Eastenders in Dorset

Dorset’s highways and byways, countryside and coast have provided inspiration to some of our greatest artists at least since Turner and Constable went canvas to canvas under its skies in the early 19th century. So to find artists from the much-feted East London Group between the wars were just as taken with its scenery is Read More…

George’s fast, furious and full-on Paralympic dream

One of the most physical and possibly even savage of all para-sports, wheelchair rugby is fast, furious and full-on. A member of GB Wheelchair Rugby’s talent pathway squad, just one step below the elite squad that won Olympic Gold in Tokyo last year, the sport is all very far removed from the polite audiences that Lighthouse steward George Rogers helps see to their seats.

Feat of clay

Clay – it has fired her imagination all her adult life and ceramicist Janna Edwards remains endlessly fascinated, challenged and inspired by it. For her it’s the stuff of life, as indeed it may be for us all if, as some claim, life on Earth began in the sticky stuff.
From her studio at Livability Holton Lee, the idyllic 350-acre discovery centre on the shores of Poole Harbour, for almost twenty years Janna has overseen the uniquely inspirational 15 Days In Clay project she conceived in 2003 to give adults with learning/additional needs the opportunity to explore their creativity and become artists in their own right.

‘It has to be about the work’

what artist Sarah Hough did, to contemplate and respond in art to the environment she found there. It was no small effort, but in Sarah’s book neither was it evidence for the cod-philosophy that claims it is necessary to suffer for one’s art.

Lockdown song in praise of bouncy floor

Drama, dance and all forms of visual art course through its veins, but ever since it opened more than 40 years ago the beating heart of Lighthouse has kept time to the rhythm of bass, guitar and drum.   In celebration of the part popular music has played in its rich history and in the lives Read More…

Drawing inspiration from horrible history

Horrible Histories illustrator Martin Brown on his Dorset life ‘What I’ve realised since I came to Dorset is that history is not preserved in aspic, it’s part of people’s everyday lives, they live in it – it’s all around us.’ History is something that Martin Brown knows a bit about. Since he teamed up with Read More…

At 82, is John the oldest working cinema projectionist in Britain?

John Newcombe has been showing films since 1952 – and at 82 years young he’s still going strong, working regular shifts at Lighthouse, Poole’s centre for the arts. Could he be Britain’s oldest working cinema projectionist? His first break came as a teenage rewind boy in the ABC cinema in Northampton where his job was Read More…

James Taylor Quartet 15:02:2019

The Sherling Studio, Lighthouse, Poole There’s something about an intimate venue and a sell-out audience, particularly when it’s for an act that would usually pack a place twice its size or more. No matter that a sizeable majority of the house are seasoned jazzers that have seen it all before – at least once – Read More…

Arts for all our sakes

The National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies was founded 50 years ago. Now rebranded as the Arts Society, its membership is made up of local and regional societies formed by people who share a passion for the broad range of arts and are curious to find out more about artistic heritage. Dorset’s various Read More…