Terrington Arts is now 5 years old! We began in 1997 with a successful application for an Arts for Everyone grant which enabled us to work with Angela Hayward of Rural Arts North Yorkshire,to create the banners and rewrite the village history. We are now a charity, including the Textile and craft group, Terrington Players, an innovative visual arts section and the Living History group, and we host touring productions and get involved in any creative or performing art that comes our way. This report aims to give a flavour of the work from June 2001 to June 2002.

Touring productions

The Hall Brothers, a talented pair who sang and played their own compositions, entertained about 50 people at the Members’ evening after the AGM last year.

Subitango, in November, was a brilliant evening of tango music played by Tango Siempre with two South American dancers in an array of stunning costumes. This was a Rural Arts on Tour production for which we undertook some audience research. The information gleaned from this is helping us to market future shows.

Barachois, a French Canadian group, entertained 120 people with their music and dancing, having run a workshop for 14 people at 5pm. This was part of the Festival of Many Cultures taking place across the North of England. We were grateful to Ryedale District Council for underwriting the inevitable loss in hosting such an expensive international group.

Gingerbread was our Jubilee present to the children in the village. Rowan Wylie delighted 100 Primary age children, from Terrington CE, Terrington Hall pre-prep, Slingsby, Foston and St Martin’s, with her lovely one woman show in which she actually baked a gingerbread boy on stage.

We need to attract people from outside the village to break even with these shows. We are pleased to be getting bookings from our mailing list and even from the internet, but if you have friends in surrounding villages who somehow aren’t getting our publicity, please encourage them to come.

Home-grown productions – Terrington Players

David Goodwin directed a second full-length play in November, a farce called Flying Feathers. The usual group of intrepid actors took on unlikely roles in a house of ill repute, and it was much enjoyed by about 300 people over 2 evening performances and a Saturday matinee.

David brought Pam Broadbent in to direct the Jubilee production, A Right Royal Do, in conjunction with the Terrington Village Choir. Pam and her daughter Katie on sound have worked on previous productions, travelling out from York for rehearsals. The show was a great success playing to around 250 people over 2 nights. It was particularly good to see some younger actors fitting in rehearsals between exams.

Visual arts – led by Nobby Naughton

An Inspiration day was held on a foggy 6th January. Mulled wine and chestnuts assisted with ideas and a list of possible projects for years to come was produced. This was followed in March by a workshop molding natural objects in clay and setting them in plaster. The Hands On day in August used this technique to produce clay hands to make into a work of art. For this work we received a grant from Ryedale towards innovation in the arts.

Textile and Craft group – led by Elaine Hubery

This group goes from strength to strength, with average attendance of 10 to 12 fortnightly. Members contribute their skills, and a wide variety of beautiful work is produced. Quilting is a regular feature, but sessions have been run this year on Christmas cards and crackers, leather work, stump work and paper making, as well as the optimistic Quilt in a Day. Professionals have run workshops on fabric bonding and machine quilting. Several visits have been made, a highlight being a sunny day in Whitby with a talk by Josephine Ratcliffe who made wonderful copes for the Bishop of Whitby. The Open Day in March showed the work of the group but also featured old quilts belonging to people in the village. Talented needle-women in Terrington is nothing new!

Living History

This is a project which will go on for ever, but we have put in a ‘final’ report to the Millennium Commission to let them know what we have done so far. The best of the photos have been put on the Terrington website (www.terrington.com) with spares distributed to residents. We are now compiling albums for the archive destined to go to the Borthwick Institute in York alongside the 1933 Wimbush albums which were our inspiration.

A number of people have been interviewed but we have found transcribing them a real problem, but we have recently found someone to do this and hope to make faster progress next year. All Samuel Wimbush’s diaries are now transcribed extracts being available on request. This work has helped many visitors to Terrington with research into their families.

Links have been made with Radio Ryedale, and one of our interviews is featured on the launch programme (www. radioryedale.co.uk). Nobby Naughton, our leader in all things technical, is involved in helping with the launch.

We have purchased sophisticated software to make a CD ROM with all our pictures and interviews, but we need some more in depth material to complete the work.

We welcome the internet café, and hope that more people will access the village website there. Tuition for representatives of village organisations on how the put material onto it is planned for the Autumn.

Outings

It has been difficult to find a popular enough show for a 40+ coach outing, and our efforts at smaller groups have not been successful. Only one car has been necessary for the last 2 publicized outings!

Donations

£50 towards instruments was donated to North Yorkshire Music Therapy Centre after the successful Jungle Drums workshop last August.

We are delighted that the Village Hall has received a grant towards sound, staging and lighting. Terrington Arts, as a major user of such equipment is donating £1000 towards it. Further raffles and fund-raising may be necessary for the full job over several years.

External links

We continue to link with Rural Arts North Yorkshire for advice, materials and expertise, as well as promoting shows through their Rural Arts on Tour scheme. Lesley Bradshaw is also on their executive committee. Gerry and Lesley Bradshaw used Terrington as a case study for a training session for villages new to putting on shows. Rural Arts has been fortunate in getting a grant for introducing technology to villages, and Nobby Naughton has helped them to set it all up. He also borrowed their equipment for the training he did at the Café.

Gerry and Lesley also represented Terrington Arts at a day conference in York run by Voluntary Arts England.

Prof. Gordon Bell wrote a case study about us for Ryedale District Council, along with others about the Helmsley Arts Centre and The Shed. So we are on the map. We are now part of the consultation group writing a cultural strategy for Ryedale.

And finally…….THANK YOU

The Working Group would like to thank all members for their support, financial and in-kind this year. Without you we could not put on such an ambitious programme for such a small village. Such tasks as leafleting, setting up, making meals for performers, clearing away, running the bar, ushering are done cheerfully and willingly. But we also rely on you to support our activities. Everything we do is open to all, but we do try to give discounts to members wherever possible. Your subscriptions pay for our newsletters and general administration, and give us the opportunity to take an element of risk. Thank you all.
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