The Anglesey Performing Arts Weeks (APAW) begin on Friday, 16 October. The aim is to celebrate and raise awareness about the wide range of creative and performing talent on Anglesey. This year there is a very wide selection of music from classical to folk to Elvis!
The Anglesey Arts Forum exists to promote the arts on Anglesey, and supports the Anglesey Performing Arts Weeks and the Open Studios event at Easter. The Forum also aims to have a comprehensive list of writers, composers, performers, groups and societies, based on Anglesey, available on its website www.angleseyartsforum.org.
This October the art exhibitions and the second Anglesey Film Festival, SeeMôr 2, have a sea-related theme. The exhibitions in Ucheldre include SeaThought, a selection of work by Arts Forum members on the theme of the sea, and an exhibition of sculpture set in a fishing port, entitled ‘The Herring Girls’, by Katie Howard. There will also be a chance for budding artists to draw on the Ucheldre’s Open Wall as part of ‘The Big Draw’, a worldwide celebration of drawing.
APAW works in association with the Holyhead Arts Festival and other Island organisations. During APAW, it gives people the opportunity to visit open rehearsals, for example by the Ucheldre Rep and Show On. The various dance and drama classes on the Island, Barton Dance and Drama Academy, Helen McGreary’s dance classes, and Lapis Tribal, Emerald & Sapphire Dance workshops are all keen to attract new members.
The Holyhead Arts Festival offers a fantastic range of events: The Mavron Quartet with soloist Iwan Llewelyn-Jones, which will launch the event on Friday 16 October, leading Welsh and Irish singer/songwriters Steffan & Spillane (Saturday 17 October), The Met Opera Encore of Verdi’s opera Otello (Sunday 17 October), English National Opera’s The Barber of Seville (Monday 19 October), Lapis Tribal Dance performance with music by Sword Swinging Robot (Tuesday 20 October), Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Live’s Henry V (Wednesday 21 October), SignDance Theatre’s Bad Elvis (Thursday and Friday 22 & 23 October), SeeMôr 2 Film Festival (Saturday and Sunday 24 & 25 October), Voskresenije Russian Choir (Monday 26 October), Children’s ceramic workshop making sea creatures for children 8 to 13 with Katie Howard to (Monday 26 October), Children’s art workshops with Jacquie Myrtle (Tuesday 27 to Friday 30 October), Stage Theatrics performance (Wednesday 28 October), Menai Bridge Gilbert & Sullivan evening (Thursday 29 October), Ivan Ilic piano concert (Friday 30 October), and The Met Opera Live performing Wagner’s Tannhäuser (Saturday 31 October).
All events taking place over the two weeks will be listed in the Guide, which will be available in several locations on the Island, and can be downloaded online at www.angleseyartsforum.org or www.fforwmgelfynysmon.org. Ucheldre Centre events are listed at http://www.ucheldre.org/allevent.htm.
Artists who are resident in Anglesey are encouraged to be part of the Anglesey Arts Weeks Open Studios and Galleries event, Easter 2016. The application process has opened so please contact Mike at the Ucheldre Centre or email mike.gould@anglesey.org for an activity form, or on 01407 763361.
