Page 60Page 61
Page 60
Societies News Updates from Areas and Societies across the country and beyondNew Societies prepare to launch Marina Alta DFAS makes its mark in terrible weatherThe day before the inaugural meeting of Marina Alta DFAS in Javea on Spain’s Costa Blanca (White Coast) the Costa became really ‘Blanca’ when the fi rst snow for 33 years fell. The result was closed roads, electricity cuts and general chaos.The snow melted to be replaced by torrential rain and high winds next morning. Valiantly more than 120 people struggled through the weather to Javea’s Parador Hotel to attend the inaugural meeting, including National Chairman June Robinson.Tony Cabban, Chairman, opened the meeting and thanked all the many people who had helped to form the new Society – the fi rst of 2017 and the last to use the old NADFAS name. Preparations continue for the launches of new Societies across the country over the coming months. In London, The Arts Society Clapham Common will be the fi rst to have the new Arts Society name. The inaugural meeting is at Clapham Picture House, 76 Venn Street, SW4 0AT on Wednesday March 15. Anyone interested in more information should email the Membership Secretary Virginia Stevens at claphamcommondfas@nadfas.net.The Arts Society Great Ouse Valley in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire will be inaugurated in April – email GreatOuseValleyMembers@gmail.com for more information.Also planned is a Society in Maidenhead, Berkshire. A taster lecture is planned for June, but details have yet to be confi rmed. Anyone interested should contact membership@nadfas.org.uk.To display art submitted for an exhibition is always a challenge – and even more so when it’s paper thin! The Essex Area exhibition of A-Level art at The Minories gallery in Colchester welcomed a diverse collection of exhibits from talented students in Essex Area walking on air after exhibitionthe region, and was very grateful that the curator of the gallery was able to use his expertise to successfully suspend one exhibit: a hand cut paper sculpture entitled The Unbearable Lightness of Being. This delicate sculpture needed Wilmslow delighted with Ellie’s RBAWilmslow DFAS is delighted that a painting by a local pupil was selected for inclusion in the Royal Society of British Artists’ (RBA) annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in March. Wilmslow High School student Eleanor Prime’s painting James was one of 284 works submitted to the RBA by 41 NADFAS Societies on behalf of 73 schools nationwide. Ellie will be given the title RBA Scholar. She is now studying for a BA Hons in Fine Art at Newcastle University. “I am extremely honoured and grateful,” said Ellie. to be levitated to properly reveal its ethereal qualities. The exhibition was well supported, and organisers were delighted to read the enthusiastic comments in the visitors’ book. Above: An exhibition of A-Level art at the Minories, ColchesterAbove: Leonie Jones from Wilmslow DFAS with Ellie’s art teacher Claire Bennett and the selected painting, James60 NADFAS REVIEW / SPRING 2017 www.nadfas.org.ukSOCIETIES NEWS