Playday is the national day for play in the UK, held on the first Wednesday in August each year.

This year Trowbridge celebrated Play Day with a range of free activities provided by Town Hall Arts and Trowbridge Museum at the Town Hall, in Market Street Trowbridge.

Around 150 children joined in with cardboard castle building; traditional games like bagatelle, bar skittles, shove ha’penny and hop scotch; creative fun with chalk, playdough and water, plus artist Jennie Quigley provided face painting, which kept her busy all morning.

Artists from the Town Hall Arts shop have been invited to sell their handmade gifts in the Information Centre within Trowbridge Civic Centre.

Trowbridge Tourist Information Centre is pleased to be selling a range of beautiful art and craft products from local artists who also have a shop within Town Hall Arts in the centre of town. From unique greetings cards to outstanding works in glass and ceramics, you’d be sure to find the ideal gift for a birthday or other special occasion.

Artists from Town Hall Arts Shop will rotate their work throughout the year to make sure there is always something new for visitors to browse.

The Information Centre is open between 8.30am and 5.00pm Monday to Friday, and between 10.00am and 2.00pm on Saturdays. Call 01225 765072 or email info@trowbridge.gov.uk for more information.

To see a wider selection of local artists’ work, you can visit the Trowbridge Town Hall Arts shop between 10.00am and 2.00pm, Monday to Saturday. Call 01225 774306 or email info@townhallarts.co.uk

Subversive Surfaces is the new exhibition of work by artists Gina Baum and Lou Baker currently on display in Trowbridge Town Hall. The diverse and intriguing exhibition features pieces which challenge modern perceptions of the human body, while drawing attention to critical issues such as the barbaric practice of FGM and the hold pharmaceutical companies have over us. A key theme of both artists work is contradiction. Ideas of what is appealing versus repulsive, socially acceptable versus unacceptable and the things that make us feel safe versus vulnerable are magnified for the publics scrutiny.

‘True democracy exists in the election of a leader. It can only succeed by allowing total control by the leader. It has nothing to do, absolutely nothing to do with the weakness of submitting to the will of the majority’

The newly invigorated Trowbridge Chamber of Commerce representing Trowbridge Businesses is creating an event to help raise funds for Trowbridge Town Hall. Town Hall Arts has until the end of June 2018 to raise a minimum of £35000 or close down forever at the end of July. They have set up a  Local Giving Page for their 130 Challenge https://localgiving.org/fundraising/130challenge/

‘In Morocco, as in all Muslim countries, Sex before marriage is against the law, single mothers are despised, illegitimate children are outcasts. But this is no ordinary single mother…’

Bastards is a sometimes shocking, often heart-warming documentary which was shown as part of the Trowbridge Arts Community Cinema programme. This season was curated by Lorena Pino with the central theme of Motherhood at various stages. In the spirit of this, Bastards, and the other documentaries shown as part of this season were directed and written by women.

Funding News

Sadly Town Hall Arts has not been successful in securing ongoing support from Arts Council England. This means that we need to find replacement core funding of a minimum of £35000 per year by the end of June 2018. If we're not successful in this we will need to close our doors at the end of July.

We are doing all we can to prevent this from being the case and are talking to lots of individuals and businesses that may want to invest in our work to ensure we can keep making a difference to the community and the regeneration of the County Town of Wiltshire.  

What you can do...

1. Please get in touch if you, your company or the company you work for would like to discuss becoming a core funder.
2. Write to the Wiltshire Times letters@wiltshiretimes.co.uk   and our MP Andrew Murrison ( andrew.murrison.mp@parliament.uk) about why you think Town Hall Arts is important for the town, the community and why it's important to you.
3. Support us through our Local Giving Page https://localgiving.org/charity/town-hall-arts/
4. ..and keep supporting us in all the wonderful ways that you do as visitors, ticket buyers, volunteers, artists and moral supporters.

Many thanks for your continued support.

The Andrew Brownsword Gallery at The Edge, Bath, is looking for proposals from artists who have an idea for a piece of work which requires input from the University of Bath’s Faculty of Science.

Deadline: End of Sun 20 May

Free to enter

The bursaries are open to all artists from amateur, to student, graduate or professional and proposed artworks can be in any medium.

Submission: https://www.edgearts.org/whats-on/visual-arts/apply-for-a-bursary/
Enquiries only: edge-info@bath.ac.uk

The Andrew Brownsword Gallery at the University of Bath announces its inaugural Art Prize, awarded for submissions that reflect, represent, capture or depict modern day scientific phenomena as studied by academics at The University’s Faculty of Science.

Shortlisted entries will be exhibited in the Andrew Brownsword Gallery between 15 September and 13 October, with the winning selections announced at a special ceremony in October.

Deadline: End of Sun 15 July
Submission: https://www.edgearts.org/whats-on/visual-arts/enter-the-art-prize/
Enquiries only: edge-info@bath.ac.uk
Entry fees apply

Independent films directed by women from around the world.
From the Philippines to Morocco and crossing into Colombia.

After the success of our very first film season in Town Hall Arts during Autumn and Winter 2017, we continue celebrating the diverse communities in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and surrounding areas through film. This will be in Spring and early Summer 2018 with a second season of our Community Cinema programme curated by Lorena Pino. This time we are exploring the central topic of motherhood - as a cycle in different stages - with three triple F-Rated films. That means they are directed by women, written by women and portray women on screen in their own right