I’m looking forward to this very much indeed. How much mischief will Proboscis make at Burton Bradstock?
Posts tagged “Bridport Arts Centre”
SHOPS around Bridport are being encouraged to get creative and decorate their windows with butterfly-inspired designs. A competition is being held to promote Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Wild about Bridport Butterfly Bonanza on June 4.
The contest is meant to colour Bridport’s streets with the splendour of butterflies and to show how anyone can get involved in helping wildlife.
Splendid photographs of Bridport Hat Festival by the brilliant portrait photographer George Wright, who lives in Bridport. Check out a big crowd photograph to see lots more people and read more about Guy Heathcote (pictured above).
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 been used as a guide to the building’s appearance back in the 1830s; it used to be a Wesleyan Chapel. It never used to be pink.
Contractors will also relay paving stones and generally smarten the place up.
Director Lindsay Brooks said: “We are very aware that the Arts Centre not only plays a key role culturally but also architecturally in Bridport. The building has not been redecorated for several years so is certainly showing its age. We’re so grateful that our fundraising has been supported so generously, enabling us to create a smarter forecourt area.”
The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel that is now Bridport Arts Centre. Soon it will look more austerely like its former self.
After studying the building’s original appearance in 1830s engravings, Arts Centre staff have decided to do away with the permanently planted areas out the front. They want the forecourt to become a more open, useable space for Bridport.
They will be recycling the plants already there and they are working with Bridport Town Council, and Community Orchard members, to create some mobile plant containers from recycled timber.
Work should be finished by Sunday, September 26, in time for the Arts Centre members party – and just a few days before the departure of current director Lindsay Brooks. Getting redevelopment work done against a background of cuts will mean she leaves on a high.
* There’s an evocative photo of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in the 1950s here.
** I remember The Daily Telegraph’s diary, and then the Western Daily Press and then possibly the Bridport News, round about September / October 1993, ran pieces about how Bridport Arts Centre was the mystery building in a poem by John Betjeman. I might even have written the Bridport News piece myself, but I can’t for the life of me remember what the poem was. If anybody else can remember, please get in touch. It would be good to know again.
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 and Dorset County Council’s library service are now looking for a project co-ordinator to work with so-called ‘lead poet’ Elvis McGonagall (otherwise known as performance poet Richard Smith).
Events, activities and workshops will start this Autumn. The towns of Bridport, Sherborne and Swanage and the borough of Weymouth and Portland are going to be assigned poets. The poets’ job will be to inspire, mentor and work with young people towards a grand slam at Bridport Literary Festival in 2011.
The 21-month scheme is called Off the Page.
In a statement, Sharon Kirkpatrick, Dorset County Council senior manager – reading and learning, said: “Off the Page will inspire young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to develop a passion for words and poetry in a dynamic setting outside of the classroom.
“It will leave a legacy for poetry and literature for years to come and form a key element of the Cultural Olympiad celebrations for 2012.”
Lindsay Brooks, Director of Bridport Arts Centre, stated: “We are delighted to have the opportunity through Off the Page to introduce young people to the delights of the written and spoken word.
“Performance poetry is dynamic, daring, exciting and fun and we will create lots of opportunities for young people to get involved.”
Editor’s Note: Like the £45,000 (plus travel expenses) being spent on a PhD studentship into Jurassic Coast carnivals, this is one of those schemes that has the potential to divide opinion.
On the one hand, it can be seen as a very good thing indeed that some attention is being paid to poetry in Dorset. Poetry is not mentioned once – not once – in the Dorset Cultural Strategy 2009-2014 – and the strategy’s vision, never let us forget, is that Dorset should soon lead the world in placing culture at the heart of quality of life.
On the other hand, you might wonder how much of the £29,950 will be taken up by the project co-ordinator.
Or whether it really will “leave a legacy for poetry and literature for years to come.”
That word “legacy” is one of the most politically charged words in Dorset.
How exactly might it be defined here, do you think?
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 spoke she was in the course of writing a funding application to South West Screen for the next From Page to Screen festival next year. From Page to Screen is the UK’s only festival celebrating the adaptation of books into films.
Lindsay Brooks, centre in red, in a publicity shot taken for the film festival From Page to Screen by Pete Millson.
She went on: “The first stage of the centre’s refurbishment also begins this summer. I’m not going before that! I can’t wait to see it. It will be great.”
Ms Brooks said she intended to stay in the Bridport area and work as a freelance.
Other changes at Bridport Arts Centre (BAC) include the impending arrival of a new temporary Marketing Manager, an arts management graduate from Bournemouth University called Eleanor Mottram.
Numerous initiatives are also under way to strengthen and develop BAC’s relationships with schools and young people. This is a priority for the Centre’s core funders, including Arts Council England South West, West Dorset District Council and Bridport Town Council.
BAC is one of only two organisations in West Dorset funded by the Arts Council.
Support is important as competition for audiences in Bridport has increased, with the rise of venues such as The Electric Palace, just down the road in South Street, and Sladers’ Yard in West Bay.
Hence also the importance of BAC’s refurbishment plan, which is (overall) to improve the theatre with new seating, heating, lighting rig and sound system, repave the forecourt, create a new bar / café area, provide a lift to the first floor gallery, improve gallery lighting, and create a dedicated education space in the current café at the rear of the building.
“Onwards and upwards!” said Ms Brooks.
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 19.
The event will be Britain’s first hat festival.
The organiser is Bridport hatter and outfitter Roger Snook of Bridport.
“I think it will do Bridport a lot of good,” said Mr Snook.
He’s been heartened by people’s enthusiastic response since news of the festival was first published (on Real West Dorset) back in February.
He said then: “The Bridport Hat Festival is to be an annual event to remind people just how stylish wearing hats can be, and how stylish Bridport can be… And apart from anything else, a hat festival would just be great fun. It will attract people to the town and be a great early autumn attraction.”
Indeed, the prospect of the festival has sparked off other displays around town. Bridport Museum, for example, decided to put some hats from its collection on show, upstairs.
While Bridport Arts Centre has announced that one of Mr Snook’s customers – Hank Wangford – will be playing there on September 17.
“There’s big interest in trade stands, and we’ve got 599 fans on Facebook,” said Mr Snook. (Actually, since I spoke to him in his shop a little earlier, the number’s gone up to 602).
So, before it changes again, let’s round off.
Entrants to the hat-making competition need to submit 3 photographs of their finished hat, and write up to 250 words outlining the processes involved in the making it, and the thought and inspiration behind the design.
There’s a second prize of £250, and a third Roger Snook Prize of £150 for the best customised Fedora.
The closing date for entries is August 21.
For more details see the Bridport Hat Festival website – click here.
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