Helmsley Arts Centre

the arts for everyone in Ryedale

August 2010

HELMSLEY ARTS CENTRE  GRAND SUMMER DRAW

PRIZE LIST AND WINNERS

DRAWN AT THE CENTRE ON FRIDAY 23 JULY AT 12.00 PM

We raised £2457

 

 

SERIAL	PRIZE	VALUE	DONATED BY	WINNER
1	Dinner, bed and breakfast for two for one night at the Black Swan Hotel, Helmsley	£200	The Black Swan	M Thomas, Helmsley
2	A 2 night mid-week break for two in one of Laskill Grange's self catering cottages	tbc	Sue smith	S Jennings, London
3	A Gillies Jones gift voucher for an art glass piece from their new collection	£150	Kate Jones	Mr McLane, Gilling
4	A Calverts Carpets voucher for £100	£100	Calvert's Carpets	R Bresnan, Stillington
5	Sunday  Lunch for two at Lastingham Grange	£60	Lastingham Grange	S Craig, Oswaldkirk
6	A luxury hamper from Hunters of Helmsley	£80	Hunters of Helmsley	G Sigsworth, Helmsley
7	Sunday Lunch for two at the Moors Inn, Appleton le Moors	tbc	Moors Inn	D Booth, Malton
8	A £20 voucher from Browns of Helmsley department store	£20	Browns of Helmsley	S Hopkinson, Hovingham
9	A Helmsley Arts Centre Gift Voucher for £20	£20	HAC	D Fitton, Kirkbymoorside
10	A Helmsley Arts Centre Gift Voucher for £20	£20	HAC	D Morris, Kirkbymoorside
11	A Helmsley Arts Centre Gift Voucher for £20	£20	HAC	E Owlett, Helmsley
12	A Helmsley Arts Centre Gift Voucher for £20	£20	HAC	R Givoni, London
13	A Helmsley Arts Centre Gift Voucher for £20	£20	HAC	S Brown, Knaresborough
14	A piece of original art from a selection donated by exhibitors at the HAC	£50	HAC	Mr Manser, Helmsley
15	A mixed case of wine from the Duke of Wellington Inn, Danby	£60	Grant  Douglas	N Kernack, Helmsley
16	A season ticket to Duncombe Park and a guided tour of the Rievaulx terraces	tbc	Jake Duncombe	M Budden, Scarborough
17	A gliding session with the Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton Bank	£50	YGC	Dr Ingledew, York
18	Two hand stitched cushions	£60	Dorothy Kershaw	E Melrose, Caversham
19	Two Rose bone china mugs	£20	Delia Holdings	S Waley, Nunnington

Thanks to everyone who bought and sold raffle tickets, to Paddy Chambers who organised the raffle,  and again thanks to all those who donated prizes.

Past Newsletters

April 2010

See below for the two new prizes added to our list!!!!

Many of you will be pretty familiar already with what's been happening at The Arts Centre of late. But not all of you.

First of all, we have organised a raffle, which has just been launched and will be drawn in the cafe at 12 noon on Friday July 23rd. We're printing a thousand books of tickets, each book containing ten tickets at a pound each. Our Friends will shortly be receiving a couple of books each to sell.

 

If you've not enrolled as a Friend, however, but would like to help keep us up and running, do let us know and we'll send you a book of tickets to sell (or buy). Just fill in the stubs with at least the name and telephone number of the buyer and send them back to us with the money. We'll gladly send you more on request.

 

And then why not help us further by joining our Friends?

 

We've got some really good prizes, donated by local businesses. So far :

           

Dinner,Bed and Breakfast for one night at the the Black Swan in Helmsley

A Gillies Jones voucher worth �150 for a piece of  art glassware from their new collection donated by Kate Jones

A two night mid-week break for two in one of Laskill Grange's self-catering cottages

A �100 voucher from Calverts Carpets

A luxury hamper from Hunters of Helmsley worth �80

Sunday lunch for two at Lastingham Grange

Sunday Lunch for two at the Moors Inn, Appleton-le-Moors

A case of wine from Grant Douglas of The Duke of Wellington Inn, Danby

An original work of art from a selection donated by our exhibitors

A �20 voucher from Brown's of Helmsley

5  x �20 Helmsley Arts Centre gift  vouchers

A season ticket to Duncombe Park and a guided tour of Duncombe Park gardens

A gliding session with the Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton Bank

 

In February, you'll be pleased to know,  we managed to raise a good sum at the art auction. We sold over fifty catalogues but relatively few people actually came to the auction. Those who did enjoyed a well organised  and very pleasant social occasion, with wine and a delicious range of canapes, prepared by Margot Cairncross, Judy Plummer, Jane Priest, Sue Elm & Brigitte Gillespie. The team took a lot of trouble to set the studio/bar out invitingly, even to the point of persuading Natasha Jones and Laura Denison to sashay elegantly in out of the auction room with each lot as its number was called. Martin Vander Weyer, not to be sartorially outdone, came dressed in a fetching oriental jacket and brought to the role of auctioneer all the wit and skills he practised so well as MC in last December's Music Hall.  A number of sealed bids helped to move the sales along and although only about half the pictures were sold our profit, including the gift aid we're claiming, came to �3,395, a very welcome addition to our funds. So our thanks to everyone involved - but in particular to the organisers: Jane Priest, Sue Elm and Bridget Gillespie.

 

In addition, we have been finding other sponsors. In the last two months :

 

Clap Trap Productions donated their share of the box office takings for their March 6 performance of "Wreckers" to the Arts Centre �545

Rollits, the law firm, gave �500 towards the Michael Mansfield event on May 27

The Helmsley Free Masons' Lodge No.7075 gave �500 in support of the Youth Theatre's production of "Won't Be Long"

Two Friends (they prefer to remain anonymous) gave �500 towards the Arts Centre's work in general

Another Friend gave us �250 towards the Min-Jin Kym and Ian Brown concert

Bisca of Helmsley gave �250 towards the Folk Weekend in Septembe

A.S. Green & Co gave �100 to the Arts Centre

 

Our thanks to them all for their generosity. Meanwhile the search goes on, not least

Helmsley Freemasons presenting a cheque for �500 to Natasha Jones for the Youth Theatre

through endless form-filling  for possible grants. If you know anyone who might sponsor the Arts Centre - perhaps by subsidising a particular event, or activity - do let us know. Do encourage them to help. (See our Support Us page)

 

Bookings continue to be a bit unpredictable. The pattern has, not surprisingly, changed since the recession began to bite. On the one hand we are delighted to find the Russian Orthodox Choir has sold out already for its 7.30pm concert on May 2 but, even more delightful, they have agreed to do an additional performance at 4.00pm on the same day. 

 

On the other hand, we had to cancel the performance and workshop by ACE Dance and Music, which by four days before the performance had attracted only nine bookings. Fortunately the company didn't hold us to paying the full fee, as was their right at that stage, but we still lose �600 (half the fee) from it, plus what had already been spent on publicity.  It's a bit of a lottery sometimes!!

 

Bookings are going well for Hull Truck's production of Me and Me Dad on 15^th April at 7.30pm so be careful not to leave booking too late. And then there's our own 1812 Theatre Company's production of Shelagh Stephenson's Olivier award winning  "The Memory of Water"  running for four nights, 21^st to 24^th April at 7.30pm. It's a brilliant play.

February 2010

This second newsletter has been rather a long time coming, I'm afraid, for which we apologise. We do still intend to produce at least one a month in future.

Meanwhile, as you can see in this website,  a new programme of events has been booked and you can book your tickets now.

In the wide-ranging mix of music, theatre,comedy, film and talks, you have come to expect, look out for some exciting new events. For example,  Hull Truck come in April with a new play by Nick Lane, Me and Me Dad, while in May we have  The Russian Orthodox Choir.   We're particularly pleased to have two dance events:  African/Caribbean with ACE Dance & Music in March, who also offer a workshop afternoon, and Dancing the Ramayana brought to us by South Asian Arts in July.

There is more emphasis this time on the work of young people. Don't miss the excellent Vacation Chamber Orchestra in April and support the work of Ryedale Live in June, featuring local songwriters and musicians already making a name for themselves nationally. We are delighted that Ryedale Live has made our Arts Centre a base for their regular Friday evening gatherings of young local talent.Talking of which we urge you to see the musicians of Ryedale School in action in July,  when their Wind Band and Jazz Band play for us.

Then in March there is a special film show, Britain at Bay, which links nicely with a performance of Land Girls in June.

Finally, back to the familiar, with three offerings from our resident 1812 Theatre Company in March, April and July, and the world premiere of Won't Be Long by Tom Needham and David J. Griffiths and performed by our 1812 Youth Theatre in June.

For those of you who might be interested in what happens behind the scenes at the Helmsley Arts Centre and aren't yet Friends or Volunteers, there's been a lot happening of late. There have been quite a few changes. Peter Small has been Chairman of the Trustees for nine years, though involved with the Centre for much longer, and has handed over to another very active but more recent member, Margot Cairncross. Peter will be passing on another very important baton in April: Manager of the Bar.

Malcolm Kitchin was Secretary for the Trustees for 13 years and is succeeded by a more recent member, Martin Trent. In addition, Ann Burnell is reluctantly giving up managing the catering team, also after 13 years. Peter, Malcolm and Ann have worked for the Centre for years in all sorts of ways and, Iʼm relieved to say, will not be leaving us altogether.

All their work for us was and still is as volunteers, unpaid.

Claire Lishman, our marketing and theatre manager, has  left us for a full-time job with the Birmingham Royal Ballet and  was one of our paid members of staff, working four days a week. In addition she worked with Alison Priestley as co-leader of our 1812 Youth Theatre.

So January and February saw us looking for people to take on her work. As we were anyway examining how best to reorganise ourselves in the light of our growth and changing circumstances in recent years, we have decided not to refill the existing post until  that examination is complete. Meanwhile we have made a number of temporary appointments.

So: David Goodwin is back with us on a part-time basis until the middle of April, keeping up with marketing and publicity and booking events for the Autumn. If you need to contact him, ring 01439 771700 and key option 4 - or email him.

Natasha Jones will take over Claire's role with the Youth Theatre until mid-July and will look after the YT's admin. You can reach her on 07540625646 or by email.

When David Goodwin leaves, his marketing/publicity role will be filled by Umay Jones (no relation to the above) for a further six months.

Another change over the last couple of months has been to our brochure. It has been redesigned by Umay Jones. You can download a copy if you haven't got one, or pick one up from the Arts Centre. And she will be designing the next one, too. Last year we decided to reduce our brochures from three to two, to save money. This we did without increasing its size and we did save money. But it created difficulties with booking performers, as many of them couldn't commit themselves so far in advance, so we are reverting to three a year, starting in September 2010.

If you would like to be a friend and/or volunteer do let us know but whether you do or not we hope to see you here as audience.



November 2009
Welcome to the first of our monthly newsletters. If you'd like to receive these and regular updates by email and are not already on our emailing list then please sign up here.

Welcome also to our new website. We hope you like the look of it and find it easy to use. Do let us know what you think. One way of doing that, and otherwise getting involved in discussion, is to enter our blog site and share your thoughts.

However, though up and running, the web site is still being developed, so look out for new pages, video content and links.

One feature in particular is up and running and we'd very much like you to use it. That is the Helmsley Arts Centre Shop. Its link appears on the top of the right hand column. Just click to enter the shop.  The thing is, anything you buy through our shop brings us a percentage fee and at no extra cost to you. We shall feature items associated with our programme and activities but you have the whole of the on-line Amazon shop at your disposal. So do please help us by buying through our shop.

This development of our website and blog has only been possible because of Gareth Jenkins, who has long been active in the Arts Centre, and has given so much time and energy to it, free of charge and Andrew Paul, the Cinemas-Online web designer. For which, many thanks.They have between them  taken your director on a steep learning hike.

In case you don't know, Cinemas-Online is the organisation which set up our original website and which provides all the cinema information that appears on it.

Gareth has in the past acted  in  number of plays and directed for the 1812 Theatre Company. Then he and Cal Stockbridge turned professional and set up  Clap Trap Productions, with which they have toured a number of plays. They have all been performed at the Arts Centre (for example, Duet for One and Not About Heroes). 

However, the company has also  been working in schools in Ryedale and has recently developed a project through the Ryedale Theatre Association called Inspired. This has received Leader Funding  and also funding from Extended Schools to enable groups of pupils from Ryedale schools to meet and travel together to various