Profile of Guildford Arts
(Charity registration no 1089777 )

The object of Guildford Arts: “to advance the education of the general public by encouraging its appreciation and knowledge of the arts and by promoting and encouraging excellence in the practice of the arts.”

Founded in 1991 by a group of arts enthusiasts who wanted to formalise their support of the arts in and around Guildford, the corner-stone aim has always been to promote the vision of a modern, multi-purpose community & arts centre, where visual and performing arts of a high calibre can be presented with common direction and economies of scale.

In performing our remit as members of Guildford Arts, we regularly present:

• Yvonne Arnaud Art: Since 1996, a two/three week art exhibition annually in the Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. This has become increasingly well recognised, showing the work of some of Britain’s highly respected artists as well as distinguished painters and sculptors with Surrey connections. Visitors come from far and wide. Baker Tilly has sponsored the exhibition since 2001.

• Art @work: Since 2001, we have presented continuous exhibitions of paintings and sculpture in the offices of Clyde & Co and latterly also at Baker Tilly. This gives unique opportunities to some of the many talented artists in Surrey & the SE.

We provide:

• Bursaries: In 2002, together with Clyde & Co, we established an annual Art Student Bursary, currently from the Farnham Campus of University College for the Creative Arts.
  In 2006, with Pennington’s, we set up a Music Student Bursary at the University of Surrey.

• Sponsorship: We sponsor chosen events such as the 2008 Family Festival at the Electric Theatre and parts of the Guildford Book Festival, run annually by the University of Surrey and Guildford Borough Council.

We promote / co-host:

Arts forums and lectures which are open to the public, examples being:

• Arts Question Time: Two sessions chaired by Michael Buerk and panellists including Brian Sewell, Thelma Holt, Sandi Toksvig, Max Stafford-Clark and Hilary Davan Wetton.

• Gala film evenings: These have included a Chinese Film Festival, a showing of ‘Born Free’ with on-stage introduction by Virginia McKenna, a French Film Festival attended by the French Ambassador and a showing of ‘The Dark Blue World’ featuring Czech air heroes who fought in the Battle of Britain, attended by the Czech Cultural Attaché.

We wish to encourage opportunities for young people to participate in workshops and other arts activities and we seek your views on ways and means of achieving this.

The promotion of arts events is of vital importance to encourage audiences to help sustain our cultural heritage. We in Guildford Arts give prominence to events of particular excellence in our Events Listing, in the columns of our periodic Newsletter and on our website.

Membership of Guildford Arts is open to all. It comprises individuals (who are supporters of the arts, amateur and professional artists and musicians) and groups (choirs, opera companies etc).

Please join us. See links to the left