Hello one and all! Yes I know we are earlier than usual, but we are too excited about this weeks events to wait until tomorrow. So without further ado, welcome back to A Rural Review – for those that don’t know, this is the weekly blog series which recaps all that has happened at Rural Arts this week and what exciting things you should look out for in the Rural Arts calendar. Although we are in midst of December, ironically, things are heating up at The Courthouse – mainly because of the hundreds beautiful items that were created that need to be fired in our Kiln! This leads us nicely onto…
What’s been happening
Hey Clay!
Saturday was not a quiet day at the Courthouse, but it was a pretty darn good one. Our national ceramic event Hey Clay! took place on Saturday, to tie in with the BBC series The Great Pottery Throwdown. It was a fantastic day full to the brim of creative ideas, amazing demonstrations and all round loveliness. We need to thank all the artists who exhibited their work for being so talented, and recommend to anyone that they should try and get on a potters wheel if they possibly can, but we won’t say much more than that. Instead, you don’t need to listen to our (admittedly biased) view of the events that took place that day- why not read Sian Astley’s blog about her experience of Hey Clay! by clicking HERE. It says everything we were trying to say and more about the event, with some equally fantastic pictures, so if you click on any link from this post please click that one. Thanks for coming Sian!
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| Just some of the beautiful things created – we are currently having a major Kiln firing session to make sure everyone can pick up their items before Christmas rolls around!The Uketopians You might think that here at Rural Arts we would be content with a Saturday just having an all day event where 100 people were in our Courthouse, 80 did workshops, 8 artists showcased their work and countless cups of tea were consumed. Well you would be wrong! Before you could say ‘Ukulele Orchestra – how exciting!’ the Courthouse had been transformed from ceramic showcasing into a stage ready to be rocked. And boy, did the Ukeopians rock it! They delivered a 2 hour masterclass in Ukulele unity (this was our favourite alliteration in any Rural Review so far) with many classic hits tied in with some traditional folk songs. It was another sell out gig for this brilliant band- we hope to see you again soon! ‘A Taste Of…’ It was our final art club session this week, with some beautiful willow wreaths created to finalise what has been an amazing twelve weeks of different sessions trying all different art techniques. These sessions have been so popular and we are sad to say goodbye to them….but not for long! They will be back, resurgent and better than ever, in 2016 for your enjoyment. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled on our website for when these are released so that you can snap up places!  What’s Coming Up
Aladdin – Pocket Panto Oh no it isn’t?!… (Yes this joke is very tired, but please indulge us because it’s Christmas) The Pantomime is back in Thirsk on Sunday 20th November for what is pretty much guaranteed to be a major hit. Pocket Panto, the brilliant company behind Aladdin, will be touring all round North Yorkshire in the month of December – and they sell out shows everywhere they go, leaving hundreds of happy families in their wake. This is their tenth year and every year has been better than the last – so make sure you get yourself down to the Town Hall next Sunday to see if Aladdin can find the magic lamp and win the honourable princess Jasmine. We have already sold over 100 tickets so get yours fast – click HERE to book to avoid disappointment.  It’s behiiiind you!! (That didn’t even to link to anything, we are just so excited about Aladdin we wrote it anyways) Hamlet – SPECIAL OFFER ALERT! We promise not to do any Shakespeare references this week – seriously, we did them all last week, we will NOT do them again (hmm.. me thinks the writer doth protest too much…) Joking aside, there is a still a few tickets available for the amazing production of Hamlet that ran in the Autumn of this year starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and for the first time ever, A Rural Review has a special offer just for you loyal blog readers! Think of it as an early Christmas present to say thank you for putting up with all the terrible puns throughout the weeks… We can give you tickets for the fastest selling show in London Theatre History at only £10 (saving up to 30%!) if you ring up or come into our cafe and quote ‘Rural Review’ before buying a ticket. We hope to see you at the event on Friday 18th December with a 1:30pm start. To claim this amazing offer (oh god, it is all becoming a bit QVC isn’t it?) call us on 01845 526536 or visit our cafe! Just a little trailer to whet your appetite! So this is the end of the road for this weeks Rural Review. However with next week being the last blog before Christmas, we have something a little special planned – see you then! |
