“You’re six years old. Mum’s in Hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy. So you start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant in the world.
Everything that’s worth living for:
1. Ice Cream 2. Kung Fu Movies 3. Burning things 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose 5. Construction Cranes 6. Me
You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she corrects your spelling. Soon, the list will take on a life of it’s own.”
This is the blurb of the first performance of our Autumn 2015 ON Tour season Every Brilliant Thing, which is being performed on Tuesday 8th September at Gilling East Village Hall. So for this week we thought we would use this play’s fantastic concept as inspiration and play around with the form of our blog! Below our lovely staff let us know what previous or upcoming event would be top of their very own ‘Rural Arts themed’ brilliant list! P.S tickets are running very low for Every Brilliant Thing so you should grab one immediately – (Tickets can be bought HERE!)
Angela Hall – Director
Over the last week I popped in to see the artist Suzie Devey to check on the progress of the mural we commissioned that is being created at the Hambleton and Richmond NHS Specialist Children’s Services Centre. The mural is coming along fantastically and we are thrilled with the work that Suzie is doing. Debbie Pearson, the team leader of the service, commented that “Suzie has worked really closely with us and her work reflects exactly what we hoped for.” Some of Suzie’s inspiration came from a workshop that she held with children who use the centre, their siblings and their mums, dads and carers. Based around exciting animals the mural is looking increasingly lovely by the day, as you can see below!:
We also want to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to the Children’s Services Centre for their amazing fundraising efforts which have been truly ‘brilliant!’ The mural will be completed by the 30thOctober and more information on the service can be found here: www.hdft.nhs.uk/our-services/specialist-childrens-services/
Sophie Backhouse – ON Tour Manager The brilliant thing that i am looking forward to is…. folk band Holy Moly & The Crackers are back in our ON Tour Autumn 2015 season! A few years ago and earlier this year the band toured throughout North Yorkshire to our venues, their show is great fun and you can’t help but be uplifted by their rowdy folk songs. On the 17th & 18th of September they are playing East Cowton Village Hall and Settle Victoria Hall, you will definitely see me bopping away at the East Cowton show! Also I want to give a quick shout out to Pickering Arts, a group of promoters, who have recently created their own Facebook page. They are a fantastic bunch who programme amazing show and they are definitely worth a click!
Angela Holt – Courtroom Manager Over the last week we have had some brilliant work in from Trevor Price – a fantastic artist who specialises in drypoints and etchings which are handmade and hand printed in his studios in London and St Ives. I am really excited to have it available for sale in our gallery – if you dropping by at Rural Arts over the next few weeks make sure you check them out!
The Tea Drinkers by Trevor Price – as can be seen at Rural Arts!
Jayne Rawlins – Outreach Team
Starting on September the 16th is our adults art class – ‘A taste of’ sessions which I am sure will be brilliant! It is the first time we have ran them in a while and the programme is full of exciting things to try out. I am particularly looking forward to the ‘Ceramic Cakes’ in the first week, although this is only the start of an amazing few months of arty fun up until Christmas! If you would like to book onto any of these adults art club sessions or want any more info – click HERE
Jade Graham – Gallery Intern
My ‘brilliant thing’ is also tinged with a little sadness – this week our amazing exhibition ‘The Forest of Possibilities’ came down. We all loved having the exhibition in our gallery over the last 4 weeks and had so many amazing comments about all the different pieces – we just want to say thank you to all the artists involved for allowing us to showcase such unique and interesting work.
This will be sadly missed in our Gallery!
Charlotte Hartley – Cafe Manager
The whole of the ‘FRESH’ season I loved. My favourite performance from the season was ‘The Maids’ by local company Hedgepig Theatre – I took my 16 year old daughter who was sceptical before the show but could not take her eyes of it once it had started – it was an extraordinary, spell-binding performance! (FRESH is returning next year but for visual artists – if you are an artist who has recently graduated and want people talking about you this way get in contact with jade@ruralarts.org)
I’m really excited that i’ve been asked to run a workshop at Rural Arts later this month in book-binding! I’ve worked here for around a year and have helped artists prepare and run workshops, so i’m looking forward to do one myself :). (To book onto this workshop you can click HERE)
An example of a book you could make if you turn up to Immy’s workshop!
We’ve also just sent our ON Tour brochure off to print, which we’ve been working on for a while now – I can’t wait for it to arrive soon so we can send it out across North Yorkshire. There have been some amazing shows programmed for the year ahead, i’m so excited for the season to start on Tuesday with the most brilliant of Every Brilliant Thing! Lizzie Medley – Rural Arts Apprentice Our Kids Arts Club is starting again next week! I love running these workshops on a Thursday and a Saturday, I am so excited to see some familiar faces again and hopefully meet some new ones!
To book onto this course click HERE (P.S If you book all 12 sessions you get two sessions free which equals a saving of £13! – how good is that?!)
Joe Hennessy – ON Tour Assistant Intern
The brilliant thing that I am excited for is the #CREATEtour – a project we run where young people aged 11-18 get the chance to work with a professional performer creating a short piece which is then toured around local venue’s as the opening act for their show. Since I joined the staff this is one of the projects I have been most looking forward to getting involved with – we are recruiting for it now in the Redcar and East Cleveland area and I am counting down the days until October! If you want to know more about the #CREATEtour project click HERE
The previous participants of #CREATEtour in Redcar!
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week – you’ve been brilliant! 😉
