The Arts Society Teignbridge

ARTS VOLUNTEERS

YOUNG ARTS

The Arts Society provides children and young people with exciting opportunities to get involved in creative arts activities. Our work with young people builds a lasting enthusiasm for the arts and an awareness of arts heritage and its conservation. Young Arts opportunities are organised by individual Societies. Some Societies have on-going Young Arts Groups while others fund one-off Young Arts Projects.

2025: Art bags distributed by the CWtch Hub

The aim of the project was to provide arts and craft bags for disadvantaged children to be distributed through a local food bank.

Combeshead Academy’s graphic design students were involved in designing colourful art bags and our members generously donated funds and raffle income towards the purchase of materials to go into the bags. This included items such as pencils, felt tip pens, craft materials, paper, safety scissors etc, and was aimed at younger primary aged children.

We provided 20 bags and these were distributed by The Cwtch Hub CIC in Union Street Newton Abbott in time for the Christmas holidays.

2024: Wolborough CofE Nursery and Primary School and Glendinning Academy: Chris Chapman inspired photography exhibition

In January 2024, The Arts Society Teignbridge held its first exhibition. It showcased the work of well-known Dartmoor photographer Chris Chapman whose photographs of rural life on Dartmoor were displayed at the Newton Abbot Museum.

Two local Schools, Wolborough CofE Nursery and Primary School and the Glendinning Academy, were involved and asked to think about people and events in their own daily lives. Students took photographs of some of their favourite subjects in and around Newton Abbot which were included in the exhibition.

Chris has a nationally important archive of photographs, which has been widely recognised. Some of which are held in private collections while others can be seen in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Arts Council England, and the International Centre of Photography in New York.

The exhibition captured the essence of Dartmoor and its residents. The photographs reflected traditional skills inherent in the indigenous population and emphasised the accumulation of knowledge associated with age and customs. Chris also gave a talk to a packed room on the stories behind the photographs.

The award of the Patricia Fay Grant gave the Arts Society Teignbridge the opportunity for residents in the area to see and sometimes remember the old ways of life on Dartmoor.