Hello everyone, and welcome to our July 2021 Wycombe Arts Centre wrapup post!

It’s been a little while since we’ve written one of these, because we’ve been busy focussing on moving over to our new website. Now that that’s done, we’ve got a little bit of breathing room to bring back our wrapups and to take a proper look at what we’ve got coming up for the rest of 2021 and into 2022 and beyond.

July has been a busy month for us, and August is set to be even busier thanks to the Hybrid Festival, which we’ll talk about some more later on in this article. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, and so without further ado, let’s take a look at what we’ve been up to.

Looking back at July

We welcomed Victoria Snaith and Dread Falls Theatre to Wycombe Arts Centre on Saturday 3rd July for a family theatre day in which they performed two shows each of Tanglewood Tales and Professor Octavia’s Magical Menagerie. Families were treated to some fantastic theatre involving everything from sword fights and fortune telling to the chance to name and be photographed with a baby dragon, as modelled for us above by our very own Hugo!

While we’re on the subject of theatre, our in-house theatre company Roundabout Creative Theatre hosted their open performance of The Masterplan on Sunday 4th July. Despite a few last minute hitches, including a couple of cast members who unfortunately had to self-isolate, the performance was a huge success and set a solid benchmark that they’ll be trying to beat in future performances. We shared a few photos here.

We also shared a few photos of when Craig Easton came to visit! Craig was commissioned by Discover Bucks Museum County Museum to add to the collection of portraits of people of Buckinghamshire. We’re super proud to have been able to get involved by providing a location, and we can’t wait to go and see his work.

Speaking of sharing photos, our in-house installations artist Dr. C also shared some snaps of some of her work in progress in our Garden Space. You can take a look at those here.

On Friday 16th July, we welcomed Sloth in the City back to High Wycombe after their move to Brighton for the launch of their new EP, Remember Music. They were supported by Grammy Award winning guitarist Amrit Sond and played a fantastic show in our Cafe Space, impressing both old and new fans with their mixture of jazz and folk.

On Saturday 24th July, we hosted Jazz in the Garden with fabulous acts including the WAC Jazz Workshop Band, Constant Rhythm Garden Machine, Catch 22 Jams and Drop Downs. This coincided with the launch of the Land-Marks Art Exhibition, which runs until the end of the month and showcases artists from Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year West Wycombe Heats. Featured artists include Dougie Adams, Gary Eite, Renata Fernandez-Zarauza, Rory Brooke, Shaun Morris, Sophia Broke and Jan Gaska.

We also had all of our regular events, including our open mic night on the second Friday of the month, Films @ Wycombe Arts Centre on the fourth Friday of the month and Sunday jam on the fourth Sunday of the month. We also had Connie’s pottery workshops (every Tuesday and Thursday), Roundabout Creative Theatre (every Wednesday) and The Rock Project (every Thursday).

Meanwhile, work continued on our website, and we added a write-up of our Big Arts Market @ Bucks Art Week, which you can check out here. We also launched a brand new events section, which should make it easier for you to find the perfect events for you and to book your tickets.

And we also announced that we’ll be supporting Buckinghamshire Council and Buckinghamshire Culture with their #SummerOfStories campaign! You’ll be able to fill out a story postcard at one of our events so that you can share your story and join the Story Stall. Keep your eyes peeled on-site if you want to take part or find out more!

Coming up in August

Hybrid Festival

Signdance Collective and Wycombe Arts Centre in association with throughtheyes in the USA present: Hybrid Festival.

The Hybrid Festival public engagement project is an in-person/post-lockdown event promoting creativity, confidence, unity and a sense of belonging. Highlights include Signdance Collective’s work-in-progress Oriente Plus, in-person and remote creative engagement opportunities at Islands workshops, “The Land of I” exhibition curated by Tabitha Gunstone-Pollock and MACA Nights in memory of Lionel Macauley.

Events at Hybrid Festival include: