The Purcell School students came to Norfolk in mid June and worked with our primary school children, followed by the annual concert.  The Year 5 children in Dersingham (violins), Docking (violas and cellos), Wells (recorders ad flutes) and Burnham Market (percussion) confidently showed off the skills they had gained only in the last 6 months.  Each school played pieces they had learned with their tutor plus extra pieces composed by the Purcell School students.  The concert was amazing, with everyone joining in ‘Carnival’, a joyous Grand Finale.

We have been working hard to find local schools with whom we can establish a relationship and sponsor an art project.  We have started a big project with Alderman Peel School in Wells, based on portraits.  Taken from an idea by the Princess of Wales, this project encourages pupils to take photographs of themselves and to have photographs taken by Jo Anthony, a retired professional photographer and a NWNAS member. The pupils brought in their own props, ranging from a photo of a favourite dog, or a book or prize they had won, plus sparkly Stetsons, a paper cake, paper flowers, scarves, glasses all enabling the pupils to freely express their style.  This project will continue after the Easter break.

The Arts Society, North West Norfolk presented a cheque for £500 to Little Discoverers at their 20th anniversary party in Dersingham Village Centre on Saturday February 15th.  LIttle Discoverers offers early therapy and education for children aged 0-5 who have complex needs, movement difficulties and delayed development.  Staff work with children through music and singing and through art.  The children become so engaged and visibly thrive when rhythm, melody and feeling is used.  The organisation offers a vital service to these vulnerable children and their families.

The cheque was presented by Vicky Keith on behalf of the Arts Society NW Norfolk as part of our Young Arts Programme in the local area, supporting a variety of projects aimed at giving children the opportunity to experience a range of artistic activities, often no longer available through their schools.

The Purcell School Impulse Group spent Friday 21st June in Sedgeford  working with 75 youngsters from four local primary schools. Impulse led rehearsals all morning, building on children’s lessons with our dedicated tutors and culminating in a concert where all performed together. For some, their very first experience performing in public was inspirational.
Over the weekend Impulse also performed concerts in Fulmodeston, Yorke Trust and The Belfry Centre, Overstrand, demonstrating their talents and versatility across a range of classical, pop and jazz, playing pieces from established composers to their own creative compositions.
Thank you to many Arts Society members who supported these events. An amazing weekend – what a privilege!

We were delighted when the BBC decided to visit the concert and subsequently issued a news bulletin.  If you would like to see the bulletin please click here

Email received from Jade Nixon,  Nursery Class Teacher,  Wells-Next-The-Sea Primary and Nursery School.

“I wanted to say a huge thank you for allowing wells primary to be part of the Norfolk Primary Orchestra project. Abi (yr5 teacher), talks about the successes and how much the children are enjoying it in every staff meeting. Abi always has something really positive to share. Whether it is her delight at witnessing a child master something really tricky or her amazement in a child she never thought would take an active interest in flute, expressing they would love to continue playing!  Abi has been blown away by Rachel.  She has learnt so much from her and said she is wonderful with the children.  They have struck up a fantastic relationship and we are so lucky to have Rachel visit us each week.

You have made all this possible, Keith.  Children who would have never been able to afford flue lessons, or who would have not thought it possible to learn due to a fixed mindset are now on their musical journey!  And best of all, they are taking pleasure in it!  A huge boost for their wellbeing.

Thanks for organising this wonderful project. We are very lucky!”

Keith Hobday is the NPO Administrator appointed by TASNWN on behalf of the Engering Trust.

We are sponsoring the Norfolk Primary Orchestra again this year. This is a fantastic venture for children in local primary schools to access music tuition in collaboration with the Purcell School for Young Musicians. The project this year involves Year 5 pupils at Wells, Burnham Market, Docking and Dersingham Primary Schools. We have selected top rate Tutors who work with whole classes, each teaching one of the four principal areas of a symphony orchestra - Strings, Woodwind, Brass and Percussion. The aim is for all children in the class to gain some mastery of their instrument, then in addition, pupils who show more talent and interest will have the opportunity for extra and more advanced tuition.

Students at the Purcell School will compose pieces of music for each section for the children to learn and the culmination will be a concert on Friday 21st June at 1.30 in Sedgeford Village Hall when The Purcell students and Primary School pupils will play separately and together.

We are lucky to have a grant from the Margaret Engering Music Trust but your membership Gift Aid also contributes to funding the project so many thanks for belonging to our Society!

We are hosting the project of the Norfolk Primary Orchestra, overseen by Alison Cox with funding given to us from the Estate of Margaret Engering Music Trust.

The aim of the project is to train children in each of 8 schools in instruments linked to a specific orchestral group. There will be two ‘String Schools’, two ‘Woodwind Schools’, two ‘Brass Schools’ and two ‘Percussion Schools’, working with four professional musicians, who are specialists in strings, wind, brass and percussion. 

Eventually they will all come together to form Norfolk’s Primary Orchestra! 

Last summer the woodwind and percussion tutors, with help from the Purcell School students on their Impulse Tour, put together a concert involving many of the children who have taken up instruments in the Boathouse at Burnham Overy Staithe. A true Norfolk experience! Several parents commented on how much their children were enjoying learning an instrument.

This year  Burnham Market, Docking and Wells Primary Schools have been forging ahead with whole class music teaching with 3 very talented tutors. Simon Limbrick is holding weekly sessions at Burnham Market School in percussion and electronic music. Chris Caldwell and Susie Hodder-Williams, joint woodwind tutors, are teaching in blocks of time at Docking Primary School with recorders and saxonphone. Keith Ridgeway, the strings tutor, who does whole class teaching in Sheringham, has introduced whole class violin teaching at Wells Primary School. 

We are again sponsoring the Purcell School's Impulse Tour to North Norfolk and the children from the NPO will participate in a concert with the Purcell students at Wells Maltings on Sunday 25th June at 3.00pm.

The Arts Society Northwest Norfolk continued its Young Arts sponsorship through 2022 with the sponsorship for the sixth year of the ‘Impulse Outreach Tour’ by the Purcell School for Young Musicians from 16th – 19th June 2022. ‘Impulse’ is The Purcell School’s unique, pupil-led outreach training programme that enabled young children from 3 local schools to interact with these young, very gifted music students using instruments that many may not have seen before.

The students also gave public concerts, with an impressive grand finale at the Wells Maltings in Wells-next-the Sea. The standard of performance was astonishing.

The students of Smithdon High School, Hunstanton held in June their “Revive” Art Gallery Evening, open to the public. Young ‘Ambassadors’ from the school showcased the art installation we sponsored, made in collaboration with artist Jessica Perry. An amazing collaborative work of imagination by 11–12-year-olds has been assembled, reflecting their thoughts and feelings about the Covid Pandemic and in particular the effects of the ‘lockdown’ isolation and restrictions.

The installation was created using skilled laser techniques to form over 300 acrylic shapes to resemble a moving shoal of fish. It will be installed at the school as a permanent feature.

14 children attended with their Parents.  We are told everyone had an amazing time with lots of activities, fun and laughter.

The Arts Society North West Norfolk proudly presented £550 to the Charity, Little Discoverers.  This March award had been supplemented by The Arts Society Community Grant of £250.  The Charity is a West Norfolk School for Parents and their children with complex needs. Music is a large part of their approach, and our donation will enable them to provide pure music sessions for sibling support groups. 

Siblings of disabled children can often feel left out as so much time is spent with the child with the disability.  More information on this Charity can be found at www.littlediscoverers.co.uk .

We were very conscious that due to the pandemic we had been unable to provide any music for our local school children. However In October our Young Arts team organised, at very short notice, for Simon Limbrick to perform and run interactive percussion events in four local schools. The sessions involved a musical performance on a range of percussion instruments from around the world, including some innovative electronic instruments and musical interaction with the audience.  Simon ran sessions at Burnham Market Primary School, Docking Primary School, Fakenham Junior School and Brancaster Primary School. There will also be events at All Saints Primary School, Stibbard and North Elmham Primary School.

The events were a great success with hundreds of children participating in the sessions. The response was enthusiastic and the staff were interested in ways to develop the idea further. 

Our Young Arts team have been concerned about how the repeated lockdowns are affecting year 11 and year 12/13 students’ ability to carry on with their art studies.  Lack of access to the studio and materials can be a major hurdle.  

We asked the head of art, Sallyanne Boyle, if we could do anything to help and suggested ‘take-home’ art packs which we would fund.  In a very short time (just before Christmas) she organised packs for 35 year 11 students and 15 A-level students.  

Parents and students came to collect their packs and we feel delighted to be able to help these students to carry on with their work.

Within a couple of days we received this remarkable response click here

The Purcell School’s award-winning IMPULSE Outreach Group has been visiting Norfolk annually for almost 20 years to run partnerships and projects with schoolchildren in local primary schools, and community concerts in the village churches. For the past three years, they have been generously supported by The Arts Society of North West Norfolk and some generous individuals.

IMPULSE is the name given to the pupil-led outreach work run by our Year 12 students. They volunteer to become involved and as well as the Norfolk tour, they create and run lots of other community projects in Hertfordshire and the East of England.

In 2020, for the first time, due to COVID19, The Purcell School was unable to bring the Year 12 group to Norfolk. It was a great shame, because there were many highly proactive, enthusiastic young musicians in the group who were excitedly making plans for their school projects and concerts in Norfolk at the time of the lockdown.

‘I was SO looking forward to meeting the children and working with them!’ (Chelsea – oboist and compose)

‘It’s a real shame that the primary schools will not be able to enjoy musical projects with us this year. I love demonstrating the cello and it would have been such fun (Jayden – cello)

‘We had some wonderful suggestions and ideas for the Community Concert in Thursford’ (Reuben – composer)

However, during the past few months, the students have been running lots of projects online, including one-day workshops for young composers all over the UK, online concerts, masterclasses and special projects.

Norfolk obviously means a great deal to me personally because I live here and love the region and the people. As long as it is possible to do so, I shall continue to do as much as I can to help support music education in North Norfolk alongside some of the excellent musicians who already live and work here.  

We hope very much that our Norfolk schools and audiences will like the little online concert which has been dedicated to them.  Click (here) to see the concert on YouTube.

Alison Cox OBE

Head of Composition/Outreach

The Purcell School for Young Musicians

Our Society sponsored pupils from Burnham market Primary School to visit the Henry Moore exhibition at Houghton Hall and following the visit a days workshop at the school.  The response from the Head of the school is replicated below....

"The Arts Society sponsored a visit to the Henry Moore at Houghton Hall exhibition for Year 4,5 and 6 pupils from Burnham Market Primary School. The children really enjoyed looking at the sculptural pieces of Moore's work in particular, and were fascinated by the size and abstract nature of the pieces situated within the grounds of Houghton Hall. Many children were keen to comment on their own thoughts of the pieces and developed their observational drawing skills by sketching first-hand some of the sculptures themselves.

The Arts Society also organised for Jessica Perry, a local artist, to come into school for a day workshop with Year 6 pupils. This workshop was focused on creating response pieces to Henry Moore's work, based on the pieces seen during the visit to Houghton Hall. Pupils first created their own sculptural pieces using sand and plaster, focusing on the abstract nature of the pieces. Then, as a class, a larger sculpture was created based on the human form. The children also used wax crayons, string and toothpicks to create abstract shapes with a focus of the line styles of Henry Moore's sketches. All children really enjoyed the practical nature of the workshop and commented on how exciting it was to create their own piece of sculptural artwork and could see how it linked to the work of Henry Moore. The visit and the workshop were both fantastic, inspiring and enriching experiences and as a school, we are very grateful to the Arts Society for providing the children with these rich learning opportunities."

Please take a look at our Gallery page for photoghraphs of the children's efforts. 

Our 'Young Arts' team (Sally Collier & Liz Peer) have been busy on your behalf in recent weeks and have arranged to sponsor the Purcell School Outreach team for a 4 day tour of local schools again this year.  

Additionally the young musicians will be giving concerts, open to the public, in St Andrews, Thursford; Christ Church, Fulmodestone; The Yorke Trust, South Creake; and All Saints, Bale.

Concert Programme:

1)      St Andrew’s, Thursford – Friday 21st June at 7.30 p.m.

2)      Christ Church, Fulmodestone – Saturday 22nd June at 6 p.m.

3)      The Yorke Trust, South Creake – Sunday 23rd June at 11 a.m.

4)      All Saints, Bale – Sunday 23rd June at 4 p.m.  

Visitors to these concerts are very welcome.  Admission is £10.00 per person at St Andrew’s, The Yorke Trust; and All Saints.  At Christ Church there will be a retiring collection.  Tickets can be purchased at the door.

Please visit our Gallery page for photographs of the Purcell Outreach visit.

Click here to read a comprehensive report of their visit to Norfolk sponsored by The Arts Society North West Norfolk

Purcell School IMPULSE outreach training programme

The Society is delighted to be sponsoring the young musicians from the Purcell School of Music run workshops and interactive musical assemblies in three local primary schools on June 21stand 22ndas follows:

 All Saints Primary School Stibbard Thursday 21stJune from 1.30pm

 Fakenham Primary School – 9.00am Friday 22ndJune

 Docking Primary School – 11.00am and 2.50pm Friday 22ndJune

 Members are welcome to join these sessions which last for about 45 minutes and will be a lot of fun!

 The Purcell School's pupil-led outreach group IMPULSE has been visiting Norfolk for 10 years now, running inspiring workshops for children in primary schools and community concerts in local churches.  Former IMPULSE members have included Martin James Bartlett, BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2014, who loves Norfolk and has special links with many of the communities here.

 The Purcell is struggling to finance their musical touring programmes, and we hope very much that our sponsorship will help them continue this special relationship with Norfolk in future.

 They will also be giving Community Concerts at:

 St Andrew's Church, Thursford - 7.30 p.m. on Friday 22nd June
 Christ Church, Fulmodestone – 6.00 p.m on Saturday 23rd June
 All Saints, Bale - 4.00 p.m. on Sunday the 24th June
 

Once again members are very welcome to attend.

 
All three concerts will contain a lively mix of classical, jazz and popular musical items, performed by brilliant young school-age musicians who are some of the finest young players in the UK. They include Sean Payne, a former finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year. The young musicians organise these concerts themselves, and are very excited about this tour.  They are all very grateful to The Arts Society for sponsoring them so kindly.

 
For more information visit their website at www.purcell-school.org

This year we have continued to give financial support to encourage the appreciation of art & music in schools in this rural area.

In the Autumn of 2016 we donated £250 to pay for a landscape artist to work in the park at Holkham Hall with senior students of Fakenham Academy for a day of drawing.  This opportunity to enhance their skills was much enjoyed.

We have developed a working relationship with The Purcell School of Music & were delighted to support their outreach programme (Impulse) in West Norfolk with a donation of £1,000.  In June some Year 11 musicians visited 3 primary schools & gave a whole school "Golden Assembly" & led workshops which were enthusiastically received by the children who loved the opportunity to listen, play & participate in a range of musical activities.

This school year the funding which was traditionally given by Norfolk Music has ceased & our Committee has agreed to commit £2,180 to sponsor a similar visit to 3 schools in June 2018.  The students will stay at The Yorke Trust & at the weekend will give concerts in 3 local churches which will be supported by local people. 

The Society is delighted to be sponsoring the young musicians from the Purcell School to run workshops at Docking and Little Snoring Primary Schools on Friday the 23rd June

The Purcell School's pupil-led outreach group IMPULSE has been visiting Norfolk for 10 years now, running inspiring workshops for children in primary schools and community concerts for everyone else.  Former IMPULSE members have included Martin James Bartlett, BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2014, who loves Norfolk and has special links with many of the communities here.

The Purcell is struggling to finance their musical touring programmes, and we hope very much that our sponsorship will help them continue this special relationship with Norfolk in future.

Members are invited to attend a Golden Assembly at Docking School from 10.00 to 10.45 in which the young musicians will be performing.

They will also be giving Community Concerts at:

St Andrew's Church, Thursford - 7.00 p.m. on the 23rd June

Christ Church, Fulmodestone – 6.00 p.m on the 24th June

All Saints, Bale - 4 p.m. on Sunday the 25th June

Once again members are very welcome to attend.

All three concerts will contain a lively mix of classical, jazz and popular musical items, performed by brilliant young school-age musicians who are some of the finest young players in the UK. They include Sean Payne, a former finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year. The young musicians organise these concerts themselves, and are very excited about this tour.  They are all very grateful to NWNDFAS for sponsoring them so kindly.

For more information visit their website at www.purcell-school.org

King’s Lynn Priory Rotary Club Honours Young Photographers at Exhibition

Young West Norfolk Photographers were honoured when King’s Lynn Priory Rotary Club held it’s second young photographer competition. Following it’s success last year, when Jake Harvey aged 13 went all the way to the national Rotary Finals and came second in his age category with a ‘Highly Commended’ award, the club held their second event at the town’s Hanse Gallery, South Quay.

The theme for the competition which is set by Rotary national, is ‘Reflection’ and all images taken by the young photographers were on display at the exhibition.

Priory President, John Mansfield said,” the level of interest in the competition is three times that of last year with 90 images arranged in portfolios of 3 being submitted. The quality of the pictures taken by the young people is extraordinary and shows great imagination as well as good camera skills.”

Prizes were awarded in three age categories, junior 7-10, intermediate 11-13 and senior 14-17. Jasha Mitra of North Wootton Primary School was the junior winner, Megan Carter-Hill of Greyfriars Junior School took the honours in the intermediate, while Diana Rubene of Thomas Clarkson Academy Wisbech won the senior category.

Judging was led by King’s Lynn Camera Club leader, Mike Brindle and prizes were presented by 1080 District President Derek Rothwell. The competition was sponsored by the King’s Lynn and Sedgeford branches of the National Association of Decorative Fine Arts Societies, ( DFAS).

As we go in to our new season your Young Arts team have agreed to sponsor a 'Young Photographer' competition which is being run by the Rotary Club of King's Lynn Priory.

Further details of the competition can be found here

The Prayer Tree sponsored by NWNDFAS

Go to our 'Gallery' page for further photographs.

Tapping House held a tea party to say thank you to pupils from 2 local schools for working on some amazing art projects for the Hospice.  Pupils, teachers and parents from Burnham Market Primary School and Fakenham Academy 6th Form visited the Hospice to see their artwork in place. 

Burnham Market Primary School created some colourful birds for the garden areas whilst Fakenham Academy 6th form painted a mural of Hunstanton Cliffs and provided some photography of local scenes.  All this work was organised and supported by North West Norfolk Decorative & Fine Arts Society (NWNDFAS) who are based in Sedgeford.

Lynn Lockheart, Director of Operations at The Norfolk Hospice said, “We are delighted with the projects the pupils have worked so hard on.  We are grateful to NWNDFAS for arranging and funding these projects”.

Her Majesty paid an informal visit to Tapping House and was shown round by members of staff.  Our young arts programme arranged for year 10 pupils to spend a week of work experience, during which they painted this mural of Hunstanton cliffs.

Workshops with artists sponsored by NWNDFAS have taken place during recent weeks. 

Jessica Perry worked with year 3 & 4 pupils at Burnham Market Primary School to make sculptured birds which have been placed in the garden.

Jane Bower spent 3 days last week with pupils at Brancaster Primary School where she showed them how to make felt flowers for garlands to be hung in Tapping House.  She also worked with them to make clay animals for wall decorations and they designed and made wonderful batik work which has been mounted ready for display. 

Sally Ann Boyd, Head of Art at Fakenham Academy, is due to begin work on a mural with some Year 11 pupils during this week.

This exciting project is featured in this month’s edition of Norfolk Living (to view click here). 

We have also received the following thanks from Salt Glass Studios as follows: “……SALT glass studios wish to thank North West Norfolk Decorative & Fine Art Society for funding this art educational project which enabled the collaboration with the UEA and Burnham Market Primary School to explore the Modern Physic Garden (MPG).  The project has provided very interesting and success outcomes, with the pupils of the school excelling in learning new skills across glass art and plant science.  We hope a representation of the pupils glass work and the project will also be showcased at the UEA for the opening of the MPG”. 

A project summary and images is on the SALT glass' website (to view click here).

Dr Laura Bowater from the UEA thought the pupils’ designs for the Modern Physic Garden (MPG) were so good they could be featured in the public UEA leaflets for the MPG.

In addition Dr Bowater was so impressed with the glass panels for the school garden that Dr Bowater would love these to go on pubic exhibition for the MPGs’ opening.

And there’s more……Dr Bowater has arranged an amazing visit to the UEA for the pupils, which will include visits to the John Innes Enterprise Centre and the Modern Physic Garden sites to meet with pupils engaging in plant science experiments.

This is fantastic news for the school and a clear demonstration of how our involvement can bring about both motivational and highly successful projects for children at local schools.

In July we will be sponsoring artist Jane Bower to spend three days at the school working with pupils to design and paint works for Tapping House. 

Since 1995 Jane has been a tutor at Cambridge University’s Faculty of Education where she provides Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in art, drama and dance.

As with the Fakenham Acadamy project this work will have facilitated links between the School and Hospice.

This unique educational project brings together the UEA and Dr Bowater, SALT glass studios and Burnham Market Primary School in the creation of original glass labels on the traditional and twenty first century pharmacopeia benefits of plants and crops for the UEA’s new Modern Physic Garden to open in October 2015.

The school pupils are working with glass artists and scientists during May to July learning design and glass art techniques to create plant labels to communicate the benefits of plants, from the medicinal, nutritional and structural, to inform the public visiting the UEA’s Modern Physic Garden.

The project is being funded by our society

For additional information and pictures click here.

We are sponsoring Jessica Perry, a freelance artist for over 25 years, and widely known for her animal sculptures, to create sculptures of birds with young pupils at Burnham Market Primary School.  These are to be placed in the garden of Tapping House later in the year.

Jessica uses paper, clay, textiles, buttons and a whole range of recycled materials to produce intricate and colourful paintings, and sculptures.

Year 11 pupils from the Fakenham Academy attended The Reality Exhibition at the University of East Anglia and our society sponsored their participation in a workshop which they much enjoyed and provided inspiration for some!

The Sedgeford Village School Clock was unveiled on the 12th February.  It commemorates the 175 year life of the school and was designed by the pupils influenced artistically by the discoveries of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project, and then adapted under the technical guidance of blacksmith James Spedding of Holkham Foundry.  We sponsored a visit to the Forge last July for the pupils to see James at work.