It’s been a particularly productive summer and autumn for the theatre team. As much of our current activity includes the Cultivate programme, we’ve combined the two newsletters for this month to highlight some recent activity.
Chill On The Hill
Chill on the Hill on Sunday 1st September, a family-friendly event celebrating local food, arts, nature, diversity and community, was bigger and better than ever!
Now in its third year and produced in partnership with Ham Hill Country Park, this year’s programme had a South-Asian focus, including Indian dancing led by Avtar, an Indian spice stand and delicious food from Kerala, courtesy of our friends from The White Pepper, based in Yeovil.
Over 700 people enjoyed the workshops and performances throughout the day. All the local food producers sold out and we were delighted by such a positive response all round, despite the weather not being particularly kind.
The programme also included Charlie Bicknell’s hilarious balloon performance and Thingamabob, an inventive circus street show from Matt Pang that included lots of audience interaction.
We were also delighted and charmed by local artists Sharon Jacksties and Jem Dick who processed their giant puppet, Sovereign Nature, across the hill accompanied by the terrific sounds of Tim Hill and his band Little Big Horns.
Sewing Seeds Of Gladness
The final phase of the Sewing Seeds of Gladness community stitching project in South Petherton came to a celebratory end on Saturday 21st September when the embroidered Parish Map was revealed in the David Hall to a packed audience. The tapestry is a fabulous work of art in which several hundred people have invested so much love and talent.
Now hanging in the Parish Church in South Petherton, it will eventually go on tour to venues around the area. These images give a flavour of this beautiful creation, celebrating the community spirit of people living and working in the parish.
Six Inches Of Soil
Our final event of the season was a screening of Six Inches of Soil, in partnership with the FilmCrew, at Wadham School, Crewkerne. This is highly-acclaimed film told the inspiring story of three new farmers on the first year of their regenerative journey to heal the soil and help transform the food system.
Attended by 80+ people, the event included a post-show discussion, facilitated by Francis (Herbi) Blake, with local farmers Fred Hosford and Ashley Wheeler who shared fascinating insights into their own farming practices.
WORD/PLAY: Sow & Grow
We started Phase 1 of a new Word/Play project earlier this autumn; it uses performance poetry as community-based support for people who are socially-isolated due to a range of reasons. Following two successful taster sessions, a regular group of adults now attend the weekly sessions led by performance poets Liv Torc and Jon Seagrave.
Supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, the project is being run in partnership with the ARK at Egwood (based in Merriott), a therapeutic land-based community provision where people of all ages and varying needs come together to improve their health, wellbeing and social connections through nature-based and rural arts activities.
Finally… we look forward to reporting next time on how some of our theatre and Cultivate projects are developing.
Take Art Theatre and Cultivate team