FenVAC NOW!

The BIG Draw

2007-10-09T23:39:00.000Z

Appeal

2007-09-27T20:00:00.001Z

Due to personal commitments a number of the committee have resigned and to enable Fenland Visual Arts Collective to move forward we are inviting volunteers to fill the vacancies.
Would anyone interested please contact the treasurer either
By post at 64 West Street, Chatteris, PE16 6HP
Or by email at fistleacre@aol.com

Please bear with us and consider becoming more involved by offering your services to the committee.
It is our hope that Fenvac will thrive and with your help there will be varied opportunities for Art in the future.

Remarkable Rubbish - Review

2007-08-09T01:13:00.001Z

My Son and I attended this excellent workshop run by Fred White, you can read my review HERE

HUGE Thanks

2007-07-23T22:52:00.000Z

I would like you all to join me in thanking Joan Sandford-Cook for her time, inspiration and motivation during her reign as Vice Chair of FenVAC.

Joan has been with FenVAC from the very beginning and has become a dear and trusted friend to many who have shared in the pleasure of her company.

Sadly, for us, Joan is moving into new horizons and has stepped down from her position with our collective.

The committee would like to her wish her every happiness in her new location...She will be deeply missed.

Thank you Joan and Good Luck!

Members Meeting Apology

2007-07-23T22:43:00.000Z

My sincere apologies to all who turned up for the last members meeting only to be told it had been cancelled. I had left instruction that all attendees be offered a free drink for their wasted journey but I believe my wishes were not carried out.

I came down with a demanding virus and was unable to attend. Unfortunately a few other members of the committee also had health issues, I guess these things happen from time to time!

I'm so sorry if you experienced an unfruitful journey and hope it will not deter you from attending our next members meeting where I shall have that promised drink waiting for you!

Anita (Chair)

Natures Handbag

2007-07-12T12:58:00.000Z

“Nature’s Handbag”, to be held at Chatteris Museum on 14th August from 10am - 12pm. A sculpture session using natural objects found in the Fens, presented by acclaimed local artist Fred White. Cost is £3.00 per person.

For further details, please contact Hetty Thornton on 01945 583817, or email to education@wisbechmuseum.org.uk.

Remarkable Rubbish

2007-07-12T12:47:00.000Z

“Remarkable Rubbish”, to be held at Chatteris Museum on 31st July from 10am - 12pm. A family activity session, using suitable household rubbish (all clean recycled materials) and turning it into works of art! Cost is £3.00 per person.

For further details, please contact Hetty Thornton on 01945 583817, or email to education@wisbechmuseum.org.uk.

Quarterly Members Meeting

2007-07-11T07:34:00.000Z

MONDAY JULY 16TH

BAR 23 , MARCH, CAMBS

COMMENCING AT 7.30PM

...Hope to see you there!

Comic Opportunities

2007-07-09T13:42:00.000Z

Lingua Comica is an exciting London-based cultural exchange within Comica and initiated by the Asia-Europe Foundation based in Singapore.

We're looking for young (under 35) comics creators from anywhere across Europe or Asia who want to collaborate on shared comics narratives, initially online via a blog and then face-to-face over 5 days in London, meeting and learning from a special team of artists, writers, editors, publishers and experts.

Spread this news and encourage any young aspiring graphic novelists to apply by July 31 - here's the link at ASEF with all the details: http://www.asef.org/index.php?option=com_project&task=view&id=1035

The other big addition this year is the Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize. With a first prize of £1,000, you have the canvas of one whole page of The Observer newspaper in which to tell your story, which will be published on Sunday October 14. Deadline for this is September 3, so have a go or tell anyone else you know to try entering. Please note it is open only to UK residents. The rules and entry form are online here: http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/graphicnovels/

More of Comica's programme will be added to the revamped sub-site on my site - it's going to be an amazing year, part of the ICA's 60th birthday celebrations. I'm always open to suggestions of guests or events you'd like to see at the festival. Keep an eye out here: http://www.paulgravett.com/comica/comica.htm On Saturday July 28 I'll also be introducing the exciting exclusive big-screen preview at London's British Museum of the anime movie of Naruto, to open the Manga To Anime film season I've curated for them.
Free admission but you need to book here: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/whats_on/events_calendar/naruto_the_movie. aspx

A little further ahead, the BBC's three-part documentary series COMICS BRITANNIA is coming up in the autumn and will be well worth looking out for, showing first on BBC4 digital. I just got a sneak peak at the first episode on Dandy and Beano, spotlighting the brilliant Dudley Watkins, Davey Law, Leo Baxendale and Ken Reid. All the very best for the summer

Paul

www.paulgravett.com
www.greatbritishcomics.com

Ammendment

2007-06-25T12:52:00.001Z

Please note the ammendment to the next FenVAC member meeting.

This will be held on Monday July 16th @ 7.30pm at Bar23, March.

Wisbech Rose Fair 2007

2007-06-21T16:16:00.000Z

WISBECH ROSE FAIR

4TH – 7TH JULY 2007

The organisers of the ROSE FAIR WISBECH have again invited the Fenland Visual Arts Collective to take part in the annual Rose Fair.
As last year, we shall have space in the Museum Square but this time on all four days from 12 noon to 4 pm.

Artists will have the opportunity to exhibit small work on the railings during their volunteer sessions, sell their work and also have the opportunity to sketch.

In addition the committee are planning public participation in creating 2.5 x 3.5 ins cards with their own rose designs with the encouragement/assistance of the Collective members present. These will be displayed together on a large framed board and plans are to present the resultant work to the McMillan Unit at the North Cambs Hospital in Wisbech as a gift from the people of the town.

Members wishing to participate please contact Joan with the dates/times you are available. We need at least 3 members per session.

PLEASE SEND REPLIES TO JOAN SANDFORD-COOK on email: joansandfordcook@hotmail.com ASAP

Chatteris Festival Week

2007-06-13T15:21:00.000Z

Pen & Watercolour by Anita Davies

Commencing with a prelude at 7pm, on 14th June at Chatteris Museum with Dave 'boy' Green.
Small exhibition of artwork on show within the museum provided by Fenland Visual Arts Collective members

Quiz night at Chatteris library at 7pm, on 20th June. £1.50 per head, teams of 6 people max.

Guided walk around historical Chatteris with Jenny Furlong at 7pm, on 22nd June. £2 per head, meet at the war memorial.

Chatteris museum opening times:
2-4.30 Thursdays
10-1 Saturdays

Call For Artists

2007-06-10T23:13:00.000Z

For all FENVAC members there is an opportunity to exhibit Artwork at March Town Hall Cafe (Paninis).

Artwork will be exhibited on a commission free basis for a minimum period of two months for a £2 hanging fee per piece of work.

The next change over of work will be on the 23rd June at 2pm all those interested should contact Carol McEwan on 01354-695071 for details.

Open Studios 2007 - Call For Interest

2007-06-03T14:15:00.000Z

Could all those interested in taking part in the proposed 'Open Studios 2007' event please add your name by leaving a comment on this post.
Thankyou!

Movie Posters Exhibition at March Town Hall

2007-06-03T14:11:00.000Z

The movie event at March Town Hall has now been postponed. Those planning to exhibit works on this theme now have until September to complete.
Date to be advised.

Chatteris Museum Exhibition

2007-06-03T14:05:00.000Z

Could all artists who took part in the 'Fossils' day at Chatteris Museum please deliver their work to Jenny by 12th June 2007, ready for exhibiting in the display for 'Festival Week'.

Those who wish to visit the museum to finish off works or artists who would like to create works to be exhibited have another chance to visit the museum on 5th June after 12pm.

Those that took part in the 13th WorldWide Sketchcrawl at the museum may also display their sketchbook work at the exhibition, delivery as above.

Joseph Choir Search

2007-05-24T11:07:00.000Z

Lionel Walden School Choir of Doddington has entered Andrew Lloyd Webber's competition to find the school choir that will perform live on the final show of 'Any Dream Will Do' and at a West End charity performance.
Please visit www.josephchoirsearch.co.uk to listen to their performance and please VOTE for them.

VOTE FOR LIONEL WALDEN

14th Worldwide Sketchcrawl - May 19th

2007-05-16T12:43:00.000Z

May 19th 2007 is the date, set by sketchcrawl.com, for the 14th worldwide sketchcrawl.

There are no rules:
-Anyone can participate, be it to draw for 20 minutes or the full day .
-Any level of ability is welcome from veteran artists to first time sketchers.
-You don't have to be a FenVAC member.
-Any age!

The 13th sketchcrawl was a great success, you can read about it HERE.

On Saturday, I will be taking part again and this time I will be crawling through ELY with my sketchbook. Diane Mainzer will be joining me and we plan to arrive in ELY and begin our sketching marathon for 11am.

We will be outside Tindalls & Superdrug on Market Street at 11am. After that, you can contact 07790 554201 to find out our location.

Why not join us?
It's a great chance to meet members and explore this beautiful place.

Hope to see you there!

Anita

AGM Minutes: April16th 2007

2007-04-30T23:42:00.000Z

Fenland Visual Art Collective - AGM April 16th 2007.

MINUTES:

Present: Joan Sandford Cook, Norman Ringham, Margaret Ringham, Diane Mainzer, Anita Davies, Yvonne Peace, Carol McEwan, Heather Kinnear, Rob Morris, Richard Edwardson, Jeni Cairns and Gillian Fradley.

Apologies : Sue Munden, Ruth Mason, Martin Megson, Vanessa Champion and Jenny Furlong.

The meeting was started at 7.40pm when a quorum was present.

Members were welcomed to the meeting by our Lady Chair, Anita Davies.

Minutes of the last AGM were agreed as being a true record of proceedings by Anita and this was seconded by Carol McEwan.

Matters Arising
Open Studio (Joan)
On the four weekends of September last year eighteen artists opened their studios in eleven venues to the public. 60-65 was the top attendance of any venue, though the more rural venues were less frequented mostly. It was decided to hold Open Studios in 2007 but that greater effort was needed with publicity. It was decided to keep September as the month to hold Open Studios.

Rose Fair (Joan)
In 2006, during the Rose Fair in Wisbech, members of Fenvac set up work and Fenvac membership information in the Museum Square, for 3 out of the 4 days. Seven members attended the sight over the three days and sketched, chatted to the public about Fenvac and their work. Sue Beale of the Rose Fair Committee has invited us to attend again this time for the full four days in the museum square. It was felt that this was a prime opportunity to publicise Fenvac and promote individual work. It was also decided to interact more with the public by inviting them to paint their own ATC’s of a Rose. These could then be mounted onto a large board and presented to the Macmillan Unit at North Cambs Hospital. Sue Beale is going to check the feasibility of this with her committee at the end of the month.

Christmas Market
Fenvac Members were given the Pump Room to display work for the Christmas Market. As it was away from the main market traffic this was not well attended and the same members as for previous events ended up having do all the work for little return, so an offer for use of the Pump Room was declined.

Charitable status
It was decided at a committee meeting midyear that taking up charity status was not warranted.

Chairwoman’s Report
13th Worldwide Sketch Crawl on March 17th. 2007
This was held in Chatteris, mostly at the museum. This was well attended and more information is on the Blog. Thanks to Jeni and other volunteers for opening the museum for us that day and thanks (as ever) to Rob for his hospitality at lunchtime. The next Sketch Crawl will be on May 17th or 19th (to be decided).

Fenvac Friends
This has been a great way, outside of meetings for members to work together and get to know each other.

Blog
Anita explained the blog, invited members to contribute and reminded everyone to subscribe to ensure they were kept updated.
As Richard Savage pointed out during his time as Chair, communication was a big problem in Fenvac. This has been addressed by starting a dedicated Blog linked to the Fenvac website. Unlike the rather static website which requires specialist administering, the Blog can be updated immediately without expense. Members can submit articles or adverts to post to the blog managers (committee members) and when the committee changes the running of the blog can be handed over without having to seek professional advice. This should ease communication between members.
Membership renewal mail shot
60 members responded to the mail shot sent to them requesting membership renewal.

Anita thanked the committee for supporting her during her year as Chairwoman.

Some members present swapped ATC’s

Treasurer’s Report (Heather)
Fenvac received a grant for the Open Studio’s from Awards for all of £4750 giving a balance of £4849 before expenditure.
Some equipment was bought for Fenvac with funds that were left after paying for leaflets to be printed and the project manager’s (Roger) expenses.
This left an end of year balance of £943.74
£740.99 will be left after renewing Fenvac public liability insurance with SAA and Fenweb were paid for hosting and maintenance of the website for the next 2 years.

Membership Update
There are currently 60 members of Fenvac
50 in response to mail shot
10 online
Of these 60, 17 live in Wisbech, 13 in March, 9 in Chatteris, 4 in Peterborough and 2 in Whittlesey.

Nominations for the committee
Nominations were received and seconded that the Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and rest of the Committee remain the same for 2006-7 with the exception of Chris Carr who only attended 2 meetings during his year on the committee and recently stood down.

Chair’s Brief for the coming Year.
Anita told the membership that Fenvac hope to be holding Open Studios again. Funding was acquired from the lottery last time but this is not possible as the same project cannot be funded twice by Awards for All. The committee would be looking into local funding. Nationwide and Coldham Wind Farm may be possibilities. Anita also said we would improve the brochure and publicity this year-approaching TV and radio. She also suggested that we may hold a promotional evening involving the press prior to the start of the Open Studios.

There will be a continuing involvement with March Town Hall with an upcoming exhibition from June 14th-27th to accompany a film festival being held there. Work submitted should be in the style of Movie posters. As it will be pinned to curtains it should be reasonably rigid yet light, and the subject matter somehow tie in with the movie theme.

During the Rose Fair participating members will hopefully engage the public in making ATC’s which will be displayed together on a large board. This is to be confirmed. Only attending members would be able to display work.

Fenvac Friend meetings would continue with meetings posted on the blog. Suggestions from the membership welcome. The first meeting will be at Mepal Outdoor Centre which adults can visit FREE.

The next worldwide Sketchcrawl will be on May 19th, notice to be given on the blog.

Members’ Meetings for 2007/8
All meetings will be held at Bar 23 in March at 7.30 p.m. on:
Monday July 13th, 2007.
Wednesday October 10th , 2007.
Thursday January 24th , 2008.
AGM Wednesday April 30th, 2008.

Classes with Diane Mainzer

2007-04-30T23:20:00.000Z

DRAWING & PAINTING CLASSES
Tutored by
DIANE MAINZER

ALL ABILITIES CATERED FOR
FREE TASTER SESSION MAY 2nd 11:30 – 1:30
10 WEEK COURSE COMMENCING MAY 9th – JULY 18th
EVERY WEDNESDAY 11:30 – 1:30
Cost £50
INTERESTED!
CONTACT
ELM CENTRE
01945 860046

Elm Centre
Serving the local community
Registered Charity No: 1102723
Main road, Elm, Wisbech, Cambs. PE14 0AG

Art and Soul Magazine

2007-04-29T14:10:00.000Z

I want to let you all know about Art and Soul Magazine, it comes out monthly and is vibrant and exciting, it covers all aspects of the Arts and is highly creative in its own right. It comes out in magazine form but is also on-line with an open forum where you can air your views, post your own up coming events and upload your work for all other users to see. www.artandsoulmagazine.com

Advertising rates are very reasonable starting from 40 pounds for a 1/4 page, a free advert design service is offered and you go into the paper magazine and online for that price.

If you have any questions or wish to advertise please contact Gillian Fradley on 01733 202570, 07758 709627 or email gillfrad@homecall.co.uk

Gillian Fradley

Link Exchange

2007-04-27T08:58:00.000Z

If you are a member of FenVAC, have a personal art website and would like it added to the links section on this blog, first copy and paste the FenVAC NOW! link into your website and then contact me, ANITA DAVIES with your link or leave it in the comment section of this post.

Today I arranged a link exchange with the SAA. Fenland Visual Arts Collective is listed under the heading 'Art Clubs & Societies'.

Mepal Sketchday - 18 April '07

2007-04-18T23:42:00.000Z

Joan, Anita, Diane, Yvonne and Richard had a great day, albeit a tad breezy!

Above are some of the photographs and sketches created on the day.

Plein Air at Mepal

2007-04-17T22:21:00.000Z

On Wednesday 18th April myself, Joan and Diane will be at Mepal Outdoor Centre from 10am with our sketch bags in tow...Anyone wishing to join us is more than welcome!

Entrance to the centre is FREE for adults and there are hot and cold drink machines on the premises averaging between 40p-60p per cup/can.

Subjects include a lake, boats, trees, shrubs and childrens playpark (including sand pit) as well as the buildings with their distinctive tent top roof structures.

We will be on location until approx. 2pm.

Entrance per child is £2.50 and there is lots to keep them occupied.

Hope to see you there!

AGM 2007

2007-04-05T09:33:00.000Z

Our AGM will take place on 16th April at Bar23, March, Cambs - 7.30pm start!

We would love to see you there.

A great way to meet other members, share ideas for future projects and ask any questions you have about the recent changes including this blog!

The venue has a separate bar for our personal use, so come along and enjoy a drink in the company of creative minds!

17.03.07: 13th Worldwide Sketchcrawl

2007-03-24T12:04:00.000Z

Saturday 17th March was the 13th Worlwide Sketchcrawl and I am so very pleased to report that some of our members joined me at Chatteris Museum for a whole day's sketching!

Jenny Furlong kindly offered to keep the museum open all day for us and she even brought a sketchbook of her own back from lunch break to take part! - Thankyou Jenny!

Rob Morris supplied us with warm shelter and cupfuls of hot, fresh coffee at lunchtime back at his house - Thankyou Rob!

A very successful day with lots of laughs and plenty of sketching!

Anita, Carol, Louise, Jenny, Rob, Martin, Diane, Joan, Emma-Jane all turned up to join in the fun!

Here are some of the sketches produced on the day:

Old signs and Cakes by Anita Davies
~ More of Anita's sketches can be viewed HERE!

You can read more about Worldwide Sketchcrawls and view sketches produced on the day from all across the world at Sketchcrawl.com

*Photography by Rob Morris and Martin Megson

WELCOME

2007-01-09T10:07:00.000Z

Welcome to the new communication system for the Fenland Visual Arts collective, taking the place of the monthly e-zine emails.

To receive updates to this blog automatically in your email inbox type your email address in the 'subscribe me' box provided on the right hand side and complete the process as instructed.

As you can see at the end of this, and all future blog updates, there is a comment link. PLEASE feel free to say 'Hi', ask questions and give feedback on the blog and the individual articles as they appear - We encourage your participation!

If you are holding events such as workshops, exhibitions or classes or have heard of anything you feel may be of interest to FenVAC members do not hesitate to contact me using the 'contact FenVAC NOW!' link on the right.

If you would like to share photographs of a trip, photographs of your current piece of art, poetry, your thoughts on a recent gallery trip, your experience of a good plein air painting location, your appreciation of a famous painter...Infact anything creative...Send me your article and photographs to be published on this blog.

I hope that this blog will provide a place for us to get to know one another a little better by sharing our experiences and our works, aswell as offering a contact point through which we can instantly reach the membership, directly and as often as the need arises!

Anita Davies - (Chair)

NEWSFLASH - The 13th Worldwide sketchcrawl takes place on Saturday, March 17th 2007.
Anita Davies will be taking part again and anyone wishing to join her should come to the Chatteris Museum @ 10 a.m. we will be there until around midday when we will break for lunch before heading back out into Chatteris.

Everyone welcome, a relaxed event suitable for all abilities.
Packed lunch is advised. Hot drinks and warm, dry lunch facilities available thanks to Rob Morris. (Thanx Rob!)
To read more about sketchcrawling, visit sketchcrawl.com.