Arts News
Papa Noel and Eliza Carthy are confirmed in an
outstanding Ashford line up!
Shiva Nova will once again bring an outstanding line up of
leading international musicians, dancers and storytellers to venues
in Ashford this autumn. The World Series is supported by
Ashford Borough Council and the Arts Council England. To book
tickets, phone the Ashford Tourist Information Centre on 01233
629165
12 & 13 September - 7.30pm: Salome - A
dark, tense drama, 'Salome' is about how far we will go to get what
we desire. Ashford Youth Theatre's modern interpretation, and
Shiva Nova's live music with Indian drumming, promises to be an
exciting, powerful and visceral experience.
Ashford Youth Theatre, Dover Place, Ashford, Kent TN23 1HU.
18 October- 7.30pm: Papa Noel & Adan
Pedroso - Master guitarist from the Congo and Cuba.
Papa Noel, the great Congolese rumba guitarist together with
Cuban Adan Pedroso, provide an evening of roots music in this awe
inspiring venue.
St Mary's Church, The Churchyard, Ashford, Kent TN23 1QG.
14 November - 8.00pm: Eliza Carthy - Acclaimed
English folk singer. Eliza has performed and recorded with a
diverse array of artists from Paul Weller to Joan Baez. A
truly inventive and innovative singer and fiddle-player, she is the
most impressive and engaging performer of a generation. In
collaboration with the Tenterden Folk Festival.
Norton Knatchbull School Hall, Hythe Road, Ashford, Kent TN24
0QJ
13 December - 7.30pm: Orchestra Cache' Salsa
Band - An evening of pure, red-hot salsa! Start the
festive season with a high-energy Salsa evening. Their
passion for the music brings a vibrant spark to all the rhythms
that make up salsa. Cache' is lead by Cuban singer Felix
Gonzalez, a born entertainer.
Brake Hall, Ashford School, East Hill, Ashford, Kent TN24
8PB
Visit the Shiva Nova website
Ashford Visual Arts + Architecture Festival,
September 2008
A strong programme of arts events have been put
together by Ashford Borough Council to celebrate the strength of
the visual arts in the borough. 'Moving in, Moving on', will be the
theme of this years event. The full festival listings are
available from the Events Calendar and brochures available
from the Tourist Information Centre on 27th August
2008.
For additional information please contact festival
organiser Chris Dixon on 01233 330352
New Sculpture Trail Opens in Ashford
Ashford's reputation for sculpture trails in forests and
woodlands is renowned across the world, so why not have another
one! Loose Dogs and Loose Artists, will be opening their new
sculpture trail in Marchwood, Ashford on Saturday 16th August 2008,
2pm to 9pm
The event, set within 100 acre woodland in Great Chart, Ashford
is part of a 5 year development of a new trail from
2008-2012. You will find 18 artworks produced by 8 artists,
including 3 works in progress, designed to encourage public
participation. Other events and performances will take place
on this day along with a BBQ and over night camping available.
For more information, please contact Jolanta Jagiello on 0795
777 4791 or e-mail j.jagiello@mdx.ac.uk
UK Body Painting Festival 2008
Ashford is to once again host the UK Body Painting Festival this
Summer at the Farriers Arms, Mersham, where there are categories
open for professional, amateur and novice artists. This two
day event begins at 10am on Saturday 30 August and closes at 6pm on
Sunday 31 August, and includes workshops, tombola and a bouncy
castle.
Visit the UK Body Painting Festival
Website
First guests announced for the Tenterden Folk Festival
October 2008 will see the 16th Tenterden Folk festival fill the
town with traditional English folk song, music and dance as well as
the popular craft fair, music fayre and street stalls.
Plans for the Festival are progressing well
with funding and support having been confirmed by Tenterden Town
Council, Ashford Borough Council and Kent County Council through
the Members Grant scheme. Many venues have also been
confirmed and we are now planning the individual events which will
take place around the town centre, in the pubs, the Tenterden Club,
the Assembly Rooms, the Kent and East Sussex Railway and other
suitable halls.
One of the highlights of this year’s Festival
is likely to be the special Sunday afternoon concert in The
Tenterden Club which will feature two groups of popular young folk
musicians 'The Askew Sisters' and 'Mawkin'. Both these groups
should have wide appeal, not only to regular festival visitors but
also to new audiences of all ages.
Visit the Tenterden Folk
Festival Website
Ashford Public Art Piece a three times winner!
Stour Valley Arts’
recent commission in King’s Wood, has won yet another award. Jem
Finer’s Score for a Hole in the Ground was awarded British Composer
of the Year Award for New Media at the British Academy for
Musicians and Songwriters reception last night. This is the third
award for Score for a Hole in the Ground.
In 2005, Score for a Hole in the Ground was also the recipient
of the PRS Foundation’s first New Music Award, the most financially
significant award for music in the UK. Supported by Arts Council
England and Stour Valley Arts, Jem was awarded £15,000 through
Grants for the arts for the creation and presentation of his
post-digital work that relies purely on gravity and water to
generate music.
Following its installation in King’s Wood, Score for a Hole in
the Ground received the Rouse Kent Public Art Award in May this
year. When presenting the £10,000 award art critic Richard Cork
said ‘The work has extraordinary presence, you approach it through
a beautiful wood and suddenly you see an extraordinary shape rising
from the ground, looking like a giant gramophone horn. It is almost
as if the wood has discovered its own voice and is playing its own
music. It has a slightly surrealist feeling and is not what you
expect to come across in an English wood, but it has wide appeal as
everyone can grasp it at their own level.’
Inspired by suikinkutsu, water chimes found in the temple
gardens of Japan, Score for a Hole in the Ground uses tuned
percussive instruments, played by falling water, to create music. A
root-like system of ducts collects and amplifies the sounds, via a
steel horn rising 7m above ground level. Finer describes his
project as, ‘both music and an integrated part of the landscape and
the forces that operate on it and in it’.
The creation of the work included the building of a dew pond and
the excavation and construction of a 7m deep acoustic chamber. The
use of the cylindrical chamber enables Finer to achieve the exact
acoustic properties he requires. Aesthetically, the colour and
organic form of the corten steel horn harmonise with the beech
trees of the forest.
Score for a Hole in the Ground can be seen and heard in King’s
Wood, Challock, Kent, which is free and open to the public at all
times.
Visit the Stour Valley Arts
website
This webpage was updated on 9/16/2008