Wrap of the year, 2022 was busy!!

Yes, 2022 was a busy year with many events and developments. Some notable events include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the rollout of vaccines, ongoing tensions between various countries, and advancements in technology and science. Here at Kingshill House Creative Centre we had so much creative fun in 2022!

Creativity can be a great source of enjoyment and can take many forms, such as art, music, writing, and more. Last year our focus was Health and Wellbeing with four sub-focusses throughout the year; Mind, Body, Nature and Food, which propped up through our programme. 
 In 2022 alone we had Qigong, Meditation, Taijiquan, Kundalini Yoga, Parent & Toddler Yoga, Yoga Shred, Yoga for Beginners to name just a few of the Health and Wellbeing through Movement activities that have been a permanent fixture in our programme.

We also launched several firsts for Dursley, the first Maternal Journal sessions with artist Athene Greig, Dursley’s first Diwali celebrations (which was so good) and included live music from DanceGuru, Dursley’s first Record Fair with Vinyl Daze Record Fairs and we brought Drag to Dursley for all ages! Cake, Neon, Salt, and Sofira all put on an unbelievable show (especially considering the heat as it was the hottest day of 2022!) More Drag to Kingshill House Creative Centre come soon!!

2022 saw us launch Let’s Create, an unstructured monthly activity session for all young people, a Classical Series which hosted baroque chamber ensemble Passacaglia as they perform as the Passacaglia Duo, internationally renowned Anglo-Irish Carducci String Quartet and the much anticipated award winning classical guitarist Renata Arlotti.

Wow! And that's just to name a handful of things. We also enjoyed an epic family Halloween event, some fun nights with the Dursley DJ Collective, Creative Summer School kindly supported by Sage Residential along with a summer soiree, a Junior Summer School, plenty of magical storytelling sessions with our residential storyteller Bill Church who also treated us to an evening of spooky tales for the adults with Tales from the Dark Side. 

Of course we had our annual show with Tyndale Art Trail who presented a wonderful talk from Aardman Art Director Richard Edmunds. And we are hoping that we are going to do more with Aardman in the future, watch this space.

2022 was the year of collaboration and making new friends, which we love! Projects including Foraging for Food & Art, a walk, talk, sketching and soup which was a collaboration with Wild Acres, Dursley Welcomes Walkers and Jo Beal. It was a day to slow down the pace, learn, explore, and taste whilst creating a wonderful nature map. We were also part of a wonderful project supported by the NHS and partnership with Prema, Under the Edge Arts, Create Gloucestershire, the Quarry Chapel and GL11 which provided a programme of creative activities designed to boost confidence and assist with well-being. Activities included printing with blocks, creating nature sketchbooks, Taiji and Qigong- and the feedback was great. In fact we have received further support to continue the project this year too (watch this space).

The community project, Response/Respond which invites everyone to come and join the discussion on climate action generously supported by Together For Our Planet - The National Lottery Community Fund and Summerfield Charitable Trust was also launched. To start with we asked the community to come join us to create a handwoven willow home with master weaver Sarah Edwards. The Willow Home will become a space for workshops, learning, sharing and discussion on climate action. Most importantly, this space is for you! 
The next part of Response/Respond also kicked off by putting together a steering group with the support of horticulture expert Martin Conyers from Wild Acres to build Dursley’s first community permaculture garden. The group have now met several times and created some great plans. If you’d like to join then please do, all are welcome. They meet at Kingshill House on the 3rd Saturday of every month 10am for a few hours, more details can be found on the permaculture page.

Throughout 2022 we have been so lucky to host 3 of our own exhibitions. Kicking off the year with ‘Mind - be here, present / be here’ now co-curated with Athene Greig which was an Open Call asking for submissions that considered the creative mind and mindful practice after several years of a pandemic. Then we hosted ‘Nature, Our Environment’ with artists Jo Ball, Maria Barbu (Marsh&Moor), Jo Beal, Izzy Bridgland, Ella Burling, Joss Cole, Ellie Hawkes, Julia Pomeroy, Kathryn Stevens & Georgie White who all explored the importance of our environment through their practice. Final we finished the year with ‘Food for All’, with artists Olivia Brazier, Jayne Dickinson, Lucy Duke, Karen Glover,  Claire Graves, Catherine Hill, Elaine Hunt, Henrietta MacPhee, Kate McDonnell, Qing Pud, Emilia Symis, Shahar Tuchner, Emily Vanns, Clicky White, Michelle Yun-jeong Choi, Madina Zholdybekova ​who all show the importance of food through their artworks. In this show we also share a collection of public submissions in response to our question "Do you have a fond food memory you’d love to show?” Photos of birthdays, handwritten recipes passed down, and personal stories of fond food memories are shown in the Purnell room, capturing moments that we can all relate to. It is on until 28th February and has a fun activity sheet to complete as you explore the show.

As ever we are delighted that our wonderful creative courses continue throughout the year including our much loved stained glass with Caroline Lambert, the increasingly popular Mindful Scrap Crafting with Peace and Craft, Anna Marshall and the fantastic flower arranging course with Katherine Kear. 2022 saw the launch of some new courses too, and wow have they been popular. Our classically trained resident artist Warren Sealey who delivers the watercolours class that seems to be packed every week, launched an Oil Painting course in the autumn, thanks to Sage Residential for supporting us with the procurement of new painting easels. We were also delighted to launch Handloom Weaving for Absolute Beginners with Alyson Matthews which saw some beautiful pieces being woven.

Further still our workshops have been epic this year with activities such as Wendy Murphy producing beautiful rings, Kate King creating Penguin Badge Framed artworks (they are gorgeous), Katy Kebbell making ceramics with leaves and flowers, the fantastic Lisa Lavery creating cyanotypes, and Eloise Gordon immersing us all in a beautiful gong bath workshop.

To finish the year of Mind, Body, Nature and Food we had our Festive Fortnight of workshops from Natural Soap Making with Meghan of SEAL, Christmas Table Centerpieces with Eve Squire of Daisy Belle Floral Design, and screen printing tote bags with Andy Kinnear. And if you're not exhausted then we finished the year with our Christmas Market which saw a wonderful selection of sellers including Kelly Eldridge,  Lyn Ang and Anna Jones, Katy Kebbell, Geg Fayle Ceramics, Elaine Hunt, Claire Failes and Cherie Rimmel-Faulds. We had some creative fun with festive family activities including printing cards, and writing a letter to santa (which received a reply fyi).

So that was 2022 (phew), and we have not stopped since (apart from a little break at Christmas of course.) This year is set to be just as wonderfully creative, community focused and open for all. Come join the fun at Kingshill House Creative Centre! And if there is anything you want to see at Kingshill House then tell us, we would love to know. ​

Come join the fun at Kingshill House Creative Centre! ​

Author; Georgie White Winter

Business Development Manager at Kingshill House, with a passion for creativity and a big believer that art is for everyone.