A crowd celebrate Richard Adams' 90th birthday at the White Hart

A crowd of artists and local residents gathered in the White Hart to celebrate Richard Adams’ 90th birthday. Graham Burgess, Whitchurch Arts’ Director of Arts introduced Richard and congratulated him on this special occassion. Richard is the receipient of the first annual Whitchurch Arts Award for Inspiration.

A collection of new paintings from the Whitchurch Arts ‘Off the Walls‘ project, run by Jude Price, were on display all around the room, and throughout the White Hart (new pieces were also hung at The Bell pub, just down the street).

One piece, though, was very special. It was unveiled by Andrew Reeves-Hall, chairman of Whitchurch Arts: it was a painting of Richard Adams made by local artist Steve Miller.

Andrew, Richard, Sir George and artist Steve Miller with the painting gift

The recently re-elected Sir George Young Bt., our local Member of Parliament, Leader of the Commons and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, presented the painting literally off the wall to Richard Adams. He congratulated Richard on his lifelong achievements and also gave thanks to Whitchurch Arts for hosting the event and for being so involved in the community – noting how so many of these events take place in traditional English pubs!

Richard thanked Sir George, Andrew, Jude, Graham and especially the artist Steve Miller. Richard talked about the wonderful feeling of ‘home’ and of Whitchurch, Hampshire in particular. He penned a poem that encapsulated his feelings (Sir George asked him how long it took him to prepare, to which Richard replied ’10 or 15 minutes, it was all impromptu – I had to show that I am a writer!’).

Richard recites his impromptu poem about Whitchurch

Congratulations once again to Richard, and thank you to all who made today’s special event possible – especially Andy and Julie Moss of the White Hart.

Photos from the event are in our Photo Gallery HERE. An article and photo are in the 20 May 2010 edition of the Basingstoke Gazette HERE and the 21 May 2010 edition of the Andover Advertiser HERE. Sir George Young Bt. wrote about the event in his constituency news HERE.

Here, then, is Richard’s poem about Whitchurch, on the occassion of his 90th birthday:

Oh Whitchurch fair !
What joy it is
To come back here from London grime
What happiest joys are his
Who knows once more the blessed time
Has come for his return.

Blue Skies, Green Grass, sweet leaves on Whitchurch Trees
And upstream Test of slender size
Runs sparkiling in the summer breeze

To laze beside the cricket pitch
And watch thy batsmen boundaries smite
What rural bliss ! Oh joy how rich
To come back home to golden light
Of Whitchurch Summer .

Boys and Gal lets bless the Mayor adorned with chain
Thank God I am his Whitchurch pal.
Thank God I feel alive again

When I return and see my home
My Whitchurch home, that’s like no other
I am resolved, I’ll never roam
I count each Whitchurch man, my brother.

I floor my pints at Whitchurch bars
At Whitchurch tables eat my dinners
I gaze aloft at Whitchurch stars.

Oh Whitchurch publicans and sinners
Rejoice with me! This place is ours
And where could we find ?
Ladies bouquets of Whitchurch flowers

Be yours, and Whitchurch roofs designed for you to dwell in happiness.

My home. Our home! Here I return
And here I stand and here I bless
Dear Whitchurch, how my heart does burn
From these few words you all may see
Just how it burns. Let no one frown
Upon the fond simplicity
Of this rough speech.

Now I’ll sit down.

Richard Adams.

The Whitchurch Arts report to the Town Assembly 2010.

This is just our second report to the annual town assembly and so much is to report!

The mayor, Councillor Vince Bradbury, chaired the meeting on April 29, 2010 at the Gill Nethercott Centre. Many community groups told the gathered folks about their work in the community over the past year. The Whitchurch Arts chairman, Andrew Reeves-Hall presented this year’s report, which you can read here: Whitchurch Arts Town Assembly Report 2010.

As promised last year, there was some performance art during the report – actually, it was mostly audience-participation performance art: everyone was asked to stand up, stretch and stand straight as a they could. Everyone wearing black was asked to then take a seat. That left quite a large number standing – a colourful collection of live ‘bollards‘, representing what the town will shortly look like after Whitchurch Arts member John Buckley has the town’s 40 or so bollards painted with various scenes!

The Off the Walls exhibition, in conjunction with Green Aware week, was a great success last Saturday in the Gill Nethercott Centre. Our new screens were a credit to Steve Morris, Liz and Steve Miller for their hard work in the repair and painting of them. Thanks to Jacqui and Maria for co-ordinating the artwork to enhance the new screens.

The theme of ‘Green’ and ‘Energy’ gave artists a new perspective for artwork to submit.

Painting ©2010 Steve Miller

A powerful piece by Steve Miller depicting Stonehenge and wind turbines, gave the foundation for meaningful discussions about the environment.

Thank you to everyone who made the day what it was.

A big thank you to SEEDA, who made it possible through their funding to update the display materials for the exhibition, including free standing easels which added that certain panache.

Another big thank you to Steve Morris who put a lot of time and effort into collating artist details, making labels, making and displaying the roadside plaques (which proved to be the biggest lure to people who attended the exhibition) putting together a slide show amongst other things.

People enjoy art on the theme of 'Green' and 'Energy'

Liz did a brilliant job involving children in the art challenge. It was great to see the variety of art pieces the children chose to copy and the talent that we have in our younger generations.

Gillian and Maria serve up creative coffees!

Maria and Gillian spent a lot of time in the kitchen serving refreshments. With the money raised from the refreshments we will be buying token presents to say thank you for the children who entered the art challenge.

Eric’s music serenaded the steady flow of people through the afternoon and the overall feeling was that of accomplishment.

Whitchurch Arts can take pride from the compliments of the public who graced the exhibition and look forward to the next one in six months time.

Children and adults light their lanterns for a procession starting from the Town Hall

Our second annual Earth Hour event at the Gill Nethercott Centre last night was a fantastic success.

The evening started with a candle-lit lantern procession from the Town Hall.  Many locals, including our mayor, walked the short distance down Winchester Street with the chairman of Whitchurch Arts, Andrew Reeves-Hall, pushing a wheel-barrow that was filled with Earthy things, including a large ’60′ sign, representing the 60 minutes in Earth Hour to come later that evening.

Inside the Gill Nethercott Centre, visitors watched the 2010 Earth Hour video from the WWF on the Centre’s new video projection system, and then settled down to a delicious supper made by Kay, Alice and Beth. Then, it was time to put on our thinking caps to answer the various quiz questions.  Our thanks go out to Christine Brown, Bethany Wright, and Ekaterina Popova for compiling the various quizzes; and a special thanks goes to Gillian Anderson for playing the piano in the dark for the musical round!

The town's mayor, Councillor Vince Bradbury, holds his lantern high

Around the world, at 8:30pm local time, people and businesses switched off their lights in a global event to raise awareness of climate change. Beth asked the Carnival Queen, Annabel Sankey, to do the honours alongside our town Mayor, Councillor Vince Bradbury; Keith Watts, B&DBC; Eric Dunlop, B&DBC; and, Sir George Young, MP.  New this year was the total darkness in and around the Centre – Jean Watts flipped the switch to turn off the lights outside!  Suddenly, just a few lanterns from the procession were all that lit the Centre.

The Carnival Queen, flanked by local and national politicans, switch off the Centre's lights at 8:30pm

Everyone’s eyes slowly adjusted to the new reality as the next round of the quiz got underway.  It proved a challenge not only to read the questions but to write down the answers too.  It all goes to show just how much we rely on lighting, let alone the raw materials that go into its production.

Two local musicians, Keith and Mick, then entertained us with their guitars and singing.  Be sure to check them out every other Sunday down at the Bell pub.

Finally, it was the end of Earth Hour.  Bethany asked if we should turn the lights back on… “No!” was the resounding reply.

At the end of the evening, John Buckley handed out the prizes for the Green Aware photography competition.

Congratulations to our quiz question winners, and to all who came out to celebrate Earth Hour together.

The Gill Nethercott Centre is plunged into darkness, lit only by candle lanters (and the occasional torch!)

The show is organised by Hampshire Arts, who have arranged for a Jazz concert tomorrow evening, too. All work is for sale – support the arts and the artists!