an event taking place in September, please let Waveney and Blyth Arts know.  Your event can then be included in publicity and reach a wider audience.

For more information about Waveney & Blyth Arts contact Jan Dungey, Secretary, by ringing her on 01986 895227, or emailing her on jan@ollandstreet.co.uk