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Since the formation of the Havering Arts Council the way of life has changed drastically. As distinct from the past when the HAC was formed, there appears to be little time or inclination to be involved in voluntary/amateur/corporate activity, a great sadness, but one that has to be accepted.
The result of this change is that fewer people are involved in voluntary activity and the average age of those who are is increasing and as a consequence many of the organisations that have been members of the HAC in the past have disappeared, or are disappearing, many going without trace or record, and this we must change.
Many people over many years, in many different ways, have given time and energy to provide both enjoyment for themselves and entertainment for others, much of it at their own expense yet few if any will be remembered beyond their generation, nor will their, or their organisations contribution to the community be remembered. This can and must be altered.
This section of our website is for you to build, to provide a record and a history of the Arts in Havering. A history going back in all its constituent parts to the days of Romford and Hornchurch and the villages that now make up the Borough. The way that this can best be achieved is for you to accept the task of compiling that history with your recollection, anecdotes, photos, factual information and snippets of information about organisations, groups, clubs or societies or individuals connected with the Arts over the years whether members of the HAC or not. Let us build a living history of the Arts in Havering. We have to make sure that the many organisations involved in the Arts in the Borough over the years do not disappear without an acknowledgement of the contribution made them and their members to our community.
In the first instance please send your contribution to me by post or preferably email. Every contribution will be kept on file, may be edited for inclusion in the web pages, but will be recorded for future use.
I look forward to an ever growing and most interesting history of the Arts in Havering.
Frank Everett
Chairman, Havering Arts Council
To start the ball rolling we have transferred my original message into this section where I think it forms a reasonable foreword.
Over the years since our formation we have tried to keep abreast of current developments both in meeting members wishes and technology and therefore far from being dragged screaming into the twenty first century, we have willingly succumbed to the advantages of being on the web.
In preparing our home page, initially our aims are:
• To inform our members
• To enable our members to inform us
• To publicise the Havering Art Council, what it is and what it does.
... and perhaps the most important
• To publicise our members and the part that they play in the community at large.
But, like Topsy, I hope that it will grow and grow by the ideas from members and in the way that you, our members, wish and to benefit of all. So………………Help!
At the same time we, collectively, exist not only to practise and enjoy our particular art forms but also to encourage and involve the community at large and, in so far as we are able, provide an opportunity for others to join, appreciate and enjoy them with us.
When I took on the role of forming the Havering Arts Council in 1964 there was no arts or cultural department in the Borough Council. The Libraries committee had responsibility for such limited provision as a miniscule budget allowed.
It was at a time that Greater London was coming into being, there was a national movement to promote and form local arts councils to further and improve arts provision generally and at the same time there was the urge to Local Councils from National Government to levy and spend more of their Rateable income – my recollection is that the maximum allowable was 6d (2.5p) in the pound sterling levied - on the Arts. Havering, I seem to recall, was prepared to spend a ha’penny (halfpenny – 0.208p in the pound, which included expenditure on the Queen’s Theatre!
Fortunately I was able to count on great support, not only from a number of individual councillors but also on the Borough Council itself, a sympathetic Borough Librarian, and just about all the local arts organisations.
With the birth of the HAC, and in its early years, we were the forerunner of the current leisure and arts department of the Borough and in those years we did much of the work that the Arts Officers and staff presently undertake. We were responsible for, and organised the first full scale Borough wide arts festival, with international participation. We organised and presented a number of professional events in the old Queen's Theatre, as well as visits from the national concert orchestras to one of the large cinemas in the Borough, then seating 1500 people or more, for Sunday evening concerts.
Over the years with the advent of the Borough Arts Officer post and the consequent continuing reduction in grant, our role has necessarily changed, concentrating on the amateur involvement with the arts, encouraging local amateur organisations, offering limited funding and assisting with publicity and transport costs, with limited corporate activity organised by the HAC itself.
Both times and achievable levels of service change.………………and we must change too!
If we are to fulfil our constitutional aims and objectives our future must also include finding ways and the means to encourage and foster a new interest in the arts throughout the community. We have to communicate the enjoyment that we have from our involvement with our groups and activities, particularly in those areas where there is little provision at present and encourage the formation and growth of new arts organisations. That, I believe, must be our mission for our future - sharing and spreading the belief that we have in the benefits our activities give and our enthusiasm for giving it to others.
With the advent of our web page, it provides a direct avenue for communication between us and the entire community, which can only be to the benefit of us all if we are to fulfil our mission.
It is up to us to use it, to disseminate information, as a prime service to assist and promote our existing members, to encourage associate members to join us to support the arts in the Borough and to assist us in our mission to encourage, support and form new organisations to fulfil a need in areas of interest in the arts.
We now have a web page, let’s use it!!
Fairkytes Art Centre opened in 1973 as a workshop, rehearsal and meeting facility for amateur arts groups. It has been refurbished since and also has included additional facilities taken over from other council departments located alongside. The facilities offered include workshop facilities for pottery and sculpture, art rooms together with a number of rooms for drama, dance and meeting space for arts organisations.
The Art Centre is administered and funded by the London Borough of Havering and payment by those using it. A number of the member groups of the Havering Arts Council meet there on a regular basis. The centre is open throughout the year for regular meeting and workshop activities including tuition in drama and dance.
For more information about the centre and the societies that meet there and the facilities available contact should be made with the centre either by visit or telephone contact to the member of staff on duty on: 01708 456 308.