Brushwork fills Dundonald Library with colours!

The walls of Dundonald library filled with colours on 6th April: Paul Gray, a self-taught and local artist, launched the exhibition of his new work on the Backwall Gallery of the library.

A very appreciative audience took part in the launch of the exhibition, called A Colourful Imagination. Over 40 people showed up and enjoyed the new paintings of the artist, who mingled with the audience, explaining his works and the inspiration behind their creation.

‘A colourful imagination’ is an expression that can conjure up ideas of elaboration, interpretation, even distortion. Whilst almost all the paintings in this exhibition are from sketches made on location, they elaborate upon and interpret the landscape.

In addition to the wordplay on the word ‘colourful’, the word literally describes the paintings. I see colour as the crucial element in the work transforming the subject whether it is a painting of my native Belfast or one of London, New York, or wherever.

The paintings might be properly called ‘colourscapes’ rather than landscapes as colour is their defining characteristic. Some may recognise artistic reference points – Expressionism, Fauvism, Van Gogh and others. However, the important thing for me is the joy of experimenting with colour and hopefully imparting that joy to others.

Paul Gray

The exhibition will stay at Dundonald Library until 20th April, so don’t miss the opportunity to buy an Easter treat for yourself or your family!

Golden Oldies Movie Night, out and about…

On our second film night on tour, this time at the Moneyreagh Community Centre, Castlereagh Arts presented the excellent Mrs Miniver, a 1942 drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Greer Garson in the leading role.

We were very pleased to have a full house again – more than 30 people showed up and filled the Community Centre! We are delighted with the success and the popularity of these film screenings, and we are sorry to announce that the next one in Cregagh Community Centre will be the last one…but you never know, there might be another Golden Oldies series coming up in the future…we’ll keep you posted!

The film was introduced by our film expert Michael Smythe, who gave our audience some interesting facts: Roosevelt ordered it rushed to the theatres for propaganda purposes; the film was named the top box office attraction of 1942 in Britain. Moreover, of the 592 film critics polled by American magazine Film Daily, 555 named it the Best Film of 1942!

The film was based on the fictional English housewife, created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, Mrs Miniver. It won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director.

The success of our Golden Oldies Movie Nights depends not only on the great films we offer on the big screen, but also on the lovely atmosphere of the community centres, which offer an intimate and friendly context where people can socialize and relax…

The last film will be shown in Cregagh Community Centre; ‘Easter Parade’, an American musical starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, the perfect treat to get into the Easter celebrations mood! See you there on 19th April!

First Traditional Ulster Session for the First Friday concert!

Our very own Castlereagh Council employee Gordon Manly surprised all of us with his very talented band! The concert took place as part of the First Friday concert series, on 4th March in the Council function suite.

It was a perfect Friday afternoon, the sun was shining, and everyone was smiling thinking that summer had already arrived…even tough it’s not the case yet!

The audience - among whom we could spot a lot of council staff – was immediately carried away by the gaiety and the wit of the Irish music, from the very first start of the show until the very last minute!

Gordon Manly is a great entertainer, everyone was really enthusiastic and couldn’t stop toe-tapping and hand-clapping even when the concert was over!

The performance was interspersed not only by the band’s jokes and stories, but also by the ‘haircut’ of another Council employee, Gerard Delargy, who volunteered to be the guinea pig for a barber’s cut on the notes of the two reels ‘Sally Gardens’ and ‘Drowsey Maggie’!

Gerard looked very tense, but at the end he found out that Gordon wasn’t using any scissors, only two spoons - so he was safe!

Gordon also showed the listeners his ability in ‘multi-tasking’: while playing the harmonica with one hand, he used the other hand to play with an unusual instrument, a spoon!

 

And, last but not the least, the band’s last song, called ‘the High Reel’, was a hop-song to let people move a bit and hop from their chairs!

It was a very lively afternoon, everyone left the council with a smile on their faces!

Castlereagh Arts is delighted to offer such great and varied music to our audience, from classical to traditional…next time we’ll treat our audience with some blues by Street Singers Blues, who will play some ‘old time’ blues from the 1920s onward!

You are all very welcome to join us on 1st April, see you there!

Photograps in the Library

Following the great success of our photography classes run in Tullycarnet Community Centre last autumn, Castlereagh Arts in partnership with Belfast Exposed organized an exhibition of their best work on 3rd March.

The intimate venue of Tullycarnet library allowed everyone to mingle and chat away, while appreciating the photos!

The exhibition showed a varied set of photos, from beautiful landscapes to portraits, black and white sceneries and experiments with the camera. We discovered very talented photographers among our students, and we hope to organize another photography workshop over the summer.

During the reception, the students shared their opinions and thoughts about their pictures: some of them said that they were inspired by their life and their family, others by their favorite place; others re-constructed a particular moment of their life in order to take the photos.

The exhibition will run until 31st March, so while you’re looking for a good book to read, have a look at these beautiful photos, too!

From the States… to Castlereagh!

Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival 2011

What a great music night in Castlereagh! As part of the Belfast Nashville Songwriter Festival 2011, Castlereagh Arts was immensely pleased to host the ‘In the Round’ Concert featuring Chas Sandford, Dominic O’Neill and Antoin Glacain on 23rd February.

With songs recorded by Rod Stewart, Roger Daltrey, Brooks & Dunn, Alison Krauss, Chas Sandford is a top Nashville hit writer and performer.

Chas is a veritable mine of knowledge about music and songwriting, and he enchanted the enthusiastic audience with some pearls of wisdom during an intimate Songwriting workshop, which took place before the concert. He also performed Missing You and Talk to Me for them - It was absolutely incredible to have in Castlereagh the songwriter of Missing You, one of the most played songs of all time!

The audience increased considerably after the workshop, everyone couldn’t wait for the ‘In the Round’! Dominic O’Neill and Antoin Glacain joined Chas and performed their songs, which resulted in a bunch of pretty melodies, alt-country & Americana songs!

Dominic is a member of Leeward Side (four ex-members of acclaimed psychedelic country rockers The Delawares), and he launched his debut solo EP Turpentine on that very night.

A great writer of original lyrics and melody, Antoin’s songs are reminiscent of the biting words and social commentary of early Dylan and Christy Moore. During ‘In the Round’ he also performed his single, Mouth of The River, dedicated to Belfast.

The Orangeman – theatre as you’ve never seen it before!

A great theatre night took place in Castlereagh on 18th February, with our own Arts Officer Conor Maguire directing The Orangeman by St John Ervine. It was a great fun night, a night of theatre as you’ve never seen it before!

The piece was written by Belfast born unionist playwright St John Ervine, the founding father of modern Northern Irish drama. This one-act play was first produced in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in March 1914, and it is one of Ervine’s earliest pieces, yet more than 100 years old but still relevant nowadays.

The play is set on the eleventh night of July 1912, when an ardent Orangeman, John McClurg, sits stewing over his misfortune. He desperately wanted to play at the twelfth celebration, as he used to for the past thirty years, but this year providence, misfortune, or simply rheumatism has intervened to prevent him from attending. His wife and his friend try to cheer him up, suddenly his hope is revived when his son Tom returns home. But the new generation has divergent ideas from the old one…and Tom can’t be bothered about playing at the 12th July celebrations.

The Orangeman was performed by the great renowned local actor Ivan Little, who starred in the History of the Troubles (according to my Da’), who played John McClurg, and Susie Kelly, Niall Cusack and Gerard McCabe playing the other three characters.

The next Rehearsed Reading will be on 11th March at 7pm in the Castlereagh Council Civic offices, and it will be another classic Ulster Play not to be missed!

Golden Oldies are back…

…but this time it’s on tour: the big hall of Tullycarnet Community Centre turned into a cinema for the screening of ‘Jolson Story’! Over 70 people showed up on 24th February to watch this Award-winning film, which is a milestone among musical biographies!

We were very pleased to welcome new and old film lovers: a lot of spectators used to be our followers in our previous series last autumn, proving that the ‘Golden Oldies Movie Nights’ series are such a great success that our film aficionados continue to follow us even on tour around the Borough!

Our film specialist Michael Smythe introduced ‘Jolson Story’, a 1946 musical story which portrays the life of America’s greatest entertainer, singer Al Jolson.

The film was a tremendous success and won Academy Awards for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Sound, Recording. It was also entered into the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.

Al Jolson’s music influenced numerous singers, including Judy Garland, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bob Dylan; and according to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, ‘Jolson was to jazz, blues and ragtime what Elvis Presley was to rock’n’roll’! He was a rock-star even though the term hadn’t been coined yet!

During the popular ice-cream break, our ladies and gentlemen had the chance to pick the next film, which will be the romantic ‘Random Harvest’, starring Ronald Colman and Greer Garson.

If you want to reserve a place, be quick as these shows are widely well-liked! See you next time in Moneyreagh Community Centre on Tuesday 22nd March!