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Outstanding Musicians | Exhibitions & Open Studios | Members' Performance Events | Well-known speakers | Social Events | Workshops
Crowborough Arts supports the arts, and arts practitioners in our area.During the current COVID-19 outbreak, like so many other organisations, we have had to suspend our programme for the time being. However, we've decided to use this website to keep in touch, and to create a space for use as a showcase for our members' work. So we're inviting you to contribute - perhaps a new painting or photograph you'd like to share, a poem or maybe a short story.
Please email Gaye with your suggestions and ideas. In particular, if you'd like to be featured as an artist, with a picture of you or your work, and would be willing to give a short telephone interview, we'd love to hear from you. Now see what we've put together so far, and make sure to scroll all the way down! Christmas Card Competition Results
Our competition for the Crowborough Arts Christmas card design had over 30 entries, which was brilliant! Thanks to everyone who took part. The Steering Group shortlisted the designs, and then we asked an independent professional designer to make the final choices. The three selected are shown above and our congratulations go to Mary, Angela and Karen. Each winning artist will receive 10 cards of their own design.
The artwork is currently with the printer and we hope to have the finished cards available for purchase by around 27th November. The cards measure 6" x 4" and have a simple 'Happy Christmas, message inside. We will be selling them in packs of 6, including envelopes, with two of each design The cost per pack is £5. We expect them to be very popular, so do get your order in early by emailing gaye.jee@clara.co.uk. A VIP Visit for Jeannette
Nus Ghani, MP for Wealden, has visited the Crowborough Community Centre which currently exhibits the “Home & Away” landscapes by local artist and Crowborough Arts member Jeannette Towey.
The exhibition hosts more than thirty paintings of landscapes from Wealden and Sussex, as well as landscapes, seascapes and nature paintings from all over the UK and from abroad. Ms Ghani said: “It is fantastic to see the work of a local artist exhibited at the heart of Crowborough and I particularly enjoyed the beautiful landscapes of the Ashdown Forest and Wealden’s countryside." A selection of Jeannette's work is available to purchase here. Bursary News
Rebecca Lindsay, who has just completed her PhD at the University of Reading, was awarded a CA bursary in 2017 to assist with expenses to attend the world’s largest children’s literature conference.
Rebecca writes: “With the support of the Crowborough Arts Bursary, I was able to go to Canada to present my paper on ‘The Real and the Ideological Child’ at the International Research Society for Children’s Literature Congress 2017. This was such an incredible experience as a first year PhD student, and I could not have done it without this bursary. Thank you so much! I have now submitted my thesis, ‘Psychoanalytic Readings of Language, the Unconscious, and the Desire for the Object’, which looks at various critical theories, literature and psychoanalysis. I have included a special thanks to Crowborough Arts in my thesis acknowledgements page for your generosity.“ We send Rebecca many congratulations, and look forward to addressing her as Dr Lindsay! Turn Your Memories into Memoirs ...
Some years ago when I was studying for my MA, I wrote down a series of family stories - stories I'd grown up with from my grandparents and parents. Some were funny, some recalled their childhoods and some brought home their experiences in the East End of London during WWII. What I found repeatedly was that as we spoke about the past, more and more memories would emerge. Reminiscing unlocked a past that would otherwise have been lost forever.
Now I want to help others preserve their own stories for their families and friends. During a series of relaxed, informal interviews, we will capture the stories and periods of your life that you want to preserve. Please get in touch for an informal chat either by emailing gaye.jee@clara.co.uk or calling 01892 853294/07799842244 Gaye Jee Booklovers Update
As physical meetings are not possible at the moment, members have been meeting via Zoom, Click here for the latest titles and to find out what they thought!
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Rewind ...Click here to visit our archive - including every single item since the lockdown began!
Donate Alongside CA to Restore a Very Special Instrument!
Left: Roger with the pianola at Batemans in the 1980s. Right, Roger in 2019.
We received an appeal from Trudy Harper, on behalf of her father, Roger Taylor, who has lived in East Sussex for over 40 years. Music played a great part in his life; he was a trumpet player, a piano player and a fine singer. For a time he and his late wife lived at Rudyard Kipling's former home, Batemans. Roger is now 85 and lives in High Broom Care Home in Crowborough.
Trudy writes, ‘In my garage is a very special but rather sad and dilapidated pianola which predates 1910. It has been a very special machine in our family and has lived in many different homes. It featured in all family celebrations as Dad peddled like fury to the strains of ‘Daisy Daisy’, ‘Get me to the Church on Time’ and ‘The Dashing White Sergeant’. Trudy has launched an appeal to raise £2,000 for the restoration of the pianola, so that it can be rehomed to High Broom for the entertainment of all the residents. She says, ‘We would love to see Dad peddle away again … please help us raise the funds to restore a little piece of history and give the High Broom Community a Christmas Gift to remember and get the twinkle back in a rather eccentric octogenarian’s eyes.’ Crowborough Arts is delighted to donate £300 to such a great cause. If you would like to make an independent donation, please go to the GoFundMe page: gf.me/u/y6dwii). Catch Up With Stan
Gaye Jee and Mary Harris have just taken delivery of their second children's book, 'When Stan Came Back', written by Gaye and illustrated by Mary. Gaye says, 'Last year, our cat Stan went missing in the middle of the night. When he came back three days later, he wouldn’t say where he’d been, so this is his imagined story.’ She goes on to explain, 'Our first collaboration, 'Seven Sardines for Stan' has sold out, so that gave us the encouragement to print this one.'
24 pages, full colour, £5 per copy. Contact Gaye to reserve a copy on 01892 853294, or email gaye.jee@clara.co.uk. Read Our Latest Newsletter!
Erica Walks for Children in Need
Update! Erica writes, 'I have attached a video of part of my sponsored walk for Children in Need shown on BBC SE lunchtime news today (13th Nov). I thought you might be interested to know that it will also be on their evening news tonight as well as the main BBC 1 programme at 7.20. So far I have raised £530 and am hoping tonight's exposure will add more. Many thanks to those who have donated.'
Below is Erica's account of her feat: 'Saturday 10th October, eleven o’clock, time to set off on my Children in Need sponsored walk. Disappointingly the weather is fine. It would look more heroic to trundle my walking frame through gales, rainstorms or snow, but it is not to be so I don my Pudsey ears and drive to Goldsmiths with husband, Maurice, by my side. Outside the Leisure Centre my daughter, Jan Moffitt, is waiting so, with a cheery wave goodbye to Maurice, we set off on the upward path skirting the left of the building and I wonder if the carpet of acorns will speed me up or crash me down. But I negotiate them without a hitch with Jan spurring me on and making jokes which make me laugh proving that it’s possible to walk, breathe and laugh all at the same time even at my age. I puff my way up the long sloping path until at the top it turns right and a beautiful panoramic scene bursts into view. I fling out my arms and sing ‘The hills are alive with …’ but my Julie Andrews moment is curtailed by the need to stop my walker sailing away. Now it’s downhill until we turn right at the bottom onto the not-quite-flat path that always sets my ankle off, but I bravely limp on until reaching the outdoor gym equipment where I wonder whether to have a go. However, this challenge is to walk for half an hour, not waste time keeping fit, so we turn left onto the circular path above the running track and continue trudging around whilst young people zip past on the track beside us. It is like travelling on a donkey with Tesla electric cars speeding by. Eventually a full half hour has passed. In my head music plays and fireworks explode. I dash to our car and my man leaps out waving a St George’s flag. We kiss. And that is that. I had aimed to make £88 for Children in Need. Currently the total is £485. Whoop whoop!' |
