East Devon arts champions honoured at Chairman’s Garden Party

Arts champions from across East Devon were honoured at the East Devon District Council Chairman’s Garden Party held at Knowle in Sidmouth recently.

The 20 arts champions were nominated by their town and parish councils and they were invited to the party to thank them for their invaluable contribution to their local communities.

More than 120 guests attended the event which included the Mayors and Chairpersons from towns and parishes around the district and civic dignitaries from other district councils within Devon. East Devon district councillors and Honorary Aldermen were also invited.

Councillor Andrew Moulding, Chairman of East Devon District Council, announced the arts champions and gave a short resume of their role within the community while Vice Chairman, Cllr David Key, presented each of them with a certificate.

Cllr Moulding said: “It’s a real privilege to say a ‘thank you’ to our arts champions who, in so many ways, bring a passion for what they do to our communities. They work across a broad range of the arts, from painters to performers, and their artistic and cultural experiences enrich the lives of our residents.’’

Each arts champion was put forward by their town or parish council and they are:

Dave Wicken (All Saints Parish Council):
Dave is an accomplished painter, photographer and musician whose works have been exhibited widely across the South West. Dave performs with his band, The Muzax, across East Devon and also manages to find time to perform for the All Saints Pantomime Society, raising thousands of pounds for local good causes.

Tony and Jenny Fells (Axminster Town Council):
Tony and Jenny are founder members of Axminster Arts, set up some twenty years ago to promote the arts in the Axminster area. A cafe was set up and the profits were used towards the funding of bursaries for young artists. Musical events are staged throughout the summer and an exhibition of arts and crafts by local artists is displayed in the cafe. They have both worked tirelessly to promote the arts on a voluntary basis, while holding down demanding full-time jobs until Tony’s ill health made them take the difficult decision to step back from running the cafe at the end of 2017. They have continued, however, to be involved with this year’s programme of summer musical events.

Sarah Acton (Beer parish council):
Sarah is a poet and a Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site poet-in-residence. She works with local museums along the Dorset and Devon coastline, and has produced a site-specific body of poetry based on her time spent working with local museums. Sarah works with local organisations and has delivered poetry walks and workshops this year with Seaton Jurassic, Clinton Devon Estates and Mill Water Special School. Sarah's writing and poetry workshops connect creativity to nature and encourage active participation with the local natural environment.

Chris Bass (Branscombe parish council)
Chris Bass is renowned for his wonderful photographs of the village and its surrounding area which he takes with great skill and artistic flare. He has worked with the Branscombe Project on a collection of photographs and artefacts that are exhibited on a regular basis in the village. Chris won a prestigious prize for his photograph taken on the morning after the St Judes day storm of 2013, which summed up the beauty of our Jurassic Coastline.

Debbie Lush (Chardstock parish council)
Debbie studied Illustration at Harrow School of Art and then the Royal College of Art. She lived and worked as an Illustrator for 15 years in London until 2003 and now lives and paints in Chardstock, where she has finally been able to pick up her brushes full time and see the world in brush strokes again! Debbie’s latest work was recently on show at the Hybrid Gallery in Honiton and she has been assembling landscapes based on her walks with her dog in East Devon.

Cynthia Boult (Colyton Raleigh parish council)
Cynthia has lived and worked in the village for many years, until recently, sharing her passion for art by running a local art class in the village hall. She continues to design art boards to promote local activities in the village, and to take part in the Open Studio events.

Anna Day Lewis (Colyton parish council)
As a retired journalist and teacher, Anna thought painting might be a good way to use her time but became much more involved with sculpture. When she and her husband came back for good to Devon, she became involved with both the Colyton Leisure Painters and Seaton & District Art Society in a useful role as secretary, etc. She still organises their Carnival Art Show each year, encouraging artists at all levels to exhibit. For the last 20 years she has been running three-day sculpture courses twice a year in the Peace Memorial Hall, bringing life models and an excellent tutor from London. Students come from all across East Devon.

Carla Hiley (Exmouth town council)
Carla works tirelessly to support the growth of art and culture in the community. Specifically, through Exmouth Festival, Carla provides a platform for hundreds of emerging artists from Devon to perform and exhibit their work alongside more established artists - to the extent that the Festival now has a legacy of arts development in the town beyond the event itself.

Janet Sawyer (Farringdon parish council)
Janet has worked tirelessly to bring a fantastic range of arts to Farringdon. In 2004 she was instrumental in the creation of the Farringdon Society of Arts, which has continued to put on a wonderful array of events including wine tastings, painting workshops, mediterranean gardening, music recitals and champagne and poetry events to name but a few. Artists and performers from as far away as St Petersburg in Russia have performed in this small hamlet! None of this would have been possible had it not been for the limitless enthusiasm and commitment of Janet.

Pauline Selhurst (Honiton town council)
Pauline is a local painting artist & restorer. She was responsible for the restoration of the large oil painting of Juanita Maxwell Phillips which hangs outside the town council offices in the Beehive. During the restoration process she was able to identify that the painting was originally painted by Sir John Lavery, a fact previously unknown. Through her skill, the painting has been restored back to its original condition, preserving a valuable community asset for future generations. She is also well known locally for her own paintings and has held numerous exhibitions over the years.

Richard Barrell (Membury parish council)
Richard runs a group, Sing for Your Health, which meets every Friday in the village hall. This group also performs at various venues and events as the Membury Raucous Chorus. Richard conducts the choir and composes some of the music they perform. He brings the joy of music to the parish through these groups and other activities. Richard is the all-year-round motivator of this group and an ace musician and concert impresario. He also helps promote films through Moviola, the community cinema, around the local area.

Rosemary Jacks (Musbury parish council)
Mary is a local potter of growing repute and was responsible for designing and making the ceramic footpath markers for Musbury’s network. Each plaque bore the footpath number and a depiction of the natural world - flower, bird, animal - relevant to the particular location. These were much admired. When her children were younger she also worked with the local primary school on various ceramic projects including egg-cup making.

Tony Farrington (Otterton parish council)
Tony Farrington is a long time serving member of the Otterton Parish Council.  He has been an artist for many years working professional both locally and on film sets such as Harry Potter, and whilst serving in the army he drew up posters for the Royal Green Jackets at Peninsular Barracks in Winchester. More recently he has worked for folk in the village painting silhouettes of dogs on houses, painting bespoke landscapes in specific colours to enhance a decoration and painting murals. Tony continues to enjoy painting recreationally.

Phil Creek (Ottery St Mary Town Council)
Phil is a well-known local artist and he lives locally in Alfington. He has been Director of the Beaford Arts Centre and was County Adviser for Art and Design in Devon until 2011. He was Chair of the South West Academy of Fine and Applied Arts as honorary treasurer. He is also President of The Otter Vale Art Society. Phil has paintings in private collections in the USA and the UK and has exhibited in the Mall Gallery, London, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter, the Phoenix and the Gloss Gallery, Exeter and the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. His most recent exhibition was at the Georgian House Gallery in Ottery St Mary.

Elisabeth Miller (Shute parish council)
Elisabeth has been key to the Shute Theatre and Arts Guild (STAG) an amateur theatrical group based in Shute for over 20 years. She has directed many STAG productions which cover a large range of genres - classics, contemporary works, light comedy, hard hitting drama, poetry and musical works. Elisabeth is tireless in her work for the group, which involves local residents, both adult and children, from the parish. Elisabeth has also written a number of plays for the group to perform. Her contribution to broadening the literary horizons of the community and making theatre accessible is greatly appreciated.

Harry Channon (Talaton parish council)
Harry is now in his 90’s but when he retired, he moved to Talaton from Cheshire, where he began running a weekly art class in the village hall and he is still teaching and sharing his wonderful skills today. Each week the students try different styles or mediums and in good weather they work outdoors. Harry has also arranged exhibitions, auctions and a “gallery area” within the Talaton Community Shop where his students can sell their work.

Maggie Lane (Yarcombe parish council)
Maggie has given her services for a number of years in helping to create a voluntary music group in Yarcombe, starting with Maggie’s Men which morphed into Maggie’s Mix. Maggie is a skilled musician who shares music with everyone regardless of their ability. She developed the All Sorts Musical Instrument Ensemble and she supports charitable events and makes music accessible to anyone and everyone. Her volunteering has made music accessible to people who would not otherwise have been able to sing or play.

David Beaumont & Alison Phelps-Beaumont (Widworthy parish council)
Alison is a talented local potter, artist and photographer and David is a gifted musician on the guitar and keyboards. Both are members of a band with David playing and Alison singing. Previously Alison belonged to Exeter Cathedral choir and David owned a book shop. Alison is also a bell ringer and has rung the bells at most of the local towers. Between them they have, and continue, to promote many forms of the creative arts in the local

Photo caption: East Devon District Council Chairman Cllr Andrew Moulding and Vice Chairman Cllr David Key, pictured with some of the arts champions at the Chairman’s recent Garden Party.