A taste of what’s to come this year!
Happy New Year from Rural Arts! We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!
Some of the more eager of you may have already spotted that our new programme is out now, ready to collect from the Courthouse; full of workshops, events and performances up until June!
2019 is bringing a lot of new and exciting things for Rural Arts, but we will also soon be bidding farewell to Director Angela Hall as she retires, after having worked for Rural Arts for over 25 years. We wish her all the best, as she embarks on many new and exciting ventures and will be sure to see her around at Rural Arts in the future!
With our new programme out, here is what the first six months of the year has in store for all of you!
Edwina returns to perform at The Courthouse on Saturday 26th January, with a few tickets still available!
In the daytime of Saturday 26th, artist Agnis Smallwood will be running a Drop Spindle Spinning workshop from 10am – 4pm.
Angela Hall will be teaching Life Drawing with Dance on Monday 28th, from 10.30 – 12.30pm, with our very own ON Tour Manager and trained dancer Jo Gatenby, performing as our live model in motion.
Our children’s Art Clubs after school on Thursdays and Saturday mornings for ages 5-16 also return this January 10th and 12th, for which you can book your child onto here.
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February
February is full of exciting events and performances. We will be hosting two special events to celebrate LGBT History Month. Firstly, we have LGBT Activities Day on Wednesday 6th February, for which we will have two informal educational and creative sessions for the local community and younger people.
Secondly we have James McDermott performing his play “Rubber Ring”, all about his experience growing up gay in a rural community. Tickets and more information can be found on our website.
February also brings us a special Art on Your Doorstep exhibition, to celebrate all the artwork our Art Cafe participants and one-to-one session tutees have created. The exhibition will be held over three days between Tuesday 12th February and Thursday 14th February.
On Saturday 16th February our Open Printmaking Studio will be running a special event called Print Sprint where they will be running a day full of in-house demonstrations, useful workshops on different printing techniques, and exhibitions of their prints!
Towards the end of February we will also be running some special nautical themed half term activities in the lead up to the “A Heart at Sea” family performance by Half A String. We will be running “Paper Ships in Bottles“, “Treasure Chest and Maps” and “Playful Pirate Props” workshops, suitable for ages 5 and over, (adult accompanied) so make sure you don’t miss out!
We are also very excited to be having under-the-sea inspired fancy dress all week, so make sure you come along to the workshop in your best sea themed clothing!
March also brings lots of exciting things for the Courthouse and beyond! We begin the first few weeks with the show week of our CREATE Tour project which will be touring to Ryedale venues.
After working hard over four days in the Easter Holidays, the young people of Norton College will be showcasing a carnival style dance piece they have created with Leeds based company RJC Dance, who will be performing their exciting dance show “Still Blazin'” which previously toured to Redcar and Cleveland in 2018, as well as to Thirsk Town Hall with much success and great feedback from our audiences!
You can catch the show at the following venues:
Wintringham Community Hall, (tickets) Helmsley Arts Centre (tickets) and The Milton Rooms in Malton (tickets), from Wednesday 6th – 8th March. Find out more about CREATETour on our website.
There are also two more performances in March: The Peas will be performing at The Courthouse on Friday 22nd March at 7.30pm. The Peas are a fabulous musical duo that Jo and Sorcha saw perform at the NRTF Showcase last year and absolutely loved! On Thursday 28th March at 2pm, we also have Jenni Wren performing Flamenco, Scottish and Contemporary Dance as a special event to celebrate the culmination of our Art on Your Doorstep project. The annual FRESH Exhibition will also be returning to The Courthouse, with an exhibition of work by graduating and emerging artists living and working in North Yorkshire.
In April we will be bringing an exciting array of activities for the whole family to get involved with during the Easter Holidays.
We will be running family arts workshops from 16th – 25th April, where you can make everything from a miniature garden in a box and paper bouquets, to terracotta plant pots and ivy man ceramics.
We will also be hosting another Comedy at The Courthouse, on Wednesday 24th April at 7.30pm, with Scott Bennett headlining the show. Scott will be joined by Carla Pol, Ross Brierley and comedy regular; Tom Taylor as MC.
As part of our Rural Arts On Tour scheme we are also very excited to have Graffiti Classics touring to venues across North Yorkshire from 25th – 28th April. They will be touring to Yarm (tickets), Great Broughton (tickets), Newton-Le-Willows (tickets) and Stillington (tickets)
On Friday 26th April, The Arts Collective will be hosting an exhibition, running up until Friday 10th May, where you can view a selection of the work made by our ceramics and printmaking open studio.
In May we will be running more family activities including Hey Clay! and animal themed half term activities.
Hey Clay! is a national celebration of clay that we take part in every year at Rural Arts. This year the event will be on Saturday 18th May, with workshops running all day from 10am – 4pm, as well as in house demonstrations and an exhibition of ceramics. It’s a great day out for all the family!Make sure you and your family or friends get along to our animal themed half term activities as well, with the opportunity to make Animal Masks, Clay Animal Heads and 3-D Pop-Up Cards!
We’re especially excited to have the popular puppet company Lempen Puppets performing with us again at theCourthouse. They will be presenting their performance of “Cardboard Carnival” on Tuesday 28th May at 2pm. (Tickets here!)
May also sees another tour of our CREATE Tour project, this time working with the young people of Richmondshire to tour a curtain-raiser alongside Tamasha Theatre’s “Does My Bomb Look Big in This?” week commencing 6th May. (Venue details coming soon)
Five Loose Chippings will also return to perform at The Courthouse on Saturday 25th May at 7.30pm, to what is expected to be another sell out show!
In June we have a lot of exciting artist workshops coming up!
On Saturday 8th June, artist Claire Spooner will be teaching you how to make your own Feather Fascinators, just in time for racing season! On the following Saturday 15th, Jessica Grady will be returning to the Courthouse to teach an embroidered botanical mandala workshop and artist Fiona Mazza will be delivering a workshop on Raku Ceramics, on Wednesday 26th June (as well as 10th July), one which has produced some stunning results in the past!
Click to find out more information on upcoming workshops or performances. Pick up a brochure at The Courthouse, or view the online version here. To book either book online, call 01845 526536 or pop into the Rural Arts Cafe.
