Sunday 30 August 2009

POOT Events & talks

Events and TalksSaturday 12th - Walk from Banchory to Corsedarder - arranged by Active Aboyne www.activeaboyne.co.uk for details & booking.

Tuesday 15th - Finzean Hall - 7pm: £7, Conc: £5, family of 4 - £20
Sun and the Moon and the Boy called River.
Wee Stories Theatre Group, suitable for all age groups, this is the first time we have brought live touring theatre to Finzean in association with North East Arts Touring, BOOK EARLY to avoid disappointment (there are limited seating numbers due to production staging) Tickets must be purchased in advance from Mel: 01330 850674 email melanie.shand@googlemail.com

Thursday 17th - Finzean Hall -7pm: Donations to UNICEF
Touched by Robert Burns by Andy Hall & Angus Farquharson Former Finzean school teacher and published author and photographer Andy Hall will present a collection of insights from well-known people, including Sir Alex Ferguson, Dr. Maya Angelou and Eddi Reader, on how the life and poems of Robert Burns have touched their lives. He will also share his collection of beautiful photographic images to accompany the lines of Burns' poetry that resonate with him. Followed by a short talk by Angus Farquharson on Burns connection’s to Finzean folk.

Tuesday 22nd - Ballogie Hall - 7pm: FREE
The Innes Family of Ballogie: a Jacobite window to the world by Bryan Miler When not escaping the guillotine in revolutionary Paris, running away from a seminary to make a small fortune in Russia, attending the Stuart court in exile or repelling redcoats with charm and guile, the Innes family were quite content to be at home in Ballogie. An illustrated talk on some of the colourful characters that made up the Innes family in the 18th and 19th century, one time lairds of Balnacraig, Ballogie and Midstrath.

Friday 25th - Finzean Hall - 7pm: FREE
Birds in Birse and Feughside by Paul ChapmanAn illustrated tour of the varied habitats of Birse and Feughside, looking at some of the more interesting birds that are found in them, highlighting some of the changes in our birdlife in the past and predicting some changes that we may see in the future. This talk will last about 45 minutes.

Sunday 27th - Finzean Hall - 7pm: Donations to Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society
A year in the life of the Finzean gamekeeper by Allan (Hedge) Shand The life cycle of the Salmon and the bicycling ghillie by Robert Harper Hedge will give an informative talk and slideshow on what goes on during his working day throughout the seasons –and what he’s up to when you see strange lights in the fields at night! Robert will talk a little about the Dee Salmon and his work as a ghillie, and his latest adventure when he proposes to cycle 250 miles through the Jordan Valley to raise funds for the Nazereth Hospital.

Invite to POOT show


You are invited to the POOT exhibition of photographs taken during 2008-2009 from 12th – 20th September 2009 At the Birse & Feughside Parish Church in Finzean.

Saturday 12th 10am – 5pm

Sunday 13th 1pm – 5pm

Monday 14th 10am – 4pm

Tuesday 15th 10am – 4pm

Wednesday 16th 10am – 8pm

Thursday 17th 10am – 4pm

Friday 18th 10am -4pm

Saturday 19th 10am – 5pm

Sunday 20th 1pm – 4pm


Mel will lead a tour of the pictures at 2pmThere will be excerpts from the interviews and film making projects.Pictures will be available for order at the exhibitionLook forward to seeing you there!


For the Full invite with more information, please download the pdf from here

Saturday 29 August 2009

Welcome Our To Community


Thursday morning well spent re launching POOT at Finzean Primary School. For the last six months both schools have been without permanent head teachers and we felt they had enough to do without embracing our poetry, drawing and photography competition. However an opportunity arose so I Whizzed in to tell the children about the project and on the way decided we could combine a welcome to Mrs Julie Hughson -our new head teacher - with a little bit of art work, a press release and something nice for the exhibition. Gave each child in the upper stages class room a seemingly random letter to draw and decorate which with a bit of re-jiggling spells out "Welcome our to Community"" -somebody might have pointed it out! -I felt enough like Joyce Grenfield as it was!
The letter will now be laminated and strung together to hang in the church for the exhibition.
Strachan school will have a similar visit on Monday.

Thursday 20 August 2009

Party Pieces!


On Thursday 13th and Sunday 23rd of August we threw opened the doors of Finzean Hall and invited everyone and anyone in to "give us a tune" - the purpose being to record for posterity a variety of skills and talents from a range of musicians and individuals willing to take to the stage.
Alison Bell and I sound recorded and videoed 22 artists in total who bashed, tootled, tinkled, strummed, fiddled and bowed for all they were worth. The end result will hopefully be edited in time play as a backdrop to the NEOS Exhibition in the church from the 12 - 20th September.(with apologies to Archie and Wendy - who some how managed to miss out on being snapped for inclusion in the montage above!)

Thursday 13 August 2009

Tuesday 11 August 2009

POOT Catalogue signed off at last!

This morning was a bit of a landmark as we passed the exhibition catalogue over to Compass Print in Aberdeen. It has taken a great deal of work to get it to this point -infact the "twiddling" over the last 2 weeks has been extreem! -I'm not a perfectionist, -at least I didn't think so until now!

Anyway we are on track for production to be ready for display during NEOS - and if you have not already done so - go to www.northeastopenstudios.co.uk for opening times, for our Portrait of Our Time, and many other wonderful artists throughout Grampian.