Very successful raffles held at each monthly lecture enabled The Arts Society Taunton to distribute 100 bags filled with art materials to the children of families currently using Taunton Foodbank’s critical services.  Filled with a colourful variety of materials including pencils, card, watercolour paints, brushes and a sketch book, they were designed to inspire and bring joy to the children.

A Lecture by Charlie Forman on 13 November at The Arts Society Horsham

Christmas Comes Early to Crosby with Dickensian Charm

On 13 November, Crosby basked in the festive spirit as The Arts Society welcomed renowned lecturer Bertie Pearce for A Dickens of a Christmas. With his signature humour and theatrical flair, Bertie explored how Charles Dickens shaped the Christmas traditions we cherish today, weaving insights from the author's beloved works.

Usually the Wessex Area AVR’s meet in Salisbury once a year to share and celebrate the different projects that we have instigated and developed each year. However, in this year we decided to amalgamate this meeting with the Wessex Area Chairs Day and look in depth at Volunteering as one of the strengths and purposes of the Wessex Area. With a number of new chairs and committee members it seemed a good time to look our purpose, why we volunteer, who we support and where our funds come from.

Our Programme Secretary Peggy Hooton, writes “Recently we (The Arts Society Uckfield, Lewes and Newick) supported the Farley House Schools’ exhibition with a small donation and, separately, we are developing an Arts Bytes link with Uckfield College.  I met Bethan Archer, Curriculum Lead of Art at Uckfield College recently, to discuss the latter but she also mentioned that her sixth formers have paintings in the current Farley exhibition!”

Bethan has kindly taken the time to write about this biennial exhibition and its benefit to her pupils and to share some of their art.