The Arts Society Devizes was delighted to contribute funds towards the cost of costumes for this year’s Pantomime “Jack & the Beanstalk” at The Wharf Theatre, Devizes.   The show ran from 1st – 9th December and was a great success, involving a cast of 80% young people. 

The inspiring local artist, Emma Jelf, led a practical painting project for the in-patients at the Adolescent Unit at Marlborough House, Swindon.

Emma reports :

It was a wonderful morning. The young adults/patients seemed really engaged and absorbed in the activities.  They started with expressive, Damian Hirst style, Blossom tree paintings, which some worked on in pairs.  Then they moved onto individual, close up paintings of flowers, Georgia O’Keefe inspired, or freestyle, open to their own interpretation.  It was a very calm session and the patients became very absorbed in their work.  One girl said she hadn’t painted since she’d become ill as she used to paint a lot and had exhibited in a gallery.  Hopefully this session may have rekindled her enjoyment of art.  She is certainly talented, in fact there seemed lots of hidden talent in the room - including from the staff, many of whom had a go!

Our sincere thanks to Emma for creating such an encouraging and inviting environment.

The occasion was conceived and funded by the Arts Society Devizes.

Here are some of the paintings :

The Arts Society Devizes kindly contributed to the cost of transport for a group of 30 Year 9 students from Devizes School to visit Roche Court Sculpture Park. The theme for the visit was focused on 3D sculpture and Photography, as requested by the school Art department. The Education Department at Roche Court provided a stimulating and interactive Programme to achieve this.

The day began with an “icebreaker” and making a mini-sketchbook zine, for each student to fill with investigative drawing/writing etc. (with prompts and suggestions provided by the facilitators throughout the tour). Photography was encouraged after drawing/discussion at each sculpture/area to explore close up/unusual viewpoints.

The three contrasting sculptures chosen for discussion and analysis were “Construction” by Kenneth Martin, “Endeavour” by Bill Woodrow and “Fructus” by Peter Randall-Page. At the end of the session, there was an indoor workshop (and the chance to thaw out!) in the Design House exploring Richard Deacon’s ceramic sculptures by looking, thinking, speaking and sketching, as well as model making.

The aims of the visit were as follows:

Encourage the young people to voice their own opinions and ideas on the sculptures and thus help build their self-confidence.

Invite students to explore the artwork in innovative ways through experimental drawing.

Create drawings and take photographs that can be included in their portfolio.

Learn more about artistic processes and materials.

Despite the bitterly cold weather, the students engaged very well with the enlightening and inspirational tour of the Park and a good time was had by all. Their visit ended on a high, with students feeling greater confidence in their own art practice and opinions on art. Their knowledge and understanding of art and different art movements had been enhanced. The drawings and sketches done during the visit are a clear indication of the value of the visit and artistic talent amongst the students.

The Arts Society Devizes was touched and very grateful for the Thank You card designed and created by some of the students, in the aftermath of this visit - a rewarding and worthwhile project indeed!

Angela Purdon

Arts Volunteering

The Arts Society Devizes contributed £250 towards the cost of costumes for the Dick Whittington pantomime at the Wharf Theatre Devizes, which was hugely appreciated.

Early in 2019 TAS Devizes was pleased to take up a proposal by Karen Hellewell, TAS North Wilts (TASNW) to be involved with an Arts Project at Bellefield Primary School in Trowbridge and to contribute towards the costs involved with such a project: a free standing sculpture created in the school’s outdoor Quiet Area. A mosaic Artist, Emma Leith, was found to oversee the work involved for the children to achieve this project. A key parameter was to involve Key Stage Two children at every stage, from planning to completion in one week. The aim was to create a permanent installation, designed by pupils, in mosaic to reflect the school’s Mission Statement and school values. This would be a purposeful and creative learning experience for all participants.

The whole school was involved, though not necessarily in creating mosaics. The quality of artistic experience, explorations of materials and concepts/symbology was also central to the project. The School Governors approved the project and agreed that TAS volunteers were allowed to work with the children. A local Stone Mason, Mr Jason Harvey, (also a former parent of Bellefield School), agreed to produce and install three concrete pillars, 5’ and 3’ tall, following health and safety guidelines.

Having agreed initially that this would happen in the week after the October half term 2019, Lock-down put a stop to everything. So nothing happened for quite a while……..

Well, at long last, the mosaic week finally took place from Monday 28th June to Friday 2nd July 2021. The tiles were cut and with great excitement the project went ahead and was successfully completed, as planned.

This culminated in a joyous afternoon’s Grand Opening of the installation. Year 6 leavers with parents, Governors and TAS visitors attended the ceremony and were kindly treated to a welcome ice lolly, on a hot summer’s day, in the shady area surrounding the installation! There was a Presentation of a cheque for £250, generously donated by TAS Devizes, towards the overall cost involved. The school are proud of this worthwhile and beautiful project which will be enjoyed, as a permanent and lasting feature, within the haven of tranquillity “The Quiet Area” in which it stands.

Angela Purdon

‘Arts Volunteering’ seeks to give grants, and support Arts related Projects for children and young people in the Devizes area. This financial support can make the difference to individuals and groups by enabling participation in a project that otherwise might not be possible.

Working with schools, colleges, museums and youth groups in Devizes and the local community, ‘Arts Volunteering’ supports a wide range of projects - Visual Arts, Painting, Drawing, Digital Art and Photography, 2D and 3D Printing and Sculpture, Textiles, Illustration and the Performing Arts (Music, Drama and Dance).

In 2021, in conjunction with TAS North Wiltshire, a Mosaic Project at Bellefield School, Trowbridge, was completed. Further initiatives include a Digital Arts Project, run by Roche Court Sculpture Park, through Zoom workshops. A Devizes School visit here in 2022 has also been part-funded by us. The Wharf Theatre’s Youth Section was given money to help with their Panto. In addition, we hope to create a link with Wiltshire Sight Zoom Club for visually impaired children. Once the current restrictions are over, we intend to reinstate a plan for a Book Illustration workshop at Southbroom Infants’ School.

If you have any ideas for a project that might "make a difference" through support from ‘Arts Volunteering’ Devizes, please contact our Representative by email from the Our Society > Committee and Contact Details page.

The mission of The Arts Society is to enrich lives through the Arts and their initiative known as Arts Volunteering seeks to do this with young people inside and outside schools.

Recently the Arts Volunteering Representative for the Devizes Group, Angela Purdon, together with the Arts Volunteering Representative for the North Wiltshire Group, Karen Hellewell, were pleased to meet with Miss M Lang Leader of Art, Director of Learning for Expressive Arts at the John Of Gaunt School In Trowbridge. They presented Miss Lang with cheques for £250 and £300 respectively to support the annual residential trip for Key Stage 5 students.

In January 2020 the destination was Barcelona and the students visited: The Picasso Museum, La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Casa Mila/La Pedrera, the modern art gallery (MEAM), the National Museum of Catalan art, and many of the cultural sites of the city such as Las Ramblas and the Gothic quarter.

Miss Lang said:

“We were so pleased to receive financial support from the Devizes and North Wiltshire groups of the Arts Society which enabled all the students to have travel cards for the duration of the trip which will really helped to speed up travel, keep costs down and enabled us to see more of the city and made it easier to get around to see the wonderful galleries and sites as well as taking part in a ceramic painting workshop on the last day in a typical Spanish village. For some it was their first time abroad and the generosity of the Arts Society groups in supporting this trip eased the pressure on parents and was a massive benefit to us as a department.”

By popular request Lynne Gibson repeated her lecture entitled WOMEN ARTISTS: Modern Mistresses at Trowbridge College on 17th October 2019.

Staff reported that Lynne Gibson's lecture was knowledgeable and thoughtful. It was attended by over 100 students from Foundation Art & Design, Level 3 and Level 2 Art and Design. 

The students have been discussing the questions raised by the lecture during their studio sessions, clearly informed by its content. 

• '…really interesting, everyone should know this history.' - Katie
• 'Inspirational subject matter, made me think about stereotypes in art.' - Alice
• 'Informed me….now aware of the position of women in Art History.' - Luan
• 'Facts made it easy to understand the scale of imbalance in art.’ - Charles

The Director of Studies said :"Please pass on thanks to the Arts Society Devizes (Young Arts) for their financial support and enabling this lecture to take place”.

The Arts Society Devizes (Young Arts) provided a grant of £300 towards a recent youth production of the musical “Legally Blonde” at The Wharf Theatre, Devizes.

This contribution made all the difference to the production costs of this excellent and hugely enjoyable production by the cast of twenty talented, energetic youngsters, all from the Devizes area.

Acknowledgement and thanks for this support was included in the Theatre programme.

Two Animation Workshops and an Introduction to Film making were generously funded by The Arts Society Devizes (Young Art) for Young Carers in Wiltshire on 1 December 2018.

The workshops involved 20 Young Carers (aged 7 to 18) from across Wiltshire and took place in West Lavington Village Hall.

One of the videos created at the workshop

Using an App on their mobile phone they designed and created hand drawn animations, instructed by professional Animators. Imagination and creativity amongst the groups led to excellent and impressive films made by the groups. At least 2 of the participants have set their sights on becoming Film Directors and everyone who took part said how much they had enjoyed the experience and watching the live footage of their art work.

Feedback from students:
What did you like about the Workshop ?

• It was really fun to do and I liked drawing the pictures.
• I liked that I could do a lot of things I love doing by drawing models and creating the animation.
• Creating the animals for the animation filming.

What did you learn ?

• How to use the animation app to create an animation.
• How to animate with plasticine and turn that into a moving scene!
• I learnt how to animate with pictures.
• I learnt how many frames it takes for a short animation!

On 25th January 2018 Lynne Gibson, BEd, MA gave a lecture entitled WOMEN ARTISTS: Modern Mistresses at Trowbridge College. Lynne’s lecture was particularly interesting, given its exciting title and relevance this year, being the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage, Women’s Vote and the ongoing struggle for Gender Equality, not just in the Art World.

The majority of students currently studying Art and Design at Trowbridge College are female so it was of particular interest to them, as well as other students from schools and colleges in Wiltshire, who were invited to attend the lecture. This introduced them to the Arts Society’s Lecture programme and raised awareness of opportunities we offer through sponsorship and help with Educational arts projects including Visual Arts, Drama and Music for Young People in this area.

This lecture marked 50 years of The Arts Society (our GOLDEN JUBILEE). The lecture was funded jointly by The Arts Society Wessex and The Arts Society Devizes together with a contribution from the Patricia Fay Memorial Fund. This introduced older students in the Wessex Area to The Arts Society’s varied and enriching Lecture programme and as many as 150 people were able to attend.

Feedback from Foundation Art and Design students at Trowbridge College, who attended the lecture:

• ‘Eye opening, where women artists began to be seen and their struggles..’ — Lily
• ‘A really good speaker, the historical background shocked and hooked your interest’ — Isabel
• ‘Really good to have a specialist lecture from outside of College’ — Harry
• ‘...hadn't really noticed properly the focus of Art in Galleries and the dominance historically of male artists’ — Erin

Thanks were given to The Arts Society Devizes and The Arts Society Wessex for jointly funding this lecture, together with a contribution from the Patricia Fay Memorial Fund.