Dear Readers

Welcome to the Summer issue of Perspectives. This greeting feels a little over-optimistic, as I write this on a chilly April evening, but earlier in the day Cheltenham was buzzing with the Jazz Festival, the blossom was glorious and down jackets were giving way to sweaters. Surely grounds for an optimistic look forward!

Perspectives is a publication which looks both forwards, in its Listings pages and in advertisements anticipating all the good things to come, and backwards in its reviews of events which have recently taken place. In this issue we have reports of three wonderfully celebratory occasions into cheer readers.

One of the most significant of these was the annual Cheltenham Arts Council Awards Ceremony, held this year on 1st March at the Playhouse theatre. Details of the evening are provided by the new Honorary Secretary of CAC, Amber Smith, who will already be well-known to many of you as the inspirational moving force behind Cheltenham Children’s Choir. Readers will be particularly delighted to note that congratulations are due to Rachel Tedd, following the award of a citation for her work as Editor of Perspectives, as well as in other areas of Cheltenham’s cultural life. I follow her with some degree of trepidation!

The Playhouse has hosted two further events in recent weeks. If you were not fortunate enough to secure a ticket for the sell-out collaboration between members of CAC and dancers from

Nethra Academy of Performing Arts on 11th March, the article by Shashish Gowri Shankar will give you a flavour of the evening in all its variety, as well as revealing the astonishing sum raised to provide bursary funding for Cheltenham’s young students from Ukraine.

On 27th April, the cheers of supporters rang out once again at the Playhouse in enthusiastic celebration of the recipients of the Gloucestershire Young Photographer of the Year awards. Students from 50 primary and secondary schools had entered a total of 887 photographs. You can catch up with this lively event here, too.

In a quieter mood, there is a fascinating illustrated article about the newly reopened Holst Victorian House and its beautiful new lighting, which lends a more authentic period atmosphere to the rooms.

Several different organisations have ventured to introduce themselves in this issue of Perspectives and others have chosen to advertise events, so don’t miss the opportunity to find out what they have to offer, in case it is exactly the distraction you are seeking.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue and, of course, I very much look forward to receiving news of the many events lined up for this Summer in Cheltenham, to be included in the Autumn edition of Perspectives.

Elise Forbes PERSPECTIVES EDITOR