New Young Arts Initiative: Sponsor a School Workshop

The Arts Society provides children and young people with exciting opportunities to get involved in creative arts activities. The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Area team is linking up with Southampton City Art Gallery’s "Art on Wheels" programme.

Local societies can now sponsor immersive, artist-led school workshops with minimal administrative requirements. In return, sponsoring societies receive high-quality photos, feedback from teachers, and public PR recognition.

 We are pleased to inform you that The Arts Society Project Grant or Area grant may be available to assist your society in covering or contributing towards the sponsorship costs of these workshops.

 To find out how your society can get involved and sponsor a workshop, more about grant eligibility, or to secure a workshop, please contact the Area Secretary directly on caharrisson@gmail.com

Click here for a larger image

Inspiring Young Artists: St Bede’s Pupils Channel William Morris

Year 4 pupils at St Bede’s Catholic Primary School have created stunning, repeating textile designs inspired by the iconic wallpaper patterns of William Morris. Led by Gill Waller and supported by dedicated volunteers from The Arts Society Basingstoke, the children mastered intricate block-printing techniques to stamp custom botanical motifs onto canvas tote bags.

This community project was part-funded by a generous grant from The Arts Society Hampshire & Isle of Wight Area.

The impressive collection of student artwork will be proudly displayed at the Annual Exhibition inside Basingstoke's Willis Museum from 28th August to 4th October 2026.

We have updated the Guidelines to Societies for Requesting Grants from Area.

Click Here for a copy of the Guidelines

Schools can now consider whether they wish to participate in ART Bytes for the 2026/27 academic year.

Click Here for the Art Bytes Newsletter: 14 July 2026

Societies requiring more information should cotact ArtBytes direct on hello@artbytes.co.uk

The H&IOW Area £300 Drama Grants is continuing for at least one more year.  It has been set up to help Societies direct funds to local drama groups across Hamphire and the Isle of Wight.  It is hoped to help the many adult groups around, not just youth groups.

Once you have found a drama group that you agree is worthy of your support and that you would like to have an ongoing and mutually beneficial relationship with, you are ready to start an exciting new experience.

HOW TO APPLY

1. Nominate a designated drama grant liaiser for your Society

2. Advertise the grant opportunity / discuss any applications

3. Contact Glenys LLoyd Williams, Drama Grant Area Liaison on glenysnadfas@outlook.com if you need help with the process / discuss ideas.  In particular:

- Co-involvement: How you plan to work together

- Joint Marketing: Shared promotional strategy

4. Liase with drama group

5. Make a formal application to Pat Hindley, Area Treasurer on pat.hindley@hotmail.co.uk providing the following information as briefly and clearly as possible:

- Arts Society, contact name (designated person) and email address

- Applying organisation name, location and contact name.  How the grant will be spent

- Briefly describe how the applying organisation is involved with the local community

- Your plans for future liasion and joint marketing etc. which will help raise the profile of your own Society and the drama group

- Your Bank account number and sort code

PLEASE TITLE ALL EMAILS WITH 'Drama Grant 2026 - Society name'

OTHER GRANTS

The existing Area Grants of up to £1,000 will still be available for any other Arts or Heritage projects, as well as the Community Grants* and Patricia Fay Memorial Grants, which can be used in addition to the Drama Grant for larger projects.

Click Here to read the Guidelines for Societies Requesting Grants from Area

Click Here to read the national New Policy for Society Grants - October 2025

*Community Grants will be withdrawn at the end of 2026 to be replaced by the more restriced Small Society Grant.

Following feedback on the proposals set out in the August Bulletin, we have now finalised the policy for next year, which can be accessed in full here. 
 
Whilst some respondents expressed disappointment that we are not able to continue the full community grants programme after the end of 2025, there was general acceptance that it was right to concentrate our limited grants resources on major grants that societies could not fund on their own.  We would emphasise that a £250 grant is still available to societies with reserves under £5,000 through a simplified application process, and we hope this will enable all societies to continue to support their local arts causes.
 
One change we have made to the original proposal is to retain two rounds a year for major grants applications, in the spring and autumn.

A Cluster Meeting will be held on 1st December at 10.30 am at the St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, New Street, Lymington, SO41 9BH.

Committee members from the following societies are invited:-

New Forest

New Milton,

Romsey,

Southampton,

Isle of Wight

Refreshments will be available on arrival at 10.30 am. followed by a networking session, and finishing with a visit to the exhibition at St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery entitled "The Life of the Fields". There is a £10 fee per head which also covers entrance to the Exhibion.

Click Here for details of the exhibition which runs until 10 January 2026

The closest car park is in Emsworth Road, SO41 9BH (£3.70 for 3 hours) or it is an 8 minute walk from the train station.

For further information, contact Diana Heatley, the Area Secretary, by email on info@theartssocietyhantsiowarea.org.uk

Come and join a fun filled evening, courtesy of The Arts Society Grayshott, with friends and family by reserving your place or table for our popular Society Quiz Night on Friday 7th November. Tickets are £18 and include Supper Enjoy a full and lively evening of Quiz questions, good food and drink. 

Click Here for full details

We meet at the Village Hall, Headley Road, Grayshott, Surrey, GU26 6TZ 

The Arts Society Southampton is donating £1500 to Southampton City Art Gallery following a successful bid for a grant award of £1000 from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Area. This is going towards the production of a catalogue to tie in with a major exhibition on modern British art (1910–1960) running from October 2026 after the city gallery has reopened following a £6 million refurbishment.  The exhibition is being curated by Arts Society lecturer David Haycock and is a collaboration between the Southampton gallery and the Ingram Collection based at the Lighthouse, Woking.

For the third year running, the Southampton Society ran its competition for GCSE art students at Thornden School (monthly talks are held at the school’s theatre) to support Young Arts. Over 200 members and visitors to the May lecture voted for their favourite art works. The winning three students each received £75.00 gift vouchers donated by the society at an awards ceremony held as part of the June 2025 AGM. (Power point attached with more info if wanted).

Following a request from a member, the Southampton Society donated £100 to Wessex Sculptors to support an Iranian nurse, Parisa Narizipour, who has been granted asylum, to attend a lino-cut course run by the group. 

There will be an Area Networking Meeting on Monday, 27th October at the Gurkha Museum. Representative from all societies in the area are welcome.

10.30 - 12.30  -  Treasurers

12.30 - 13.30   -  Lunch

13.30 - 16.00   -  Arts Volunteers

Click Here for details.

Click Here for the Agenda for the Treasurers session

Clich Here for the Agenda for the Arts Volunteers session

The Arts Society Petersfield are organising an outing to Chawton House and Jane Austen's House on 16th October by coach. The coach leaves from Petersfield Festival Hall car park (GU31 4EA) where you can park all day. Parking charges apply.

Click here to go to The Arts Society Petersield website for full details..  T

We were pleased to announce at the AGM that Church Recording will once again become a volunteering activity of The Arts Society. Church Recording started as an Arts Society activity in our very early days, with support from the Victoria and Albert Museum and church authorities, with the Archbishop of Canterbury becoming a Vice-President. For the volunteers this is fascinating work, of national importance, and we will be providing more information in the coming months for those who want to get involved.  As well as providing another outlet for our members' energies, bringing Church Recording back into The Arts Society aligns with our strategy of raising the Society's profile. We welcome David Medcalf, currently Chair of the Church Recording Society, as the Head of this volunteering arm.

To mark 200 years since the creation of the railway, art students from Queen Mary's College were tasked by The Arts Society Basingstoke to create something memorable for a permanent display at Basingstoke Railway Station. The works were unveiled at an event at the station on Thursday, October 2. 

The Marsh Trust was established in 1981 by Brian Marsh OBE, and the Trust supports organisations and individuals who make a difference in the community around the country through grant giving and awards programmes. We have been in partnership with the Trust since 2013. It is because of the Marsh Trust’s generosity that we have been able to honour the hard work and commitment of some of those who have contributed to the success of their volunteering projects and their Societies. All our winners were nominated by their colleagues at their Society or Area.

• Gillian Waller (Basingstoke)

• Maggie Williams (Glaven Valley) 

• Robin Bailey (Worcester)

• Maggie Keeble (Worcester) 

• Peter Crowfoot (Grayshott) 

• Roscelin Rees (Haslemere)

Congratulations to Gillian and Peter. 

See below for details of their awards.

Gillian Waller​, The Arts Society Basingstoke nominated by Alison Granger

During Gillian’s tenure as Society Chairman, she has uplifted the volunteering from the Society.  She has worked tirelessly to promote Young Arts Volunteering and instigated many projects in Schools which culminated with exhibitions in the local Museum.  With tremendous personal energy, ambition and vison for these projects she has sought artists and volunteers to make these projects tremendous successes.  She has instigated and managed significant Arts Volunteering and continues to do so.

Peter Crowfoot from The Arts Society Grayshott

Peter has made an outstanding contribution to TAS Grayshott over the last ten years. For seven years he was an excellent and totally committed visits secretary and, as well as running four or five visits a year, ran several very successful annual tours in Europe and the U.K. He also played a very active part in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area and set up a group for fellow Visits Secretaries organising meetings to share ideas and give support to others.

On retiring from his role as 'visits secretary', Peter stepped in temporarily to act as Chair when our existing Chair stepped down due to health concerns at the start of the pandemic. He worked tirelessly during this time, setting up online lectures very early on and regularly kept in touch with members offering his support. He also built-up connections with other 'local' societies, collaboratively setting up shared Virtual Tours which were extremely popular and much appreciated. He continued in this role for two years at the end of which time I took over as Chair.

Subsequently his support has been invaluable members of their committee.

In the Societies 40th Anniversary Peter has researched and created a fabulous display of archive materials detailing the progress and activities of the society over the years.

SEE UPDATE ON ENTRY FOR 15th OTOBER 2025

In the Arts Society August Bulletin there is a report on the Proposed Changes to the Grants Programmes.

Note 1:  These changes are significant and will affect every society thinking of making an application.

Note 2:  These changes are still under consideration.  Further updates will follow in later Monthly Bulletins

Click Here to read the article.

The Arts Society Promotional video.

Click Here to view on YouTube

SOLD OUT

Visit to Petworth House including the special exhibition:
Turner's Vision at Petworth

Monday 6th October 2025

I am delighted to inform you of the next Arts Society visit and hope that you will be able to join us. I am proposing a visit to Petworth House, travelling by 19 seater coach from Chandler's Ford and including an introductory talk about the new exhibition:Turner's Vision at Petworth.

For the first time in 20 years, a specially curated selection of JMW Turner’s artistic studies of Petworth will be exhibited in the very place that inspired him. These rarely seen works give a fascinating insight into Turner’s methods. The exhibition will include oil paintings and works on paper on loan from The Tate Gallery and  several private lenders.

There is also a lot more for us to explore at Petworth:

Inspired by Baroque palaces of Europe, the 17th-century Petworth House displays one of the finest art collections in the care of the National Trust. See the state rooms featuring paintings and sculpture, including artwork by Van Dyck, Turner, Reynolds and Gainsborough.

Petworth House’s historyhas been created by one family over 900 years, with the collection highlighting a journey through history including the Gunpowder Plot and Napoleonic Wars. Collection highlights include the earliest English globe in existence, dating to 1592, and carvings by Grinling Gibbons.

The Servants’ Quarters, including the historic kitchens, show a glimpse into the life of the people who worked here.

Outside, the Pleasure Garden features formal borders, woodland walks, and architectural features,such as the Ionic Rotunda. The 700-acre Deer Park, which was transformed in the 1750s and early 1760s by the landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, is home to ancient trees and fallow deer.

Time permitting, you will also have the opportunity to visit the small town of Petworth, with its shops and cafés.

We will meet at the Fryern Hill bus stop in Chandler's Ford to be picked up by coach at 9:15 am. This is the stop ouside the Co op shop and Josie's café.  Journey time to Petworth is approximately 1 hour 20 minutes, depending on traffic.

On arrival, we will have time to visit the café before our introductory talk. You will then have time to spend in the Turner exhibition and of course to visit the main house, grounds and town, as you wish.

Schedule for the day:

• 9:15 meet the coach inChandler's Ford.

• 10:35 approximately arrive Petworth

• 11:30 introductory talk to the Turner's Vision at Petworth exhibition

• Afternoon free to visit the main house, grounds etc

• 16:00 Leave Petworth

• 17:20 approximately return to Chandler's Ford

• The cost of the coach will be £32.50  per person plus a small booking fee.

National Trust members will have free entry to Petworth. Please remember to bring your membership card.

Non National Trust members will need to pay the group rate of £17:50, provided we have a total of at least 15 people in our group. This will be payable individually on the day.

Everyone who wishes to see the special Turner exhibition and have the introductory talk will be required to pay £10 each on the day.

Booking will open on Monday 7th July, and close on Monday 1st September 2025.

Please book your tickets via theHomepage of our website

Click on thebook tickets for events here.

If you have any queries please email the Ticketsource email address:
ticketsourcesouthampton@gmail.com

SOLD OUT

Area Chairs Meeting - March 2025

Click Here for the Agenda

Click Here for the Minutes

The Strategy 2025 document which was released by The Arts Society in January 2025 is well worth a read.

You  can find a copy of the docuemnt on the Resources section of the national website, or just click Here

We are now on Facebook

You can go straight to The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Area Facebook page by clicking on the full address https://www.facebook.com/share/15vdAKhTJ5/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Peggy Guggenheim: Petersfield to Palazzo

15 June - 5 October 2022

There is most unusual and exciting arts event taking place this summer in Petersfield. The dynamic curator at the Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery (re-opened in 2021 after a £4million refurbishment) has managed to secure on loan several works from the Peggy Guggenheim collection in Venice and other important collections.

From 1934 until 1939 Peggy Guggenheim, the world-famous American art lover, lived just outside Petersfield. It was during this period of Peggy's life that she started her collection.  The  exhibition will run from  Saturday 15th June until Saturday 5th October, entitled 'Peggy Guggenheim: Petersfield to Palazzo'. 

THIS IS AN INDEPENDENT EXHIBITION AND IS NOT BEING ORGANISED OR FUNDED BY THE ARTS SOCIETY PETERSFIELD

May 5th through May 9th 2024

Full sightseeing programme: Houghton, Holkam, Sandringham and Oxborough.

Hi-spec luxury coach

4-star hotel

For full details, click here

CLOSING DATE for bookings - 19th December 2023

The next Area Meeting will be on 4th March 2024.

Click Here for full details

 The Second Sex: Women in Italian Renaissance Art and Society

Sarah Dunant

Thursday 30 November 2023

Sarah Dunant says: "As a writer and historian, I’ve written five best selling novels featuring the lives of women in the Italian renaissance *(see below). From infamous figures like Lucrezia Borgia and the patron Isabella d’Este to the unknown and unsung; painters, writers, courtesans and nuns. Thanks to recent feminist history, their stories are now being brought to light, shining a different torch beam onto art and culture.

I’d like participants to read (library loan is fine by me) one of my novels* – not necessarily the same one.  We will then come together to discuss this slippery, wonderful thing called historical fiction. How do novelists do it? How much is fact, how much made up? Can fiction get to parts of the history that other disciplines just can’t reach. 

Click Here for full information

This website will soon feature a place for each Hants Society to promote their Outings, Visits and Tours. It is intended to broaden the reach of these events allowing Arts Society Members from neighbouring societies to download booking forms and join in.

Networking for Societies:

Venue: The Gurkha Museum, Winchester

Morning Session to cover Outings, Visits and Tours. 10.30 am start.

Afternoon Session to cover Membership and Tours. 13.45 start.

Lunch is served between sessions.

Event coordinated by Diana Heatly and Patricia Hindley.

Visit the 'About Area' tab and then click on the 'Documents' sub-menu to find the following documents:

- Minutes of the Meeting

- Guidelines for Societies requesting grants from the Patricia Fay Memorial Fund

- Guidelines for Societies requesting grants from Area

- Taking Card Payments

- The Arts Society SWOT Analysis

- Ticket Tailor - Online Ticketing