Arts Society Chichester Evening makes Festival donation

SussexWorld

Arts Society Chichester Evening has made a significant contribution towards the success of this year's Festival of Chichester.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers and also

00:07Chairman of the Festival of Chichester and lovely to see Penny Willard of the Arts Society

00:13Chichester Evening Group. Lovely to see you, Penny. Yes, lovely, thank you. Thank you.

00:19You have, through the Arts Society Chichester Evening, given the Festival of Chichester

00:24an exceptionally kind donation of £250, which we are putting towards our banners for this

00:31year's Festival 2025. It's lovely of the group to do so. And you were saying it's because

00:36the Festival of Chichester and Chichester Arts Society Evening do much the same thing. It's

00:41an arts group, isn't it? That's right. Supporting each other. Yes, we cover the whole spectrum of

00:47the arts in our lectures, but we're just very happy to support local arts ventures, you know,

00:53particularly, obviously, in Chichester. And through the last four years or so,

00:58through our mutual friend Dave Betts, one of your lectures has been part of the Festival of Chichester.

01:03Indeed, yes, yes. And we always welcome, you know, always welcome guests to our lectures,

01:12that if they don't want to become a member for a whole year, they can pick and choose and come to one

01:17or two. But particularly in the June lectures, we focus it on something we think will be interested

01:24particularly to the people of Chichester. And we usually welcome many guests to that lecture.

01:31And tell me how the year operates for you then? You run from when to when and how?

01:34Yes, our first lecture of the year is in September. And we run through to June. So we offer nine

01:43lectures a year. We don't have one in December, when people are busy otherwise.

01:50And the idea behind the lectures is variety, isn't it? You cover a wide range of things.

01:55That's right. Yes. Sometimes it's pure art, but we have a whole variety. We've had lectures on opera,

02:04music, musicians, famous names. And yes, a whole variety, including, shall I mention,

02:16including a lecture on Margaret Calvert, who nobody, myself included, had ever heard of before.

02:22But she designed all the road signs and the airport signage, the logos, the typeface. That was all down

02:30to her in the 1920s. And at the moment, as a relatively new group, you are relatively small,

02:39but you have ambitions. Your hope is you've got 100 members or so and generally have about 80 at your

02:44lectures. Your hope will be to history in 50. How will you do that? Is that feasible, do you think?

02:51Well, we print a lot, about a thousand flyers every May. And May, June, July, we distribute them to

03:00anywhere that will display them in the local area, because we have members come from Selsie,

03:05Wittering, Emsworth, and sometimes further afield. So yes, so we put a lot of publicity out,

03:13and mostly word of mouth. And our members are always happy to bring their friends and family and

03:19to spread the word amongst their own social groups. So that seems to work for us.

03:25Meeting at 6.30, meeting at 7.30 sharp. It's a good time, isn't it? People have a chance to meet.

03:31It is. Because it, you know, it was felt at the right time for an evening society. And we can pick

03:38up those who aren't available during the day, whether they're caring for children or grandparents,

03:44and also those who can come straight from work, which is why we're prompt at the finish time,

03:49so that people can go off and get their meal.

03:51And the doors open at 6.00, and we serve wine. And it's a relaxed feel. People can chat until 6.30.

04:06Fantastic. Well, I was just going to say congratulations on all that you've achieved as a relatively new group.

04:12And good luck with the plans to expand the membership.

04:16But above all, thank you very much for your very kind donation to the Festival of Chichester.

04:21And as a festival, we are thrilled that you are firmly part of it every year.

04:25Yes, thank you. And we're very pleased to help you.

04:29Fantastic. Thank you so much.

04:31That's right. Thank you, Phil.

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