August 1st, 2021

 

Dear Members,

 

As always, I do hope you are all well, and managing to enjoy the summer, despite the extremes we have been experiencing. I was in London, just in time for last weekend’s monsoon rain, but being able to visit some of the exhibitions I was hoping to see, made wading through the waters worthwhile. 

I am sure that many of us have really appreciated the talks and illustrations we have been able to access over the last 16 months, many thanks to The Arts Society, but actually being in a gallery and looking closely at pictures and artefacts was an enormous treat.

 

Some of you will know that last year we were able to continue to assist various projects, at The Hive, for instance, through our Young Arts Committee. One recipient was The Wirral Chamber Orchestra. This group, members of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, have classes and workshops for young players here in Wirral. Their entire programme of performances which had been arranged last year had to be cancelled, so it was excellent to learn that it had been revived this year. Some of you I am sure will have enjoyed their varied performances in mid-July. It was such a profound experience to hear live music again.

 

Though there are no lectures of course in July and August, various members have continued to be very busy on our behalf at this time. Some of you, I am sure, will know about the volunteering side of The Arts Society, and Wirral is well represented. Church Recording, historically a very important part of AS is continuing, though under a somewhat different aegis. Young Arts is powering ahead with planned activities, after a period when such things were not possible. The book conservation groups who have worked for many years at                      The Athenaeum are looking forward to being able to return soon, and our other volunteering groups, Heritage and Church Trails will, we hope resume shortly also.

 

As I wrote before, we all look forward to our meetings resuming in September, and sincerely hope that we will be able to be in Heswall Hall again by then. As always, we will be in touch throughout the summer, and will contact you with definite news as soon as we possibly can. The Committee will be meeting, unusually, in August in order to make any necessary arrangements in good time.

 

Once again, Judith Wheat our Programme Secretary, has speedily pulled a rabbit out of a hat for us. Most unfortunately our speaker for September, Anthea Streeter, who was to talk to us on

          “Thomas Heatherwick: The Leonardo da Vinci of our time”

has had to cancel. Judith, in extremely short order, was able to arrange with Gillian Hovell, who was going to talk to us at a future date, to present her lecture entitled

            “A Mediterranean Tour: Not just a load of old stones!”

 

I realise that I am preaching to the converted here, but the most up to date information about all lectures is on our website and updated as changes happen. It is thanks to Anita Stokes our web manager that this is such a useful facility.

 

As I have been writing this, I feel I would like to follow the lead given by Fenella, and from time to time invite the representatives of the groups I have mentioned to give an outline of their rôles at our meetings.

 

I do hope that you enjoy the rest of the summer, and send my very best wishes,

​

Yvonne Woodhead

​

The Arts Society Wirral members meet monthly to hear, from a varied programme of inspiring lectures given by top experts in their fields. Regular tours, outings and visits throughout the year complement the lectures.

In addition, the Volunteer programme, open to all members of our society, includes Church Recording, involvement with local young people by way of the Young Arts Group, Archiving for a number of organisations together with the development of Church Trails for children