Every month we have a column in the Whitby Gazette – here is what we had to say in our most recent contribution.
It has been a glorious summer at Flowergate Hall Community Arts Centre, and all of the Flash Company Arts team are deeply grateful to all of the families who made our activities so successful, and all of the volunteers who have kept The People’s Fridge running, and distributing food to so many local households. But as the days grow shorter and cooler, we have noticed that the queue for the community fridge is growing longer, and we expect this to continue to be the case as the cost-of-living crisis continues to hit us all. Over the autumn months and into winter we are planning a host of creative activities to keep us busy – including crafting for Christmas, dressmaking, retro-crafts, collage and more!, and we are re-launching The People’s Kitchen after our mini refurbishment, generously funded by Lidl Foundation.
We are also launching our campaign to collect as much produce as we can during this season of plenty, so that we can make jam, pickles, chutney, soup for the community freezer, and other delicious foods that we can distribute through the The People’s Fridge. So if you know of any surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste, let us know – we will even come and pick it or dig it up if it means that it will be feeding our local communities. You can contact the fridge team at flashcompanyarts@gmail.comfor more information.
Other exciting activities coming up include Hazelsong Theatre and their epic story about Sigurd and Fafnea – taking place at the hall on Sunday 25th September. The day before there is a free children’s sock puppet workshop where you can make your very own dragon – not to be missed. Free refreshments will also be provided in the community cafe.
If you want to get involved with Whitby Community Choir, sessions are running on Wednesday evenings from 7:15-9:00. Flowergate Folk band has started it’s autumn season too. Led by Julie Matthewson it is a friendly and informal instrumental group, focussing on simple folk tunes and playing together. Sessions are at 10:30 on Wednesday mornings. Our youth club, Flowergate Mix is on a Wednesday evening from 5:30-7:00 – it’s free and it is for young people of 8 and over. We are working on our micro garden and Arts Awards at the moment, but the young people choose what they want to do so if you know someone who would enjoy it bring them along! Music Tots sessions also start again on Monday 26th at 9:30! Finally, the mighty Chris Wood kicks off our autumn entertainment on October 8th – an evening not to be missed!
Rebecca Denniff
Flash Company Arts 