Culture

Arts groups share a £66k windfall

By Karen Bate

newsdesk@westdorsetmag.co.uk

Scores of art, sport and museum organisations in West Dorset have received the lion’s share of the £66,094 from the second round of Dorset Council’s community and culture project. The funding will help deliver exciting and inclusive projects to benefit people of all abilities. The list of organisations are as follows: n Artsreach, £3,500 to deliver 24 children’s creative workshops in rural villages. n Arts Development Company, £4,000 was awarded to the Raise the Roof project to train people in creative and practical skills. n Broadwindsor Group, £1,500 to welcome new residents of the CLT development in Drimpton n B Sharp, £4,010 to mentor and support 15

GOOD NEWS: Several arts groups in West Dorset have received extra funding young musicians. n Bank of Dreams and Nightmares, £2,000 a creative writing project for disadvantaged young people in Bridport. n Bittersweet Harmony, £4,000 to deliver a series of singing workshops and a community choir summer concert. n Co Create CIC, £4,934 to address mental health and loneliness and help deaf people bring their artwork to a wider audience. n Dorchester Arts, £3,713 to elevate the pilot study for dance for people with MS and their carers. n Emerald Ant, £4,150 a four-day creative residency at Yewstock Special School and a day tour of the Iggy Experience to Beaucroft Special School. n Home In Bridport, £3,000 to create a composition around the Bridport Citizen Charter. n Lyme Regis Development Trust, £5,000 to produce two animated films to capture the Lyme Regis community. n Shire Hall Historic Court, £5,000 to commission a textile artist to create a permanent wall hanging n Outland Opera, £1,500 to produce site specific opera.

The fund was launched last year to fund arts, museums, heritage, community, physical and play activities to help make a difference to people living in the county. In the first round, £42,484 was awarded to 15 organisations. Dorset Council portfolio holder for customer and community services, Laura Miller said: “Priority has been given to projects supporting disadvantaged, marginalised or underserved groups in Dorset, and we have seen some fantastic projects get the funding they need to really make a difference to local people.”

Here’s your chance to take part in musicathon

Performers and musicians are being invited to take part in an eight-hour sponsored event in Bridport in June, raising money for Weldmar and the Richard Ely Trust for Young Musicians. The Bridport Musicathon is being held after a covidrelated two-year break in the United Church, East Street on Saturday, June 11 between 9am and 5pm. Performers – soloists or groups, vocal or instrumental – can take 15minute slots during the day, sponsored by relatives and friends. Double slots can also be booked, which includes setting up time. They also plan to run a performance stage mainly for young musicians in Bucky Doo Square between 10am and 12.30pm. Performance slots in Bucky Doo are likely to be 30 minutes and these can be booked by contacting Richard Toft on 01308 424103/ 07740 985906 or richard.toft@btinternet. com. There will be a brica-brac stall in Bucky Doo, organised by Roz Copson, who will be grateful for any items. A coffee morning will take place in Bridport United Church hall during the morning, light lunches will be available from noon with tea and cakes during the afternoon, You are warmly invited to join the audience in the United Church and Bucky Doo and give your support to two worthy beneficiaries. To make a booking contact Vince O’Farrell on 01308 427851/ 07754 270370 or vince@jovian.co.uk or Pat Crawford on 01308 456297 or patcrawford15 @yahoo.co.uk

The West Dorset Magazine, April 22, 2022 49 Culture Resort’s role in America’s birth features in show

A concert telling the story of the little-known role that Weymouth played in the founding of the United States of America is to be staged in June. Dorset singer/songwriter John West Weymouth will host the charity concert Trusting in the Waves, which contains original music and historical narrative, on June 13 at The Pavilion. He is intending to also tour this show to the US. All proceeds of the concert will go to two worthwhile local charities – The Tudor House Museum and the Jubilee Sailing Trust. n Go to weymouthpavilion.com/ shows/ trusting-in-the-waves

A right Royal memory fundraiser

School children and care home residents will celebrate the Queen’s jubilee together by creating ‘memory boxes’ for a community project. Dorset based AsOne theatre company has received funding from the Dorset Community Foundation to run The Queen and I project. Jane McKell, artistic director for AsOne, said the project will see pupils from Broadmayne First School and Agincare home residents create memory boxes, including stories, drawings, songs, photos, and letters about the Queen and her reign. Ms McKell said: “Although I had the original vision for the project, the theatre group has gathered a top-notch team to nurture it and give birth to it creatively. “The school and care home will facilitate the initial work but the artists involved are equally committed to creatively inspire both young and old who have missed the stimulus of friendship and learning during the pandemic. The pupils and care home residents will meet up and share with each other the results from this creative activity by sharing stories and singing songs. “There will also be a celebratory Platinum Jubilee Tea Party at Broadmayne First School, with the children’s older friends invited.” AsOne successfully applied to The Dorset Community Foundation to fund the project, with cash coming from Arts Council England’s Let’s Create jubilee fund. Ms McKell added: “We are thrilled to have secured funding but, importantly, we are blessed to have such a creative, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic team delivering this rewarding project celebrating our Queen’s 70 years on the throne.” Ms McKell will lead workshops on storytelling, choral poetry and singing as part of the project. Composer and songwriter Laura Reid will use the stories to compose an original song with both pupils and care home residents involved. The Queen & I project will culminate in a public screening of a documentary about the project plus the performance of a specially composed song and a choral interpretation of AA Milne’s Buckingham Palace. The date for the event is yet to be confirmed. Downloads of the specially composed song will raise money for Dementia UK.

JUBILEE PROJECT: The AsOne theatre group’s The Queen and I team

50 The West Dorset Magazine, April 22, 2022 Culture Fairey Band’s welcome return for 42nd concert

WFEL Fairey Band Concert at Beaminster Review by Diana Holman St Mary’s Church in Beaminster was packed to welcome back one of the world’s finest brass bands, WFEL Fairey Band, for its 42nd concert at Beaminster. This was thanks to event organisers Tony and Margaret, who had been responsible for staging the concert over the years. They received great thanks from the band for the warm welcome and generous hospitality they had always received. The Fairey Band was formed in 1937 by a group of employees at the Fairey Aviation Works in Stockport, and made its first visit to Beaminster in 1979.This very popular event had been returning annually until the pandemic prevented the concerts taking place for the past two years. A wide range of music was played, demonstrating the skill of the musicians and the diversity that the instruments were capable of. Band members spanned a broad age range, with quite a number of younger members, several of whom performed beautiful solo pieces of music. Two of the young men were each celebrating their 19th birthdays on the day of the concert: Could they have been twins? This was not disclosed! The first half of the afternoon’s entertainment concluded with a medley of music by Queen. A very special part of the band’s encore at the end of the concert was to ask for the audience to stand whilst they played the Ukrainian National Anthem. A collection was made in aid of the Ukraine.

Give Caspar a listen, without Hesitation

A Sydling St Nicholas man has released a single from his debut album due out this summer. LastMan Music released Hesitation Wounds in early April, taken from Caspar’s forthcoming album. Listen to the single at caspar.lnk.to/ HesitationWounds Upcoming singer songwriter Caspar, 22, established himself as a popular artist when he leapt on the live music scene last year, as a support act on tour with the Southern blues rock band Broken Witt Rebels. Caspar unveiled songs from his forthcoming debut album drawing plaudits for his emotive lyrics and singing style. His critically acclaimed debut single The Void set the tone and the new single Hesitation Wounds goes further in whetting the appetite for the album that will follow. Caspar’s music has been described as a ‘blend of original, traditional and contemporary songs combined with rock and blues elements’ that fuse to create an ‘emotional resonance and punk energy that the genre demands,’ while his lyrics reflect his belief in the importance of self-expression, authenticity, and the aimless mindset of modern life. Influenced by a whole range of contemporary artists, significantly Nick Drake, Jackson Browne and Elliott Smith, Caspar says of his writing style: “I trust that, because we are all going through the same human experience, nothing we perceive is truly special or unique to ourselves. On that level I hope that my songs will generate some kind of connection.” Caspar enjoys the vulnerability of being a solo artist on stage, finding it inspiring and in some cases testing when he steps up to play to new audiences. He has many exciting plans for 2022, aside from the release of his new album, he will be back on the road this spring and appearing at various festivals throughout the summer. Twitter: @CasparOfficial_ Instagram: @casparofficial Facebook: @CasparMusicOfficial TikTok: Casparofficial

GUITAR MAN: Caspar and, inset, his latest release Hesitation Wounds

Bridport’s Film Festival is heating up with the criticially-acclaimed film, Boiling Point shown at the arts centre on April 30 at 8pm as part of the Page to Screen event. Boiling Point, starring Stephen Graham, achieves the rare cinematic feat of being recorded in a single unbroken shot, a thrilling technique that perfectly reflects its story of the personal and professional pressure cooker of a big restaurant on its busiest night of the year. The film will be followed by a Q&A between the festival’s guest curator, broadcaster Edith Bowman, and the restaurateur Mark Hix. After choosing catering over metalwork at Colfox School, Mark studied catering at Weymouth College before a lauded London career. He now owns The Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis and the Fox Inn pub in Corscombe, back in his native Dorset. Edith is looking forward

PRESSURE COOKER: Stephen Graham in Boiling Point and, inset, Edith Bowman Film festival has right ingredients

to hearing how much Mark thinks the film reflects reality and said:

“Boiling Point is a film that will blow your mind. I grew up in a hotel and I think the way they have captured the pressure of that environment is fantastic. The performances are knockout with Stephen Graham once again showing how incredible he is. And Vinette Robinson is so captivating.” Director Philip Barantini based the film on his own experiences as an actorturned-chef, and said: “As much as I wanted to live off my acting career it wasn’t quite enough and I needed to earn a living on the side. So, for 12 years I worked in kitchens, up from the bottom to being a head chef. Along the way I personally witnessed the sorts of people and drama you see in the movie. You’re seeing a sort of amalgamation of people I personally know, or even parts of myself and how I felt working in that industry.” Boiling Point is one of several festival films based on autobiographical stories, including The Long Day Closes, to be shown at 5pm on Thursday, April 28, and Flee which is to be shown at 5pm on Friday, April 29. Flee will be followed by a talk with local landlord Tom Littledyke whose project to take convoys of humanitarian aid from West Dorset to the refugee camps on the Ukraine border has attracted international news coverage. Edith will introduce the 80s gem Paris Texas at 4.30pm on Saturday, April 30 plus Spencer at 8pm on Friday, April 29. The festival closes with its oldest treasure; the 1927 Hitchcock classic The Lodger which will have a live score played by the pianist and BAC director Mick Smith. n See details at frompagetoscreen.info

Get in the frame for series of art history courses

Courses in art history are now available to book. From Monday, May 9 for six weeks (missing a week for the bank holiday), there will be a British Pop Art course in Bridport at 2pm at the United Hall in East Street. The course centres around the era of what becomes British Pop Art, which was the first Pop Art, it is an interesting group of painters and in a wider context of post war recovery and renewal. Some of the artists, designers and photographers discussed: Edouardo Paolozzi, Frank Bowling, Pauline Boty, David Hockney, Barbara Hulanicki, Joe Tilson, R.B Kitaj, Derek Boshier, Patrick Caulfield, Bridget Riley, Mary Quant, Marion Foale and Sally Tuffin, David Bailey, Allen Jones and Peter Blake, plus wider contexts. This course also runs on Fridays online via Zoom. Fee £60 in 3D, £55 on Zoom. From Thursday, May 12 there’s a Late Renaissance Art & Mannerist /Baroque Art, evening course at 6.30pm, on Zoom, six weeks, fee £55. The tutor is Pam Simpson MA, Associate Lecturer London College of Fashion, University of the Arts. To book email chris.pamsimpson@ btinternet.com