Hello one and all and welcome back to ‘A Rural Review.’ It has been half term this week, so we have had a pretty exciting time here at the Courthouse (more on that later..) and so we want to say congratulations to all parents, everywhere, for making it through and commiserations to all children, everywhere, that it has gone so fast.. To celebrate/cheer you up, depending on your age, why not have a read of this weeks blog, recapping everything that we have gotten up to this week and what we have coming up in the near future..
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As we alluded to in the paragraph above, we have been very busy indeed this week in our Courthouse. As some of you may know, this year is the centenary of the birth of the genius that is Roald Dahl – and to honour his wonderful stories we ran workshops from Monday to Thursday this week, each focusing on different aspects of some of his most well-loved tales. We had BFG inspired dream jars on Monday, Revolting Rhyme Books on Tuesday, Fantastic Mr Mr Fox shadow puppets on Wednesday and an interactive version of The Enormous Crocodile on Thursday. Each day was different but totally fantastic in it’s own way – and all the children who came along (some more than once!) were enthusiastic, polite and creative. We had fantastic feedback about these events and an even better turnout, with all the workshops being fully booked up, in fact our Courthouse was as full as Bruce Bogtrotter’s belly – but with happy families rather than a particularly rich chocolate cake.. To be honest we could go on and on about these workshops and how much fun they were but we must press on; we will, however, leave you with a quote from the man himself, whose ideas were so important in making this week the success it was: “those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”
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| Can you see the resemblance?! |
We were not content just to have workshops at the Courthouse this week, we also took our workshops out into the Community. On Tuesday and Thursday we ran some visual art workshops at the fantastic Green Howards Regiment Museum, and it was a lot of fun! If you have never been down to this museum in Richmond – which tells the 300 year story of the illustrious Green Howard Regiment you should – it is worth your time! We will leave a link to their website HERE – why not give it a click and have a look? Again all the children who got involved were great and produced some brilliant results – it’s been a pretty darn successful week all-round if we do say so ourselves!
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| Angela Holt with some of Kezy’s beautiful work |
Sticking with the theme of success (oh dear we are starting to sound like Kanye West at this point) we wanted to draw your attention to what has been one of our most successful exhibitions ever which is sadly coming a close next week. Local Ryedale artist Kezy captures the dramatic beauty of the North Yorkshire moors in her signature quirky style, and her paintings have been flying off the shelves faster than if Mathilda was looking at them in a funny way. There is still time to get your hands on one but be quick – the exhibition ends next Saturday the 27th of February.
Our FRESH scheme is returning! This scheme gets up-and coming local poets, dancers and theatre makers into our venue for a fantastic evening of performance, all at no set cost for audiences. Instead these nights are ‘pay-what-you-think’, and it gives everyone the chance to come and see a new type of performance and try something new. Our first show is the fantastic nerd-punk poet Henry Raby who has performed across the country at various gigs, poetry nights, festivals and arts events, as well as toured his own solo show. His work is quirky, relevant and comic and you would have to be a Twit to miss it! Our FRESH season kicks off on the 31st March and you can reserve your place HERE, or to find out more about Henry, click HERE to head over to his website. |
| If you lucky you might see these two! |
We ran one of these events at our venue in December and it was a big success so there is another coming up soon! We speak quite frequently about the Twitter version of Thirsk Hour – the weekly event from 7-8 on a Thursday where all local businesses can promote their products and services on Twitter. Well we also are involved in Thirsk Hour Live – which is an opportunity for all the businesses who get involved in Thirsk Hour (and some who might want to get involved) to meet and network. It is also a chance to to learn about the social media giant that is Twitter if you wanted to get set up on the site. As we said, we hugely enjoyed the last one so you should make sure to come to Fantino’s Italian in Thirsk on the 10th March from 6:30-8:00pm. We welcome all types of businesses and people, so whether you work in a shop, have a marvellous medicine to sell (looking at you, George) or even run a successful window cleaning company with giraffes and pelicans as partners- everyone is welcome! You can reserve your tickets HERE – there might even be some pizza…
