‘The purpose of Yardley Arts is to connect everyone through art. That’s my passion.’
Polly Parrish tells Julia Thorley why Yardley Arts is so important to the community.
Yardley Arts describes itself as ‘a vibrant community arts centre offering participation, appreciation and inspiration’. It is based in the beautiful rural setting of the village of Yardley Hastings near Grendon. Co-founder and course director of the organisation is Polly Parrish. She explains how the centre came about.
“The building is owned by Lord Northampton. It was originally a civic building for the workers of the estate, and used as a gathering space where they would come and get their instructions for the day. When we took it over it had been a school, but it was in a terrible state. It had a fake ceiling, nasty lights, the roof was horrible and there were dead pigeons everywhere. It didn’t look as though it could function as an arts school! But we said to Lord Northampton, let us do it up and turn it into an arts centre, and he said ‘You organise the work and I’ll pay for it’. The estate agreed the building had to be used for something to enhance the community.
“One thing I love about it is that it’s a ground-floor building, and because it was a school it’s accessible. It’s a big, airy space with lots of light. On average we teach 12 people at a time, but for things like The Big Draw Festival and school events we can cope with 30 at a time.”
The centre is run by a team of volunteers, together with a paid administrator and someone to help with social media. Course tutors are paid, too. The programmes on offer are central to the work of the centre and include drawing, watercolour, life drawing, collage, painting, linocut printing, glass, pottery and photography. Independent of Yardley Arts but under its umbrella is the Beccy Gillatt School of Jewellery.
“We’re all born singing, dancing and drawing without being self-conscious, but I think what happens is that we lose our confidence. We have people coming here who have absolutely no idea how to do anything artistic, but they have an urge to be creative, so we have courses where you don’t need to be able to draw or paint, but where you can experiment with materials. For instance, we have a beginner mark-making drawing course where you’re literally learning to make different marks to see what a pencil can do.
“I’m always very keen that we have entry-level stuff. We’ve only ever done basic photography because after that if people are keen they go and join a photographic club. However, many of our classes are very progressive and can take you up to whatever level you want. We also hold Artists’ Studio Sessions once a month. You can come for the whole day and pay £10. People bring their own materials and then spread out in the main space, to create together and chat and have a look at each other’s work.”
Another key strand to the work at Yardley Arts is its exhibitions, and in September the centre will be taking part as one of the key venues in Northants & Rutland Open Studios. Cathy Burnett’s ‘You Can Draw’ courses had their own Art on the Wall exhibition recently, and many of the participants had never exhibited before. In contrast, the last major exhibition was Jack Watto’s Art For Planet Earth, which sat well in the large space that lends itself to the luxury of seeing all the pictures at a distance. This was an event for the community, as much as anything.
“Every class from Yardley Hastings Primary School had a free workshop here with Jack, where he encouraged them to discuss the paintings and then create their artistic response. The school based its entire term’s work on the catalogue that went with the exhibition.”
Working with schools is very important to Polly and her team. She explains that government spending is such that the primary’s budget for arts education is only £9.40 per child per year.
“That’s all of the arts: dance, music, everything. We need people to be inspired by arts education at a young age, so I want to encourage our school to use Yardley Arts as much as possible, as a free space. I can’t offer free teaching, but I can arrange for volunteers to be here, including a dedicated volunteer to be chief liaison, working alongside a volunteer from the school. We’re going to create as many opportunities as we can to get the school over here, and then we’re going to recruit someone to do the fundraising and source grants to increase the education. I’d also like to be able to expand to include Denton Primary School, which is only a couple of miles away.”
Until recently, Polly’s own art had taken a bit of a back seat, because, she says, she found it very difficult to justify not working on Yardley Arts projects all the time. However, she is currently a student again, at the Essential School of Painting (ESP) in London. Her own practice is in portraiture and life drawing.
“I like making things happen and I needed to be at the centre spinning the plates, but I also knew that if I couldn’t carve out some time for myself then I was just going to hand the keys back to the estate. I go to the ESP one day a week and it makes me paint more. I had an exhibition last year and sold four paintings, but it’s not about the money so much as creating something that someone else has said they like.”
The centre is always looking for experienced tutors.
“We’re desperate to find some sculpture tutors who are already running classes and would like to use a venue that is well set up and has lots of equipment. I’d also love to do something with the garden and turn it into a space where you can do sculpture and courses in the summer outside, but you do need someone with the vision and experience to say they’ll find the money and run the garden project.
“The purpose of Yardley Arts is to connect everyone through art. That’s my passion. It’s my reason for remaining in the village.”
Further information is on its website. And there is more detail about the Open Studios here.
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Well done you Polly! Why can't we have something like that in Northampton. I used to do oil paintings. I did portraits, landscapes, nudes, animals etc. The last time I Joint a painting club was at King's Cliff. We were about 12 of us. This was organised by Northampton County Council. It was a beautiful setting in an old brewery. The artists had a gallery attached to the main house. We had our own materials. We painted inside and outside in the beautiful garden. We had three life models of which there was two women and one man. The idea was to catch movement of each models within a specified time. The two artists organising the course supplied easels and light lunch. It thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I recommend it to anyone.