ARTS VOLUNTEERING

Societies are now funding and supporting a wider range of arts projects in their local communities working with schools and colleges as well as inter-generational groups, those in prison, refugees, the homeless, people with disabilities, mental health issues, those in hospital, respite, hospices, choirs, orchestras  and theatre, the list is endless and the work hugely impressive.

Arts Volunteering is the new name covering societies' work in the community, young and old, giving access to the Arts for everyone. The Arts Society has an Instagram page for Arts Volunteering and the latest information can be found by searching with "artsvolunteering" in Instagram.

Young Arts is now under the umbrella of Arts Volunteering and we will still be working with young people building lasting enthusiasm and awareness of art heritage and its conservation.

The Arts Society Sheffield will be expanding under the umbrella and will be exploring projects which will provide artistic experiences in the community which will be called Community Arts.

The annual art competition run jointly by the Arts Society and Royal Society for British Artists (RBA) has been widened to include works of sculpture and other arts mediums. This year the Sheffield Arts Society submitted about twenty works of art, mostly from the Sheffield Girls School to the RBA competition. The RBA have received hundreds of works nationally and chose twenty of those to be exhibited at the Mall Galleries in London. We were pleased that two of Sheffield’s entries have been exhibited by the RBA. We have presented a prize to each artist.

The Silver Bursary has again been postponed this year as both Sheffield Museums and Hallam University have had other priorities. We will encourage further metal work in the future.

We are very pleased to confirm that Work Ltd (Worthwhile Occupation Recreational Kraft Ltd) has been the beneficiary of a £250 grant from the central Arts Society Community Grant Fund which was applied for and administered by your Sheffield Society. Work Ltd does important work with people with learning difficulties and is facing ever increasing demand to the extent that they are now seeking additional premises. We wish them well.