Arts festival 2015

Arts

Festival

20 to 26 June 2015

A Week in 1915

A Week in 1915

I am delighted that the Arts Festival has become a regular feature at Sherborne Girls and the theme this year gives us the opportunity to reflect on the way in which the arts can play an important part in capturing the emotions and thoughts of a particular moment in time. Looking back to 1915 has been a rewarding experience for us all as we have discovered more about our links to the past. This festival features music, drama, visual art and much more. We are enormously grateful to all those who have made it possible.

We hope that you enjoy reading this programme and that you will join us for some of the open events.

Jenny Dwyer, Headmistress

Following the great success of our inaugural Arts Festival last year, we are hosting our second festival, ‘A Week in 1915’, in the lead up to Commemoration Day. This year’s Festival shines a spotlight on how our community is connected to the First World War through the school’s own history, the heritage of its motor ambulance links, its links with the local community, as well as the long-term impact on the girls, the school, and the world we live in today.

It is the legacy of former Headmistress Beatrice Mulliner that ‘Sherborne School for Girls should send an ambulance’ that in a sense defines the school’s ethos of community, service and leadership today. Among the many thoughtprovoking and exciting events are included ‘Histoire du Soldat’ Vamos Theatre, art lectures and the Archive Exhibition. We look forward to seeing you.

Jenny Nelson, Director of Co-Curricular

Cover photograph: Female ambulance drivers in France 1914-18 reproduced by kind permission of The British Red Cross.

All illustrations are taken from the school’s own Senior Floor Book 1913-1926.

what’s on OPEN ALL WEEK Archive Exhibition: Remembering 1915 Beddington Lecture Theatre Foyer A collection of archive material from the school circa 1915.

Saturday 20 June Unplugged 7.30pm School Hall ~ L5-U6 An informal music event co-ordinated by members of the L6 showcasing a range of musical talent, with an ethos of ‘Keep Calm and Carry on!’

sunday 21 June Arts Carousel open event from 2pm A carousel of events showcasing a range of musical, artistic and dramatic talent from girls of all ages. The focus is on individual performance and small ensemble work.

• 2pm Individual LAMDA performances in the Drama Studio • 3pm Music Recitals in the Benjamin Britten Hall • 4pm Poetry Speakers’ Corner in Kenelm Garden with a 1915 Festival Tea Join us for a relaxed and informal afternoon of collaborative arts. Featured poets and composers include Rupert Brooke, TS Eliot, Gerald Finzi, Robert Frost, Thomas Hardy and Ezra Pound. A spot of 1915 style afternoon tea will also be on offer!

monday 22 june Festival Dance Workshop with Katey Leader, Director of Dance, Take Art 10.30am – 4.30pm - Informal performance at 4.00pm Oxley Sports Hall ~ M5 Take Art promote the arts as an agent of development and change for both individuals and communities, by demonstrating its commitment through a series of ground-breaking projects, working with issues of health, education and social cohesion.

Katey Leader Katey trained as a professional dancer at London Contemporary Dance School and then toured nationally with Pretty Good Girl Dance Theatre.

Currently Katey manages Somerset Youth Dance Company, a predominantly contemporary based group, and teaches tap and street dance at the Octagon Theatre.

Bovington Tank Museum Activity Day 9am – 4pm Bovington ~ L5 An activity day discovering the story of Women in the War Effort.

Food Fayre 5pm – 6pm Food Room ~ M5-L6 An opportunity to create culinary delights from the Sherborne Girls’ menu of 1915!

War Art Lecture 1: Allied Art open event 5pm – 6pm Beddington Lecture Theatre ~ L5-U6 Led by Ms Polly Ellis, MA London, BA Courtauld Inst London, History of Art teacher.

monday 22 june GalLipoli open event 7.30pm – 9.30pm Beddington Lecture Theatre A showing of one of the most evocative anti-war films ever made. Starring Mel Gibson.

Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat open event 7.30pm – 8.30pm Benjamin Britten Hall Narrator Dominic Rye is joined by violinist Catrin Morgan, clarinettist Jennifer Nelson and guest pianist Duncan Honeybourne. Written in 1918, Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), is a dry, dark and witty story of a deserting soldier and the Devil who eventually possesses his soul. igor stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian (and later, a naturalized French and American) composer, pianist and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century.

Dominic Rye Dominic is currently in his graduation year at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Among many successful roles and accolades, Dominic has played Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere’s Fan directed by Tim Hardy and recently won the 2015 Sir Alec Guinness Memorial Award.

igor stravinsky

Dominic Rye

tuesday 23 june Festival Drama Workshop with Vamos Theatre 11am – 4pm School Hall ~ Next year’s GCSE Drama students. Rehearsal day 1 Specialising in mask and physical theatre, Vamos will work with our students to create an original piece of theatre.

Festival Piano Masterclass with David Owen Norris open event 2pm – 5.30pm Benjamin Britten Hall A class in which invited piano students will learn alongside David Owen Norris, a master of advanced technique and artistry.

Food and the Women’s Institute 5pm – 6pm Food Technology Room ~ L4-L5 An opportunity to recreate elements of a taster menu from 1915.

War Art Lecture 2: ‘A War of Images: German artist Otto Dix and the myths of war’ open event 5pm – 6pm Beddington Lecture Theatre Led by Jonathan Casely, Head of History of Art at Sherborne Girls.

tuesday 23 june Shulbrede Tunes (1914) - with David Owen Norris (piano) open event and featuring Sherborne Girls’ pianists 7.30pm – 8.30PM Benjamin Britten Hall A musical performance with accompanying film, including family photographs, watercolours and historical extracts of Shulbrede Priory and Sir Hubert Parry’s family life.

David Owen Norris David Owen Norris is a pianist, broadcaster and composer. His unusually varied career has seen him as a repetiteur at the Royal Opera House, harpist at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Artistic Director of the Petworth Festival and the Cardiff International Festival, Gresham Professor of Music and Chairman of the Steans Institute for Singers at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. His regular monthly columns in the BBC Music Magazine give rise to a steady flow of thoughtful correspondence.

DR Ben Wild - a history of Fashion through 1915 open event 7.30pm School Hall A talk on the history of fashion through WWI. Ben Wild Dr Ben Wild has written articles for a range of magazines and journals, including History Today, BBC History Magazine and The Guardian. His most recent lectures include the history and sociology of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery and the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design.

wednesday 24 june International Exhibition Wednesday 24 – Friday June 26 Beddington Lecture Theatre Foyer

Festival Drama Workshop with Vamos Theatre 11am – 4pm School Hall – Next year’s GCSE Drama students. Rehearsal day 2 Specialising in mask and physical theatre, Vamos will work with our students to create an original piece of theatre.

Art and Design Technology Exhibition Private View 4.30pm – 7pm Art Department End of year show for examination students; by invitation.

1915 Festival Movement - recreating the school drill from the early days…!

5pm – 6pm Oxley Hall ~ L4-U4 An opportunity to experience and embrace teamwork through the group gymnastics of 1915.

Festival Performance: Vamos Theatre open event 7.30pm School Hall Featuring next year’s GCSE Drama students in an original production, based in 1915.

Vamos Theatre is one of the UK's leading professional full mask theatre companies. Established as an independent theatre company in 2006, Vamos has developed organically under the leadership of its Artistic Director, Rachael Savage.

thursday 25 june commemoration concert open event 7.30pm Sherborne Abbey Our end of year concert, featuring some exceptional musical talent, including West Choir, Quintabile, Madrigals, String Orchestra and the Cambiare Clarinet Quartet.

… the wounded men from the Sherborne Hospitals spent several hours at the School. They greatly appreciated the ‘ragtimes’ played by Miss Pay and enjoyed the ‘smokes’ which were handed round when tea was over. What a merry party they looked … Several were heard to remark, “This is better fare than the trenches!”

friday 26 june

Commemoration Day 9.30am – 6pm An end of term celebration of the year for girls and their families. The Festival theme continues throughout the day with a number of events and exhibitions.

Commemoration Service 10.45am Sherborne Abbey

Prizegiving 12.15pm Marquee

leavers’ concert 2.30pm Benjamin Britten Hall ~ featuring U6 musicians

Art Design Technology Exhibition from 2.30pm Art Department

Physics Exhibition from 2.30pm Room 7 Showing work from Physics lessons during Arts Week.

open events We would be delighted for Parents and Friends to join us for any of the open events. Please contact artsfestival@sherborne.com for more details or to reserve your place.

A Reflection on Life at Sherborne Girls During WW1 The War touched Sherborne Girls in many ways. Fathers, brothers, relatives and friends went to fight and those left behind worked tirelessly to support the War Effort both at home and overseas.

Headmistress Beatrice Mulliner wrote in 1915:

“In some ways we were much less disturbed than many schools. In those first weeks of August a large number of the Yeomanry slept in the Gymnasium and in September Aldhelmsted had the honour of welcoming some of the refugees from Belgium. But no hostile aeroplane ever reached Sherborne; their constant attentions were kept at the coasts by the great dockyards and the vigilant searchlights of Portsmouth and Southampton. We were never really short of food; butter and milk were too plentiful in the rich pasture lands of Dorset; vegetables were easy to grow, and with skilful cooking there was no need to be hungry. Still, the war made its indelible mark on us. It hampered our finances and our growth. True, our numbers increased; many a child was sent to us out of the danger zones, and also when homes were broken up and darkened by loss and trouble. It grew As early as June, 1915, a War Supplement to the Magazine was issued at the request of the Old Girls’ Union. It contained the names of 114 near relatives of the School serving their country, and 179 connected with the Old Girls’ Union and the White Lodge. But as the years went by the lists grew appallingly long. Three of the boys of the old kindergarten class laid down their lives for England – Richard and Francis Hodgson, Jack Waldegrave, killed at Arras only twenty-one days after reaching France.”

Taken from Sherborne School for Girls magazine 1899 – 1929

For more details about the Arts Festival please contact Jenny Nelson, Director of Co-Curricular E: artsfestival@sherborne.com T: 01935 818392 Sherborne Girls, Bradford Road, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 3QN