Latest News

Fylde DFAS has been awarded Runner Up in the 2012 NADFAS Website Award. The NADFAS judges described the site as being “very professional and a good deal of hard work and commitment was involved “. This is a tremendous news for Fylde DSFAS and especially pleasing for the web designer and administrator.

The Awards were presented at the NADFAS AGM, which was held in London on 9 May 2012. Chair Hilary Alcock and our newly elected Vice Chair, Marie Riley, collected the award on behalf of Fylde DFAS.

This is the second time the website has received a Media Award. In 2010, it won the overall Award for best website. This year’s winner was Vectis on the Isle of Wight.

Marie Riley

Fylde DFAS Committee member Marie Riley is helping to fly the cultural flag for Fylde! Marie contributed a piece to The Observer’s ‘My Cultural Life’ section, which was published in the newspaper on 8 April 2012.

As well as describing the book she was reading, Marie mentioned the Anne Boleyn play many DFAS members saw at the Grand Theatre earlier this month, as well as the excellent DFAS lecture by Linda Smith, and the local sixth form talent currently on show at the Fylde Gallery, Booths. Well done Marie for showing what a rich cultural life we have here on the Fylde.

You can read Marie’s piece here.

The 2012 Fylde DFAS AGM will be held at 1.00pm on Wednesday 2 May 2012. Please do try and attend. The lecture will start promptly at 2.00pm and so that we can manage the time as efficiently as possible, it would be helpful if you would let the Secretary know by 18 April if there are any comments/questions you would like to raise.

A nomination form is can be downloaded here. Nominations for the Committee should be sent to the Secretary by 11.00am on Wednesday 28 March 2012. Nominations will be displayed at the lecture in April. Please send any nominations to Marion Nutall  Thank you

Snow at Marland, by Stanley Warburton

The latest issue of our newsletter ‘In the Picture’ is now available. The March 2012 issue is packed with news, features and information about current, past and upcoming events. You can learn more about the Stanley Warburton exhibition, currently on display at the Fylde Gallery, as well as our forthcoming Special Interest Day and planned excursions.

For local history lovers there’s a review of ‘Victorian Lytham’ by Brian Turner of the Lytham St Annes Civic Society and if your passion is botany, then be sure to read the item on Ruskin. Young artists are very important to Fylde DFAS and we were delighted when two talented young women from the Fylde had their artworks selected for exhibition at the Royal Society of British Artists’ 2012 show. We’re delighted to include interviews with both winners and learn more about their hopes and aspirations for their future careers.

We hope you enjoy reading all about the various activities of what is a very busy Society!

The newsletter  will be handed out to members at the March and April 2012 lectures and thereafter posted to those who have failed to collect them. You can also download it here.

Helen McCook with volunteers

As mentioned at the December 2011 lecture, Fylde DFAS has been invited to take part in a regional collaborative heritage project, together with members of the Salmesbury, and Ribble and Craven DFAS groups. The activity is to embroider kneelers for the chapel at Lancashire-based Stoneyhurst School. The project will be led by Helen McCook,embroiderer, and textile artist, who also helped make the lace which went on Kate Middleton’s dress, wedding shoes and veil.

The project is described as ‘easy sewing’, comprising a mix of five stitches. The canvas already has the design painted onto it, so it is a bit like the painting by numbers concept, and there is no counting involved to put off those who are numerically challenged!  Wooden tapestry frames will be supplied.

Training will be provided for all volunteers. The first Training Day will be held on 9 Feb 2012, with Helen, at Stoneyhurst. Participants will then take home the materials and sew in their own homes, at their leisure. At six to nine month intervals there will be meetings at the School to assess the progress being made. Local groups could also be formed for mutual support

Helen McCook instructing volunteers

This is an exciting opportunity for people who enjoy embroidery. It is also a brand new development for Fylde DFAS and is an opportunity to work alongside other societies, something that members raised in the last evaluation.

If you are interested in getting involved please contact Fylde DFAS’s Vice Chairman Philip Bailey on 01200 423230.

Madonna & Child by Jodie Leader

First Cow From Triptych by Katie Hampson

Students from two Fylde schools are to have their artworks displayed alongside professional artists in The Royal Society of British Artists’ Annual Exhibition. The two winners are Jodie Leader from Lytham St Annes Technology & Performing Arts College sixth , and Katie Hampson from Blackpool Sixth Form College. Both winning artworks will be exhibited at the RBA’s show, at the Mall Galleries, London, in March 2012.

The competition, which was organised by the RBA and NADFAS, attracted artworks from 54 Societies, who between them submitted 310 artworks from 83 schools. Some 41 works will be hung, with another 17 displayed as 10 x 8 reproductions. Given the huge number of entries this is  a tremendous achievement for the two students and very good news for the Fylde, especially as the area had a winner last year – Catherine Latham, from KEQMS.

The two works to be hung in the 2012 exhibition are Jodie Leader’s Madonna & Child and Katie Hampson’s first cow painting from her triptych as a 10 x 8 reproduction.

Both winners are now continuing their art education in higher education. Jodie Leader is studying scientific illustration at Blackpool and Fylde College, and Katie Hampson is studying fine art, animation and illustration at Bolton University. Further examples of Katie’s work can be seen on her website at http://www.outputt.com/.

Congratulations to both winners!

Mark Menzies, MP with Fylde DFAS Committee members Barbara Weston & Pam Foster

Fylde MP Mark Menzies dropped into The Fylde Gallery for a private viewing of the Mr Lowry in Lytham exhibition. Events Co-ordinator Barbara Weston, who has been involved with the competition from start to finish, showed him round the various exhibits and explained the thinking behind the project.

Organised by Fylde DFAS, the exhibition, has been enormously successful. Over 700 visitors were officially recorded by DFAS invigilators but many many more also came along to the Gallery outside invigilating hours. The Visitors’ Book is packed with complimentary messages!

The Fylde Young Arts Project, ‘Mr Lowry in Lytham St Annes’, was a cross-curricular project and art competition for Year 6 pupils in Fylde schools. You can read more about it here

Fylde DFAS is now on Twitter. This means that we can tweet our members about all the latest happenings and events. Be first to find out what is happening at Fylde DFAS by signing up to Twitter.

We have also opened a Flickr Account. This means that we can upload all the photographs taken at lectures, Special Interest Days and trips and members can view them online. We have some wonderful photos of the Krakow trip now online. You don’t need to sign up to Flickr to view them. Just go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/fyldedfas/ and you will be able to see them.

New member Pam Foster was elected to our Committee at the AGM in May. We are always looking for volunteers to support the work of our existing committee. If You would like to get involved please contact us.

Our newsletter, In the Picture, is going from strength to strength under the auspices of editors, Marion Nuttall and Iain Williamson. Click on our Newsletters page to view our first three editions. Our next edition will be available in the Autumn of 2011.

A suggestions box has now been initiated at the back of the hall during lectures. We welcome your ideas for lecture topics, trips and holiday destinations. You can also submit your suggestions via email.