Village halls and community centres springing to life in the Year of Culture
Horsham District Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Jonathan Chowen, is keen to share the early successes of the Horsham District Year of Culture 2019 and what is coming up soon.
At just three months in to our 2019 Year of Culture celebrations, I am both delighted and a little surprised if I am honest at the sheer levels of participation we are experiencing from our local communities.
People have really opened their hearts and minds to embrace the cultural celebrations not only from the larger markets towns but also particularly from the smaller outlying areas of our District.
From the outset our rally call was to “get involved” and you most certainly have!
Quite apart from our more established arts, heritage and theatrical outlets which are bustling with events, our new cultural offerings have really brought our local village halls and community centres to life throughout the whole length and breadth of the District, from Rudgwick in the north to Steyning and Henfield in the south.
When we have taken our events and activities out to outlying areas they have been incredibly well received with a lot of them sold out of tickets within days.
A Samba and Stomp Workshop for children in Colgate Memorial Hall was one of our 52 Programme of events. A free activity for children to enjoy, it sold out quickly and achieved really positive reviews.
Another 52 event, an evening of stand-up comedy with Jonny Fluffypunk at the Firebird Brewery in Rudgwick was another instant sell out.
At the Steyning Community Centre, a children’s puppet show, Out of the Hat, sold over 150 tickets. The event was so popular that the organisers are now looking to run another show in the October half term holidays.
QE 2 Silver Jubilee School in Horsham are hosting the Chickenshed Theatre Company to stage a series of sensory experience shows and the first show sold over 90 tickets in just a few days.
Coming up this weekend (Sunday 24 March) Partridge Green Village Hall is the venue for an evening of romance, football themed drama and sixties music with the play, It is Now. The play is selling out fast so book your tickets now if you want to go along!
Before launching the Year of Culture we could never have predicted just what an appetite for culture our people had – both in terms of the organisations wanting to