Latest Updates

Here is the latest news from Steyning Arts.

Steyning Arts Social Media Team

This year we are very lucky to have a band of volunteers who are helping to keep the social media side of Steyning Arts more active and up to-date. We would like to introduce them to you and explain a little about the work they are doing for us. Read on for details… Katherine Lawrie has been working hard creating “Meet the Artist” posts for Instagram and Facebook which help to inform our following about who we are and what we do. Jamie Ampleford is working hot on the heels of Your Steyning Magazine, creating a social media post each month about the artist who has been featured on the front cover. Amanda Duke regularly trawls Instagram and re-posts artwork and news which have been posted by our members to make sure our 1,300 followers get to see it. Benita Hibbert is our woman on the frontline, photographing anything and everything she sees being exhibited by SA members in Steyning. Melissa Birch is continuing to design and produce online advertising material for Steyning Arts events and publishing this to all the other local Facebook groups. Remember, you can help any of our team to spread the word about Steyning Arts by tagging  #SteyningArts in your instagram posts, adding @SteyningArts to your Facebook posts, or by letting us know what you are up to by posting on the members page.

Marketing opportunity for members

We are offering all members a social media post including a full feature about your work and including a studio/work based selfie shot. Any members using social media will have seen some really great recent posts featuring photos of individual members with detailed descriptions about their inspirations and working practice.  Social media team member, Katherine Lawrie is posting these and would love to represent all members over time. Katherine can trawl the SA website for photos of your works and words, but she also needs a photo of you in the studio. Please send jpeg photos to Melissa at melissa@melissabirch.co.uk. Katherine will be given access to create the posts.

Supporting members activities in the community

If any of our members are involved in  art based activities in the local community we are happy to support them by publicising on social media. This could include galleries you belong to, exhibitions, fairs, markets or your own open studio. Wherever you are exhibiting/selling your work. Get in touch if you have something you want us to  flag up at: steyningarts@gmail.com.

Virtual Exhibition – May 2021

In lieu of the usual May Art trail we are, once again, planning an online exhibition. Watch your email box for a Google form which will arrive in the next few days. Just like last year you will be asked to complete the google form and attach your jpeg images. These applications will drop into a Cloud folder and Melissa will then design the posts. Please be aware of the voluntary time commitment this involves and keep to the Google form instructions to make things as simple as possible for us.

Art Trail – dates for your diary

We would like to clarify the proposed Art Trail dates for your diaries. These are the two weekends of  Saturday & Sunday 28th & 29th August  and Saturday & Sunday 4th & 5th September 2021. Final confirmation about planning this trail will be sent to you by the end of May. The decision will be led by our confidence that Covid guidance is on our side and that we have enough communal and artist venues for members wishing to exhibit. To put this trail together will require the team to complete final arrangements for venues, trail brochure and marketing through June and July. Whilst we had a trail ready planned (held over from last year) we anticipate quite a few changes. Right now, one or two of our usual communal venues cannot commit their availability. If we can get all this together there will be www.gov.uk health and safety considerations to which we will comply.

Art Society Steyning

How much do you know about this local Art Society and what it has to offer? Take a look at their website if you would like to know more – The Arts Society Steyning . Did you know that you can attend Art Society Steyning lectures for £5? There are ten lectures each year (January to July and September to December) held at 10am and usually on the second Monday of the month on Zoom until they can resume live at The Steyning Centre. Visitors are welcome, with a suggested donation of £5. Limited to two visits per programme year. If you wish to know more please contact Steyning Arts members Dave Tester via their website contact page.

Join us for the AGM on Weds 27th  *** CHANGE OF DATE ***

We’ve moved the date of the AGM back a week so all the Core Group could attend – so it’s now at 7.30pm Wed 27^th January.

Sorry for messing up your diary – but we very much hope you can make it.  Here’s the Zoom link:

Time: Jan 27, 2021 07:30 PM London
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89036809629?pwd=SFlVMklmVFozQ0YxSGVzU29wRFg2QT09
Meeting ID: 890 3680 9629
Passcode: 953867

We really look forward to seeing you!  We’re ready to celebrate all we achieved last year and share our plans for 2021. It will also be good to get your vote on a couple of new ideas.  Here’s a link to the agenda.

Make sure your glasses are charged and if you log on 2 or 3 minutes early this will aid a prompt start!

NB the meeting will be recorded so that we can capture any comments and points that are made for reference. If you prefer to turn off your video for the duration, this is entirely possible.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Thank you to all of you who have renewed your membership for 2021 and paid your membership fees (£15 for existing members or £25 for new members, trail fees from last year carry over to 2021).

For those of you who have not yet signed up please remember to do so by 31^st January 2021 (after that you’ll have to pay the £25 returning members fee).   Here’s the link to the online Application Form:  http://bit.ly/SA2021Membership

Saturday 5th December 2020, Steyning Centre 10am to 4pm

****UPDATE**** This event was a huge success. Thank you to all those who visited. We have set up an online shop page for the stall holders so you can still buy artworks.

Good news!  Lockdown has ended just in time, and the new Tier 2 rules give us the leeway we need. So the Steyning Arts Xmas Gift Fair on December 5th is going ahead!

And this year there’s an added attraction:  a Pop-up Art Exhibition happening in parallel.

Are you dreading the prospect of heading into town to join the Yuletide shopping scrum? Why not make this a Covid-safe first stop in your festive foraging this year.  No crushing crowds jostling for identical mass-produced, forgettable items.  No frustrating delayed deliveries to be missed because you dared pop out for five minutes.

Instead, come and enjoy a much more festive and relaxed ‘shop local’ alternative.  You’ll be supporting local artists rather than boosting the profits of Amazon and the High Street chains.

It’s at the Steyning Centre on Saturday 5th December, between 10.00am and 4.00pm.

You’ll find twenty local artists offering a huge variety of gorgeous original gifts at reasonable prices.  Amongst the treasures on sale will be unique hand-crafted jewellery, tactile turned wood pieces, stunning ceramics including bowls, mugs and pots as well as colourful Christmas decorations. And as if that’s not enough, there will be delicate paper-cuts and lampshades, photographic works, textile garments and art, a variety of original mini assemblages and sculptures …and so much more.

The Pop-up Art Exhibition is happening next door in the Saxon Room. Come along to see how local artists have been directing their talents and creativity during lockdown.

The whole event is being designed to be Covid-safe, with plenty of room to circulate and a limit of 30 on the number of visitors allowed entry at any one time.

Visitors will be asked to wear masks and everyone involved will be going the extra mile to make this a safe and pleasurable shopping experience for everyone.

Entrance if free, and everyone is welcome!

For more information, and a link to our new online shop (which is ready for launch in the next few days), see the Steyning Arts website:  www.steyningarts.co.uk

Hope to see you on the 5th!

Portrait:  a Personal Interpretation – 13th/14th/15th November:

Whilst the rules we live by alter by the week, creativity and innovation live on!  Building on the success of the online Summer Exhibition, we’ve come up with a new idea for showcasing our members’ talents this autumn. We had originally planned to hold a portrait competition as a physical event at St. Andrews Church in October, in collaboration with the Steyning Grammar Art Department.  Given the circumstances, that idea has morphed into an online exhibition.  It’s being masterminded by one of our newer members, Jamie Ampleford, who has offered to put this exhibition together, with help from Sharon Norman.

Entries will be displayed online using Facebook, Instagram and the Steyning Arts website. We learned a lot during the online Summer Exhibition and have done well in building up our online audience.  The Portrait Exhibition will allow us to take it to a new level.

The deadline for submission has passed and the organisers now preparing the online Exhibition. So make a note in your diary and look out for more information on social media and our website.

Super excited to announce that Steyning’s very own Jamie Ampleford is in Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year 2020!! The series starts tomorrow 8pm, and Jamie will feature on Wednesday 21st so get watching! You can also now watch it for free on Freeview Chanel 11. Good luck with the competition Jamie – we’ll be rooting for you!

August 29^th, 30^th and 31^st and through September

We are excited to announce that 35 talented local artists will be taking part in our “Live & Online” Summer Exhibition. This is a new venture for Steyning Arts.  We’re trying out some creative ways of engaging online while also embracing generous offers from a number of local businesses to show work in shops and eateries all along the High Street.

We’ve teamed up with Steyning and District Business Chamber to organise the exhibition.   It’s timed to coincide with the annual Steyning and District Food and Drink Festival.  Our aim is to share some fresh new creative work with the community and beyond, while helping draw visitors to High Street to support our fantastic local businesses!

At the time of going to press we have artists exhibiting in:

Raft, Sakala 50 and Sakala Home, Foundry Cast Iron, Model Bakery, Vintage & Home, Springwells, Raft, St Barnabas, Old Timbers, Steyning Osteopathic Centre, and Basement 93

Do come along and take a peek at the live exhibits.  Bring your masks.  If you time it right, you might get to meet the artists too.

The online exhibition will unfold as a synchronised series of posts over the Bank Holiday weekend and will carry on throughout September. You can find it on Facebook or Instagram by searching for @steyningarts.  And please help boost our online reach by sharing, liking and commenting on your favourite images.

We look forward to seeing you around the town.

Amanda and Jenny
Co-Chairs, Steyning Arts

Sharing your #LockdownStories through art

As part of its new Vision 2030 Project, Greening Steyning is encouraging people to share their personal experiences of lockdown and their hopes for the future.

They’ve put out a special invitation to Steyning Artists to tell their #LockdownStories through their art.

It could be a painting, a sketch, a photograph, a piece of performance art in your back garden – anything you like!

A time for reflection, a time for change

Alongside the difficulties and suffering people have experienced during this time, there have been many positives too. What have we learned and how can we use this to create a more positive future for ourselves, our community and the environment?

Have you reassessed your priorities in life?  What would you like to change?

Whatever your experiences, Greening Steyning would love you to share them. By sharing we can develop our vision for a healthier, brighter future for everyone.

There’s two ways you can do this:

• By submitting photos, videos, poems and other contributions via this special Lockdown Stories page on the Greening Steyning website.
• Using Instagram, with the hashtags #steyning2030, #bramber2030 or#upperbeeding2030

Have you taken the 2030 Vision Survey?

Have you got 15 minutes to share your thoughts on what future you’d like to see for Steyning, Bramber and Beeding?

The 2030 Vision Survey is an online survey designed to bring together everyone’s ideas so we can create a shared vision for what we want our community to be like in future.

To take part in the survey, click this link https://bit.ly/2030VisionSurvey

To find out more about the survey and the 2030 Project if forms part of, visit Greening Steyning’s new website – www.greeningsteyning.org