Bridport Arts Centre has an impressive range of activities on offer during half-term featuring film-making, puppets and music workshops.
It all kicks off with film-making on Monday 21 February for 7 to 11 year olds. Budding film-makers will enjoy a day making an animation film with film-maker Martha Moopette. The workshop runs from 10.30am to 3pm and costs £15, concs and siblings £13.
Also for the same age group, the following day Tuesday 22 February, offers a fun workshop making shadow puppets with puppet maker Sarah Butterworth. The workshop leads to a musical shadow performance of The Nutcracker featuring a midnight battle between toy soldiers and an army of mice, and the Land of Snow with magical dancing snowflakes. The workshop runs from 10.30am to 3pm and costs £15, concs and siblings £13.
Digital Media
For young people aged from 14 to 25, there is a week long digital media workshop, which offers the chance to create a spectacular projection for the outside of the Arts Centre building. With PVA Media Lab, the workshop participants will work with a professional artist on a short film to be premiered in April. The cost of this 5-day workshop is £50, concs £40 and runs from 10am to 4pm.
Music Workshops
There are also youth music workshops for 12 to 25 year olds with B Sharp from Wednesday 23 to Friday 25 of half-term. Well timed so that teenagers don’t have to get up too early, these run from 2pm to 8pm. Workshops are led by local professional musicians and B Sharp trainee leaders. You don’t have to be technically brilliant, just turn up with your instruments and amps, and an open mind. These workshops cost £10 per day or £25 for all 3 days and can be booked through Fran Williams on 0777 332 2213.
The workshops all have limited places so early booking is recommended. Tickets for all the workshops (except the B Sharp ones)are available from the Bridport Arts Centre box office on 01308 424204, or online at www.bridport-arts.com
Over in Lyme
Fossil hunting along the beach with Lyme Regis Museum experts Paddy Howe and Chris Andrew is part of half term fun. The winter storms have exposed more fossils, so February is a good time to expect some finds – no one will go home without a fossil! To join Paddy and Chris, telephone 01297 443370.
Activities during Family Fun Day will be on a maritime theme. Join museum curator Mary Godwin for this make-and-take-home session any time between 11am and 3pm on Wednesday February 23 when admission to the museum is free for everyone – just drop in any time.
Do you yearn to see how Mary Anning lived? Then explore the streets and paths of Old Lyme as Mary knew them with museum guide Natalie Manifold. To join Natalie’s Saturday walks at 12noon, telephone 01297 443370.
And if industrial heritage is your passion, find your way to the museum’s exhibition at the Malthouse in Lyme Regis. ‘Industrial Lyme – an Unexpected History’ tells the story of the River Lim’s seven watermills and the cloth, silk and oil industries that flourished there; not to mention the Monmouth beach cement works, the iron stoves that won prizes at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the now-vanished railway. Open 10am to 4pm every day from Tuesday February 22 until Sunday March 6 – admission free.
Museum expert Richard Bull will be talking about two of these Lyme industries, on Thursday February 24 – ‘The Monmouth Beach Cement Works’; and on Saturday February 26 – ‘The Search for Coal Under Lyme’. Both at 2.30pm at the museum.
Lyme Regis Museum telephone 01297 443370 and 444463
