Newsletter 2019/20
What exciting but worrying times we are living through! As Chairman I never
thought I would be reporting on the cancellation of the last four lectures, not to
mention a Study Day, of our 2019/20 season. We hope, where possible, to include
them in a future programme.
In these exceptional circumstances our main concern, of course, is for the safety
and well-being of our members. What I can promise you is that we will keep you
informed of all developments, especially in connection with our 2020/21 season.
This Website Newsletter is a first so we will be interested in your reactions to it. Our
website, of course, is also new and should serve as a valuable source of
information about us as a Society. Nigel Harper – Chairman
Committee Update – Nigel Harper
Following the retirement from the Committee of Carol Ankers, whom I thanked in
the last Newsletter, we are delighted to welcome Jackie Leesons as our new Arts in
the Community Secretary. Her first report is in this Newsletter. We are saying
goodbye to Barney Broadbent, our Special Events Secretary, who has resigned
from the Committee with immediate effect. We will miss his valuable contribution to
our discussions, always asking the sort of questions which moved us on when we
needed to. My thanks to Barney, on behalf of the Committee and our members.
Membership Update – Tony Batchelor
I am pleased to report that the Membership remains solid and at the time of writing
we have 320 full members and a short waiting list of 14 individuals. Communication
with members is a key task for the Membership Secretary and increasingly this is
by electronic means. In addition to group emails, we now have our new website,
and we encourage members to use it regularly for news, updates and the latest
information about meetings and other events. However, we will ensure that those
without access to (or interest in!) internet-based communications continue to
receive key information through the post.
The committee were all greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic and supportive
response to the Chairman’s recent email concerning our future plans. Many of you
replied to voice your appreciation for our events and determination not to let our
Society fade away. The general feeling was that those who could afford to were
happy to continue to fund the Society through the annual subscription, even in the
absence of a full programme in the short term. It is good to know how much the
Society is valued. The Committee is meeting on Zoom to discuss how we can adapt
our events to keep our members safe.
Arts in the Community – Jackie Leesons
I have recently taken over the role of Arts in the Community representative and am
looking forward to a time when we can resume the exciting projects that are
supported by The Arts Society in Oundle and the surrounding villages.
The 2020 Oundle International Festival and Oundle Festival of Music and Drama
have been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The Society’s support for
these festivals will continue in 2021 with an increased donation of £750 to help with
mounting running costs.
Oundle Fringe Festival have approached us for a contribution towards their
expenses. The Fringe Festival was inaugurated in 2011 to put on a wide range of
musical and other cultural events during the International Festival. It is organised
by volunteers who coordinate and promote all events and raise funds to run it. A
contribution of £500 has been agreed.
The Arts and Crafts clubs at Oundle Library were granted £300 for materials and
were running twice a week until the temporary closure of the library due to the
coronavirus outbreak.
Oundle C of E Primary School has received a grant of £500 for an art project,
‘Prayer Pebbles’, in which every child painted a large pebble with their
interpretation of the school’s ethos and motto. These are to be laid as a border in
the school’s Reflection Garden.
Treasurer’s Report – Stefan Pijanowski
In 2019 BACS payments became popular with the majority of lecturers. Committee
members, helpers and suppliers now prefer this method for the payment of
expenses and invoices. A large proportion of members’ subscriptions were also
received by BACS and despite some early concern about matching payments to
members all went well. The ability to manage the Society’s accounts online has
proved most beneficial after the closure of the Oundle NatWest branch.
Surprisingly, paying in cheques and money at the Post Office has proved more
efficient than paying them in at the Bank. The one drawback is that the Post Office
only accepts notes, not coins. I have had to retain all the coins, converting as many
as possible into notes and making a BACS payment for any small residual amount.
Local cafés appear quite happy when I pay for my coffee counting out the money
from a bag of silver coins. Perhaps it will not be long before we have contactless
payment for coffees at our meetings! Maybe when 4G gets to Barnwell.
Programme Planning – Gunta Krumins (Joint Programme Planner)
This Year’s Highlights
Firstly, I would sincerely like to thank you all for being such a warm, appreciative
audience. The visiting lecturers never fail to be impressed and a little awed by our
numbers and vibrancy. They respond immediately to your never-failing welcoming
energy and enthusiasm, which I am convinced helps them give their stellar
performances, of which there have been many this past season.
What an outstanding year we have had! We selected a very diverse programme of
lectures to intellectually stimulate, entertain and enlighten you, our members. I
couldn’t point out just one outstanding lecture this year as so many have been
memorable. Let’s start with the quirky History of Wallpapers - who could have
believed that this could be so fascinating. Joanna Banham provided us with an
intriguing account; you were delightfully enlightened and some of you expressed
surprise at how interesting the topic was.
The Luttrell Psalter, with the bonus of a facsimile brought in by a local descendant
of the family, was the subject of a most entertaining lecture by Michelle Brown
giving us insights into the medieval mind and world. What wonderful and
provocative illustrations we were privileged to see and have explained. Michelle
loved her subject and she also loved you, the audience. At lunch she was effusive
in her praise of our Society and would like to have invited you all to visit her in her
remote corner of Cornwall for more chat!
The Christmas Pantomime lecture was very well received. Malcolm Jones provided
us with a riveting lecture with many jokes and personal stories of his own exploits
as an actor in pantomime.
I want to just finish with Guy de la Bédoyère lecturing on Imperial Roman Women,
very erudite, knowledgeable but also very entertaining, and all without notes! He
was so approachable and a very warm person, completely absorbed in Roman
history; it made him very compelling to listen to.
Very sadly our season was cut short and so we have missed some really good
lectures, but never fear, we are going to rebook them for our 2021/22 season so
you won’t miss out! In the meantime, some short lectures are available on the Arts
Society’s main website to keep members stimulated in these very trying times.
I have to thank you all again not only for filling in our Lecture Review Forms, which
we find invaluable, but also for taking the time to talk to both Erica and me, Gunta,
before and after the lectures, sharing your thoughts and recommendations. We
work hard to produce a programme that you will find satisfying on many levels and
thank you for your continuing support. You can always contact us through our new
website or directly by email with any comments or suggestions.
New Programme – 2020/21
Next year’s programme has been finalised. Let’s hope all goes well and we can
restart our programme in September 2020, even if it has to be online. Our job as
Programme Planners is made so much easier by the Arts Society’s Directory Day in
March every year (except this one, needless to say) where we have the opportunity
to sit through many two-and one-minute presentations by new and existing
lecturers. They have to grab our attention in such a short time, which they do
admirably. It is an exhausting yet rewarding day considering that we sit through at
least a hundred very diverse presentations. The quality and professionalism of the
lecturers the Arts Society attracts is truly astounding, they are all highly qualified
experts, all researching, lecturing and writing about their subjects. It is a privilege to
meet them during the day at their information tables.
Coming up (we hope) next year we have some varied gems including: Garden
Design in Oxfordshire, the Art of Melancholy (with the help of a lute), Raphael,
Great Tarts in Art, Frida Kahlo, and Tradition and Modernity in Architecture, to name
but a few.
Events: Outings and Study Days – Charles Cornford (Joint Events Organiser)
Like many other organisations, we have had to curtail some of our trips this
summer. But despite that, we have had a number of successful outings and events
since the publication of the last newsletter.
The Sainsbury Centre - We had a pleasant, leisurely trip to see the contents of the
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich. Divided into two groups, we had a guided tour which
included an introduction to some of the notable exhibits and a history of the centre.
Afterwards there was time to take a closer look and a walk round the outside
sculpture park.
Wren Churches, London - A guided walk took us round some of Wren’s churches,
with a narrative about why they were built, the similarities between them, the later
additions that had been made, and the varying degrees of Second World War
damage.
Wentworth Woodhouse – Lidia Douglas, Secretary of the Society, reports: The trip
to Wentworth Woodhouse was a wonderful experience. The house itself is actually
two houses back to back, one in English Baroque style begun in 1725, and the
other based on a more fashionable (according to the grandson) Vitruvian model
which was much larger - in fact the front is longer than Buckingham Palace. You
could not tell that there were two houses at all. The group was given a very
interesting guided tour of the later house, after which a substantial lunch was
served. In the afternoon members were able to choose a guided tour either of the
gardens or of the earlier house which retained some Jacobean features. The day
flew past. It is certainly a place to which members felt they would like to return, with
a lot more to see.
Study Day: The World of Wolf Hall - What do you do in November when there is
nothing to do? Well, the participants spent an enjoyable day in Barnwell Village
Hall exploring the times of Hilary Mantel’s historical novel, Wolf Hall.
Birmingham Symphony Hall (twice) - We managed two trips to BSH, once to hear
the Moscow Philharmonic, and the second to hear the London Symphony
Orchestra under Simon Rattle. The latter concert included hearing and seeing a
very large percussion instrument, akin to an enormous sledge hammer, that I had
never set eyes on before. It would be a useful addition to Nigel’s bell, I think.
Next season - We are hoping to hold two study days, if we can find a way to do this
either online or with social distancing: the first on the art of Byzantium and the
second on public sculpture.
I.T. Report – Stefan Pijanowski
The introduction of a Head Microphone has overcome many of the problems arising
from lecturers moving their heads from side to side and causing the sound level to
rise and fall. I learnt early on it was important to keep the mike well to the side of
the head to avoid the sound of the speaker’s breath making an irritating noise. The
only technical issue we have yet to eliminate is the radio link dying due to the
batteries going flat! I now use a boldly coloured chart highlighting when it is time to
refresh the batteries based on a very conservative estimate. Here’s hoping!
The coronavirus called a halt to presentations just as I was about to try out a new
method of running cables from the projector to the laptop. The existing cable
protector did not retain the cables and it was a tedious job to push them back in
each time. The new system has the cables fully retained and should make it a lot
easier to set up in future when normality returns.
I would like to include a word of thanks to all the members who support the I.T.
department and who make the presentations go so well and reliably.
Church Recording – Nigel Harper
Our local project, recording St Peter's, Aldwincle, is in its last stage of compiling and
checking prior to its acceptance, after audit, as a good record. Our compilers,
Michael and Margaret Daking and I, were meeting regularly to move things on until
. . . lockdown! We hope we will have a completed record by the end of the year.
Nationally, church recording in The Arts Society was dealt a heavy blow just before
the pandemic struck. Following a Volunteering Impact Review by the national
Society, in consultation with the receiving bodies of the National Archive including
the V&A, church records will no longer be added to the Archive and financial
support from the national Society to local groups will be withdrawn. The decision
was taken ‘due to lack of evidence of public benefit and to very low usage of church
records by the archival bodies keeping them’.
Not surprisingly, this news was received with shock and, it has to be said, anger by
those societies for whom church recording has been a central part of their
volunteering effort.
Members who wish to find out more should consult The Arts Society website. In the
meantime, a group formed from leading church recording practitioners is reviewing
its future with a view to simplifying the recording process, to make it more
accessible and, in short, to keep it going. This will be outside the auspices of The
Arts Society, but available to members and non-members alike. Church recording
will continue and we wish it well. We have no plans to start a new group at the
moment ourselves, but when things eventually get back to normal it will be ‘on the
table’.
Trails of Discovery – Nigel Harper
The former Church Trails volunteer section has a new title – ‘Trails of Discovery’ –
reflecting the various trails that can be put together, eg for children, adults, and
people with sensory deprivation.
We are delighted that Chris Cooke agreed to take on the role of Trails Coordinator
last autumn. The trail at St Leonard's, Apethorpe, started and nearly finished by our
previous coordinator, Sandra McAdam, will be completed by Chris with help from
Area Coordinator Gill Murphy once we get back to pre-virus normality. Hopefully it
will not be long before we are looking to start developing a new trail.
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