SOMETIMES it can seem that every school and village hall in Dorset is putting on drumming workshops. I went to one watch the end of one in Loders village hall earlier this year, and the racket was indescribable in words; it was rather like all the letters of the alphabet had been turned into acrobatic [...]

THE first phase of the redevelopment of Bridport Art Centre begins next Monday (August 9). Sturminster Newton firm Jordan & Faber will repaint the Grade II Listed façade in Farrow & Ball’s Savage Ground, a kind of neutral stoney colour. Architectural features will be picked out in a slightly darker hue. An old watercolour has [...]

BRIDPORT ARTS CENTRE is expanding its activities for families, starting with a production of Alice in Wonderland. Many families have apparently asked the arts centre about doing things there on a Sunday, and so it’s heading off down the rabbit hole… Alice in Wonderland, based on Lewis Carroll’s book, will be performed by Uncontained Arts, [...]

NEARLY £30,000 is going to be spent in Dorset on a scheme to get young people writing and performing poetry. The county is to get a Young Poet Laureate and several poets in residence. £29,950 has been given by the Arts Council as part of the preparations for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. Bridport Arts Centre [...]

LINDSAY BROOKS is to leave Bridport Arts Centre in September after three years as Director. Ms Brooks said she was proud of her record and now felt it was time to move on. “We’re in a healthier state financially, we’re artistically more vibrant and we have started a film festival,” she said. Indeed, when we [...]

A HAT-MAKING competition with a first prize of £500 has been launched by Bridport Hat Festival. The brief is simply to produce an inspirational hat. Entries will be judged by professionals from the world of hats and the best creations will go on display at Bridport Hat Festival from Friday, September 17 to Sunday, September [...]

AN AMUSING show of cartoons by Sam Smith has opened at Bridport Arts Centre. The display on the walls of the café and the foyer celebrates half a lifetime’s work. Mr Smith, who lives in Bothenhampton, had his first cartoon published in the Evening Standard in 1976. Before that, his sense of humour hadn’t always been [...]

Dope Under Thorncombe is a feature film about drug smuggling in West Dorset. It was shot in the late 1930s, mostly at West Bay and along the coast, though some scenes were filmed inland, such as the gunfight at Eggardon Hill. The producer was Bridport man Frank Trevett, who inspired his friends and family to [...]

News that stays news THE ARTIST John Skinner, when he lived in Bothenhampton, used to say to me: “Why can’t we have the kind of news which says: ‘Today John Skinner finished a xxxxing fantastic painting – and here it is’. “That’s the kind of TV news I’d like to see.” I used to agree with [...]

  Artist, librarian, teacher, performer, youth theatre and radio play director. Doodlebug-dodger, office boy, great reader, Kitcher Sinker,  noise-maker, avant-gardist, Mr Punch, provocateur. Eighty this year, a retrospective of his paintings is now on at Bridport Arts Centre; it should not be missed. Norman Saunders-White was born in Paddington, in London, on April 9, 1930. His parents met when his [...]