The exhibition Drawn to Ohio is collated from work made over the last seven years, in which Shelly Goldsmith explores both the geographical and emotional distance between Goldsmith’s home in Ramsgate, Thanet on the Kent coast and Cincinnati, Ohio, and environs, where Goldsmith’s parents live. This on-going theme has re-occurred in Goldsmith’s work for many years, expressed through a series of textile based pieces.

The work draws both upon the high incident of dramatic meteorological events that prevail in this area of the US and our relationship with the clothes we wear, and the emotions and memories that these garments are imbued with: themes constant in Goldsmith’s work.

The work presented for Drawn to Ohio uses a palette of textile traditions and new media, ranging from charcoal drawings, hand stitching to digital printing on pre-constructed garments and photography. Pieces are presented as installation works as well as wall hung pieces and Limited Edition Prints.

Exhibition workshop

Stitching time

Saturday, 6 February 2016, 10.20am-3.30pm

A mixed media creative textiles workshop with stitchist Alison Blackburn. The sessions starts with a gallery talk and then a walk to the Guildhall Museum workshop.

Suitable for adults and young people aged 11+ (some basic hand sewing ability is required).

Recommended donation of £10 per person on the day is requested.

For more information or to book a place contact the Arts Team 01634 338319 arts@medway.gov.uk

The Loop Dance Company are hosting the South East’s U.Dance Medway 2016 platform.

They have partnered with South East Dance and Youth Dance England to give Youth Dance Groups aged 11-19, or disabled dancers up to the age 25 from all over the South East and beyond, the incredible opportunity to try out at the South East Regional Selection for the National Youth Dance Festival 2016. On Sunday 14th February at the Brook Theatre in Chatham.

Photo By Caden Crawford

How to express your opinions in a fair way

In a time where we are happy to post our thoughts on social media, it is important we know how to justify our views to avoid conflict online. No matter what you believe in, someone somewhere is going to disagree which is one thing we must always remember, everyone will have to back themselves up at some point in their lives and nobody should ever be made to feel that their view is wrong.

Justifying opinions and work is a part of life; students have to back up their work with references, reporters and writers have to express their opinions without offending their readers and artists have to back themselves up when explaining their work and profession for those who may disagree.

If you think you could improve the way in which you voice your opinions, read on.

5 Easy Steps to Expressing Yourself

1. Support your opinion with more than one point– it is perfectly normal to want to voice your opinion but make sure you back it up with good reasons, this shows other people that you know what you are talking about and it is something important to you, whereas if you did not justify your view someone else could quite easily target you online or face to face.

2. Consider other people’s beliefs and opinions– this is a very important step in expressing yourself fairly, everyone has their own view which is slightly different and if you want to share yours, you have to respect other people and consider how it might affect them. You should never post something that is going to target a specific person or group of people and hurt their feelings or make them feel threatened.

3. Explain– if you are going to share your opinion it is important to explain why you believe that. You must explain why you have that opinion but in a calm and polite way without shutting someone else’s down completely. People are more likely to accept your view if you are able to back yourself up.

4. Use the right wording– the language you use is a big part of expressing yourself, you need to be careful of how you come across, especially online where you can be so easily misunderstood. For example, if there is a particular person or celebrity that you really dislike, instead of ranting about how terrible you think that person is and trying to convince everyone else to start hating that same person, you can calmly voice your opinion using the points above as a guideline but accept that other people may not feel the same, this way you can avoid offending others and causing problems for yourself. This leads me on to my fifth and final point.

5. Find a balance between passive and aggressive– when you express your opinion, particularly on social media, you are voicing your views to the world. You should never allow someone to tell you that your opinion is wrong and at the same time you should never tell someone else that theirs is wrong. Finding a balance between the two will allow you to both defend yourself but also accept others which you should always do if you expect the same back.

Written by Megan Martin as part of her Bronze arts award.

Do you have your own thoughts about expressing your opinions? If so please comment below.

The Swale Film Festival has a wide variety of films and events on offer at venues across Swale from Thursday 24 September to Sunday 27 September.

Highlights include:

– The Opening Ceremony from 7.15pm on Thursday 24 September at New Century Cinema, Sittingbourne featuring the films Mr.Holmes and Everest.

– The First Film, a documentary that explores the possibility that the first film ever made was shot in Leeds in 1888. This screening will take place on Friday 25 September at 6.30pm at The Avenue Theatre, Sittingbourne and includes a Q&A session with Director David Nicholas Wilkinson.

– Winning Films of the Elstree Film Design “A Sense of Change” Film Competition, an exciting free film and animation competition for young people, living in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex and North Kent. Screening starts at 2pm on Saturday 26 September at New Century Cinema, Sittingbourne.

This is just a snapshot of what is happening at the festival!

Visit the website to see it all: www.swalefilmfestival.org.uk

A rare exhibition featuring the private collection of an industry professional, is taking place at the Nucleus Arts Centre in Chatham from the 3rd to 8th of October 2015.

This exhibition by Steve Allen Creative Works will be a unique ‘behind the scenes’ look at effect models, puppets, and original prototypes for TV/Film merchandise. Steve’s portfolio includes work for The Jim Henson Creature Shop, Disney, The BBC, 20th Century Fox and The Magic Circle. Many of the items on exhibit have never been on view before.

The exhibition is free to attend and part of the Medway Fun Palace; a celebration of art and science taking place at Nucleus Arts on the 3rd of October. (Fun Palaces will be cropping up all over this country and beyond for the weekend of 3rd to 4th October – see www.funpalaces.co.uk)

The preview is being held on Friday 2nd of October from 6pm-8pm. All are welcome.

Slamming for world PEACE!! There is too much hatred and violence in the world, ego rules environment time to make a stand against ego and detach yourself from the shackles that divide us, poetry has a way of reaching people, it’s time to slam for peace, and crown a Champion of Peace to take us into a new paradigm

The winning poem will in essences bring about world peace, if you have words that can change the world or change opinion then we want to hear them words!!!

Sign up by emailing dekedobson@hotmail.co.uk or comment on the event page feed to reserve a place

No entry fee nor sign up fee 🙂

the Medway peace Slam is in conjunction with the Medway World Peace Festival

Location: Nucleus Arts Riverside Hub, 13 Military Road, Chatham, Kent

Time: 7pm on the 21st September

Organised by Deke Dobson

The Into Film Festival is the world’s largest free film and education event for all schools and 5 – 19 year olds.

From 4 – 20 November, over 400,000 young people and their educators are expected to attend one of the 2,700+ film screenings and special events, across the UK. Free resources will be available for download, supporting the different film titles and strands. These resources are designed to help teachers capture the valuable curricula links from across the four nations.

The festival is a part of the wider programme of Into Film — a film education charity for children and young people aged 5-19.

Please note: Bookings can only be made by school/college staff or parent/guardians.

See what is happening in your area and book at :

Website: www.intofilm.org/festival
Phone: 020 3194 4311

Click to expand

Medway Libraries are hosting new free creative writing workshops for people. Entitled Trafficked, the workshops will explore the issues around human trafficking in the UK.

The sessions will be led by Samantha Fentiman-Hall (Wordsmithery andME4Writers)

The same session will be run at multiple venues and times to enable easier access:

• Chatham Library on Monday 7 Sept, 11am-12.30
• Rochester Library on Saturday 12 Sept, 2pm-3.30pm
• Gillingham Library on Tuesday 22 Sept, 5.30 – 7pm
• Final session will run at Strood Library on Saturday 3 Oct from 1pm-2.30pm

To book your free session, please call 01634 337799 or email chatham.library@medway.gov.uk

Wandering Words are popping by Nucleus Arts Centre tomorrow afternoon to perform poetry, as part of their walk from Chatham to Faversham! Everyone is welcome and it is free!

A group of young poets are undertaking a series of walks across Kent and Medway, led by poet and adventurer Michael James Parker, as part of the Wandering Words project. At times they will walk together and at times they will walk separately – making the most of the opportunity to engage with people who live in the area but also to experience as much of the urban and rural landscape as possible.

Inspired by her recent residency in the former mining town of Lens, Northern France, Sophie Dixon’s exhibition explores memories of the coal mining industry and the physical traces left upon the landscape.  Working across video, writing and sound, Sophie draws connections between seemingly disparate fragments of experience to examine the unifying power of memory. Resonating with the story of the Kent coalfield, this two day exhibition takes place between the Turner Contemporary and Crate Project Space in Margate.

La Mort de L’Arbre  (running time 15 minutes) will be screened over the weekend at the Turner Contemporary,  accompanied by Time Pressure Decay, an exhibition of photography, text and research on display at the Crate Project Space.

Sophie Dixon’s work is rooted in extensive historical, social and cultural research. Concerned with the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs and expands narratives to explore the tenuous relationship between ourselves and the environments in which we live. Using personal research and writing as a narrative backbone, her work is less interested in portraying a historic truth than in exploring the connections between events across time – an attempt to open up the spaces between the experience of an event, and our later interpretations of it. In 2014 she was awarded the CVAN Platform graduate award and has recently undertaken residencies with Mission Louvre-Lens Tourisme in Northern France and the UK based artists group Blast Theory. 

Elements of Time Pressure Decay will also be on display at the following group exhibition:

[Dis]place
August 21st-23rd
Private view Saturday 21st

17 Harts Lane
SE14 5UP
NEW CROSS GATE
London

Christopher Sacre a visual artist specialising in sculpture, has been working with Stuart Bowditch a recordist, artist and musician specialising in sound. Aperture invites the public to explore Rochester Riverside. During their research time, Christopher and Stuart led a series of walks around the Rochester Riverside development site gathering contributions from participants on the sights seen and sounds heard, which has informed a detailed map of the site and surrounding area. 

The Aperture is an ear trumpet and eye lens, one end for listening and one end for looking through. With an accompanying map of 15 locations indicated by yellow place marks, the public will be guided to vantage points to explore the site.

www.sacrebowditch.tumblr.com

@ccsacre @stuartbowditch #ApertureProject

An exhibition of Owen Davies work which sees stunning art collaborating with light, is being held at Sun Pier House during August. 

The paintings themselves mix digital vinyl prints on plexiglass and back images that can be viewed through the transparent areas on the surface image. Each piece is illuminated from within by LEDs and function as wall hung lamps that bring dark spaces alive.The exhibition will open with a Private View on Thursday 6th August at 18:00,and run until the end of August.

Owen’s work explores and is deeply inspired by his faith in the teachings of Buddha. In particular he is interested in the wisdom teachings which deal with the ultimate nature of reality, emptiness.

“Everything we experience is a mere reflection of our mind and thus dependent upon it. In this respect my work is saturated with Buddhist imagery and symbolism, abstracted and seen through the prism of our busy modern, lives. I am increasingly influenced by this wisdom in relation to our environment. Unless we can understand how we are all interconnected in our fragile world and learn to live in harmony with ourselves and our environment we face very real danger or a planetary extinction event in our lifetime”.

Find out more at www.owendaviesart.com

Medway Open Studios & Arts Festival takes place every July throughout the Medway Towns. Run by volunteers the aim of the festival is to celebrate the wealth of creativity in Medway. The first festival took place in July 2012 with the aim of highlighting the quantity of artistic talent in the area. More and more artists have signed up year on year, benefitting the aims of the festival and promoting a positive opinion of Medway.

Now heading into its fourth year, the Medway Open Studios and Arts Festival has doubled in size since its conception in 2012.

Click the image to view the programme.

Following the success of Take One back in March, Threads brings you .mov

This moving image night showcases film work from short film documentaries to conceptual moving image pieces.

Water Lane Coffee has kindly opened their doors once again to host this event. Come and get the best coffee you will have in Canterbury, and arrive in time to grab a comfy seat.

This style of moving image night is designed to be both supportive and inspiring. Threads welcomes you to come along to this free event, bring a mate and meet some new people! Try and sit next to someone you don’t know!

Although this is a free event there will be a contribution pot to help reimburse Threads for the expenses made for running this event. We would really appreciate any small donation.

Please book at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mov-tickets-17423650608

The ArcelorMittal Orbit is a 114.5 metre (376 feet) tall sculpture and observation tower in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London. It is also the largest piece of public art in Britain. It is made of tubular steel and more than 60% of it was made from old cars, washing machines and steel building materials. The construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit took around 18 months and used 560 meters of tubular red steel. It was created by Sir Anish Kapoor along with the designer Cecil Balmond.

When I first saw the sculpture it was a lot bigger then I expected it to be. It was very intimidating because it curved around differently and was a very weird shape. It also looked like it could tip or fall over at any minute. It made me wonder what the artist was inspired by.

You could definitely recognise it from a long way away because it is such a tall sculpture and it was quite a bright colour red. It is also very original, there is no other sculpture like it.

I loved how the top has a big loop round and none of the parts are the same. I also like how they put a spiral staircase of 455 steps all the way around it.

If you go up close to it you can see how big the tubes that are used to make it are. They were much bigger than I thought they would be. It was very strange and gave me mixed emotions, as it was so weird I couldn’t quite understand it.

By Keryn Veal

As part of her Arts Award coursework at the Nucleus Arts Centre

The University of Kent’s School of Music and Fine Art presents the Fine Art Degree Show 2015 in the extraordinary environment of the Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent, featuring the work of forty  graduating BA and MA Fine Art students.

Opening with a preview on Saturday May 23rd 2pm-6pm, they are proud to announce an introductory speech at 3pm, by international, award-winning artist, Lindsay Seers.

Opening hours: 24th, 25th, 28th May – 1st June 10-5pm

Contact the university on 01634 888 980 for more information.

The exhibition is open to all and is free to attend.

Continuing a tradition of showcasing bold, exploratory exhibitions curated by the University of Kent’s Fine Art students, framed by the stunning backdrop of one of the country’s most iconic locations, the Historic Dockyard Chatham, visitors will encounter a broad range of artistic styles and media, an explosion of imagination and a celebration of art’s potential for society.

This exhibition offers the public a fascinating insight into contemporary art’s most recent practices and processes; from an installation imagining a future Kent submerged below the sea, to psycho-geographical explorations of Rainham marshes and the communities along the Hoo peninsula. Visitors will discover art installations revealing acoustic experiments in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, human ‘hosts’ dispersing half-remembered childhood smells, a personal archaeology of colonialism in South Africa and bizarre kinetic feeding machines.

 The Degree Show’s aim is to encourage audiences to explore the potential of Medway as a dynamic hub for the creative arts, with the School of Music and Fine Art as a major conduit for these activities, positively impacting on the community and offering imaginative suggestions and visionary strategies for cultural regeneration.

As well as involving students from Kent, and elsewhere in the UK, this year’s Degree Show exhibitors include student artists from Japan, Latvia, Malta, Nepal, Italy, Cyprus, Poland, Hong Kong and Sudan.

Kent Wildlife Trust have organised free film workshops in August with an industry professional. The workshops are aimed at adults but suitable for age 13 plus.

To book or find out more please call 01622 662 012 or email natasha.steer@nucleusarts.co.uk

Nucleus ArtsFest year will celebrate the Arts in Chatham and will follow on from the success of the last three year’s celebrations. Incorporating live music, poetry, dance, comedy, alternative street theatre, film, free workshops, artisan market.

The ArtsFests will be held in Chatham on Saturday the 16th May, 13th and 20th June, 11th of July and 19th September 2015. The acts will mostly be performing at our main Chatham Centre, with some acts roaming through the town centre to engage with the public this year.

The festivals will include live music, theatre, dance, contemporary street theatre and the visual arts, and will showcase both professional and amateur artists throughout the event, with particular focus on artists who are connected with the Medway Towns. There will also be free craft workshops happening all day for young people to join in with, including Play-doh making, wool dyeing and paper crafts.

All acts are free to watch.

Confirmed acts:-

Jamie Johnson
Ella Halpern-Matthews
Nathalie Jobbins
Lupen Crook
Jemimah Dean
Ben Richards
Barry Fentiman-Hall
Halcyon

Please note there will be more ArtsFests in 2015 – on the 13th June, 20th June, 11th of July and 19th September 2015.

The Underground Cinema at Nucleus Arts will be screening its second film for 2015 on the 1st May – “The Empowerment Project”.

The documentary is the incredible journey of a crew of female filmmakers driving across America to encourage, empower, and inspire the next generation of strong women to go after their career ambitions.

Driving over 7,000 miles from Los Angeles to New York over the course of 30 days, the documentary spotlights 17 positive and powerful women leaders across a variety of lifestyles and industries.

In celebration of the all-female focus in front of and behind the camera, the filmmakers turned the cameras on themselves, capturing their transformational journey.

The film challenges the audience to ask themselves, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid to fail?”.

Tickets cost just £5 – book at www.eventjoy.com/o/nucleusarts

Find out more at www.empowermentproject.com

Special guests from women’s wellbeing groups from across Kent will be present to talk about the brilliant projects they run locally.

This venue has disabled access.

There are girly goody bags for the first 10 people who book and make a donation!

Kent Creative Live would like to invite you to their next Meet-up with the Lilford Gallery and Susimagin.

When and where:

• Friday 24th April 2015 from 9:30am to 12:30
• The Horsebridge Centre, 11 Horsebridge Road, Whitstable, CT5 1AF

The programme of the day:

• 09:15 Everyone arrives and chat with other attendees.
• 09:40 Member slot: Susimagin – Susanna Rosti-Rossini: Finding your talent and nurturing your creative soul, also overcoming a possible creative block.
• 10:10 One-to-ones between attendees randomly linked in pairs.
• 10:35 David Lilford, from the Lilford Gallery, will provide a viewpoint from a commercial gallery: how to approach, how to show work. a note on curating, pricing and presentation. David will also talk about the way his gallery operates in the current climate.
• 11:00 Full circle – opportunity for attendees to discuss a project/prototype/idea with the group.
• 11:30 More chatting and networking. Very valuable time that is…
• 12:30 Close

Price:

• Non Members: £10
• Members: £3.50 (enter your promotional code when booking to get a 65% discount off the full price).
• First timers: £3.50

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO BOOK 

***Booking is essential*** so we can organise the room set up and order tea and coffee.
Next events:

• The Basics of Social Media – Participating Group Event – 28th April – Faversham
• Meet-up – 12th May – Faversham
• Meet-up – 19th May – Margate
• Meet-up – 29th May – Whitstable
• Meet-up – 2nd June – Launch in Folkestone
• Check the calendar of events for more

Awake & Dream – Drama Workshop

The boot-camp of truthful acting an introduction

Attend this course and you will always

• Be 100% truthful and compelling on stage by using
• powerful, moment-to-moment “thoughts & wants”.

• Have an immediate and easy rapport with any
• audience by consciously employing “circles of contact”.

• Make every character you play uniquely individual
• by engaging your own experience and personality.

Only Pay if you stay

(First week of the 5 Week course only)

FAVERSHAM course

Alexander Centre, Faversham FM1 4RT

5 x Mondays   7:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm

Workshop 1 – Monday 11 May, 2015

Workshop 2 – Monday 18 May, 2015

Workshop 3 – Monday 1 June, 2015

Workshop 4 – Monday 8 June, 2015

Workshop 4 – Monday 15 June, 2015

MEDWAY course

Brook Theatre, Chatham ME4 9PR

5 x Fridays   7:00 pm ~ 9:00 pm

Workshop 1 – Friday 8 May, 2015

Workshop 2 – Friday 15 May, 2015

Workshop 3 – Friday 22 May, 2015

Workshop 4 – Friday 29 May, 2015

Workshop 5 – Friday 5 June, 2015

Tutor – Paul Doust

email mailto:pdtheatreworkshops@hotmail.com  for more details.

20% “Early Bird” saving – available until Sunday 19 April, 2015

On either booking venues @ Medway or Faversham