Wild Vision Tour Autumn-Winter 2009/2010

John Beatty is widely acclaimed as one of the most exciting and stimulating nature, travel and adventure photographers to have emerged in recent years. With over twenty years of assignments to his name, John’s work has taken him from the peaks of all the Greater Ranges to the American Deserts, to the teeming wildlife of East Africa and the wonder of the Galapagos Islands.

This autumn/winter he will be touring with his show Wild Vision: Images and Stories from the Wilderness. He will be appearing at Loughborough Town Hall on Thursday 4th February 2010.

What was going on outside Emmanuel Church?

Read the Emmanuel Church overview of The Big Picture - a world record breaking community picture built on the grass outside Emmanuel Church in March 2008. Part of Hope 08, it comprised almost 500 panels, each painted by a community group, school or individual. In total around 2,000 people took part in painting the boards, which together made up an 80 metre long and almost 8 metre high picture of the Easter story!

The Bigger Picture

If you've driven through Loughborough recently you can't fail to have noticed the huge structure that appeared on the grounds of Emmanuel Church in Holy Week: The Bigger Picture. It is a Hope 2008 initiative where the churches in Loughborough worked together to create a world record breaking community picture and reach out to the town on Easter Monday.

Several thousand people were involved in colouring in around 500 panels with emulsion paint, including schools and community groups. Throughout the week the panels were slowly joined together like a jigsaw with the last piece completing the picture on Easter Monday. The project broke the world record for the largest ever painting by numbers picture!

Walking Fair in Loughborough

On Saturday March 15 (10am - 4:30pm) Charnwood Museum is playing host to a Walking Fair as part of ROAM: a Weekend of Walking organised by the Loughborough University Arts Centre. This features a series of innovative and creative walks led by artists. The Fair will offer information and advice from a range of regional walking based groups and organisations.

The programme of walks on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday invites you to come walking with the artists and experience a different side of Loughborough. Whether you walk for health, to discover something new or to escape from the everyday, the University is encouraging people to join up with a Roam artist to encourage and inspire you to undertake your own urban or rural explorations.

Loughborough Musicians

A number of (some ex-) Loughborough people I know have put their music on the web – maybe you will recognise some of these names.

Steel String, regulars on the Dorset folk scene are former Loughburians Sarah and Phil Muir, plus one of their Dorset mates. Sarah’s brother Simon Faulks, vocalist and guitarist, has been playing the blues locally for as long as I can remember. I had a good bop to the songs on his myspace site…

Stuart Wood, percussionist (and now author of Friendship is a Verb) has not only put together a site with loads of hints and tips for drummers, but that also has some great samples from his album Soundscapes.

Then for a chillout, there is the acoustic guitar folk of (still-resident-in Loughborough) Ben Heap from the Well Church, or my colleague Gerry’s band Northern Quarter, who you may have heard play at the 3 Nuns or the Valkyries.

Don't forget to switch your speakers on!