Dr Ollie Randall will be giving a talk on Literary Cricketers on tuesday 9th June at 7.30pm (doors open 7pm) This extra event will be held in Jubilee Hall, and cost of the talk and glass of wine or soft drink is £10. 

An application form and more information is available in "Documents" (go to "About us") on this website or at the next  Art Society meeting. 

We are sorry to announce the sad death of Philip Mayo.  He was our membership secretary until very recently and was a greatly valued, hardworking, efficient and important member of our society.

We send our condolences to his wife Lesley and all his family. He will be greatly missed.

We have now moved and are meeting at our new venue the Revival Christian Church, 47 London Road, Enfield, EN2 6DS. Come and join us.

Here is the letter you shpild have received for the new Trustees of the Art Society after the mass resignation of the previous ones.

Dear Members

We are pleased to introduce the new Board which has taken office following last Friday’s AGM.  In addition to our one continuing Trustee, we have 5 newly elected Trustees, and 3 further Trustees who we have co-opted to bring additional skills to the Board.  Individual biographies are now available on our website.
 
The new team has a high level of skills and expertise in the vital areas of Finance, Legal, Organisational Development, Marketing, IT and the Arts, to go with our experience, both as members, society officers, and as a lecturer.  We understand what The Arts Society means to so many.  We approach the task you have entrusted to us with a lot of ideas, with enthusiasm and with humility.  Best of all we know we have an excellent head office team to support us and you.
 
In some areas we know we need to move quickly, but our ambition is to consult widely as we develop a strategy to take The Arts Society on the next stage of its journey.  We want to take you all – members, lecturers and staff - with us.
 
These general principles will guide us:
 
1. We are both a National Association and a charity and so we have obligations both to you as members and also under charity law.  But we regard these obligations as complementary rather than conflicting, and believe it is very possible to satisfy both.
2. So our first priority is to restore the trust of Member Societies as being the focus of how The Arts Society delivers. We are committed to open and transparent communication.  We want to hear from you and we will respond to your questions and concerns as best we can.
3. We know the current model must develop to widen audiences, improve digital offerings and appeal to a younger demographic in a way that builds on what we have and is integral to The Arts Society.
4. A major emphasis will be on increasing membership through initiatives that can be implemented at a local level, but also through raising our profile by promoting The Arts Society nationally in a cost-effective way.
5. The maintenance of our high quality and responsive Head Office support is essential, and we will work with our experienced and loyal staff to ensure that this happens, despite recent senior departures, and at an affordable cost to societies.
6. Each society is independent but all can benefit from a co-operative approach, including sharing best practice, with the aid of the Area Teams, and we will encourage all members to embrace this.
7. The sale of the old head office building has given us a substantial windfall which will not be repeated. We do need to use those resources but we must spend wisely and prudently to secure our future.
 
We will be in touch with you again as our plans develop.  In the meantime for most of you the season is about to start.  We look forward to meeting and talking with many of you, and we wish you all the very best with your programmes.
 
Kind regards,

The Board of Trustees

Changes to the Arts Society Governance

The Trustee Board of the central Arts Society has produced  a document which proposes changes to  governance, which will directly affect local societies. Your committee discussed the document at length during our committee meeting on 19th February and, like many other local societies, feel the proposals will be detrimental to our society. We agreed unanimously to vote against these proposals at an Extraordinary General Meeting in April.  We will, of course, provide members with an update on how this issue develops in the next few weeks.

Due to illness the talk on April 27th will now be Patrick Craig who will speak on "Henry Pucell and the music of Westminter Abbey"

We are moving to

 The Enfield Baptist Church, Cecil Road, EN2 6TG in January 2023. The day and time of our meetings will remain the same - doors open from 10am for a 10.40 lecture on the last thursday in the month (except august and december). 

We look forward to seeing you at the Baptist Church on Thursday 26th January for the lecture by Tyler Butterworth - A bit of a Carry On. 

Our AGM for 2022 will be held on zoom at 10am on thursday November 10th. The link to join the emeeting will be sent to members via email a few days before.

Saint Paul's Community Centre closing in 2022

The trustees of our long term venue have decided to close the Hall at the end of 2022 giving us  very little notice.

We have looked at several local venues and have arranged with The Enfield Baptist Church, Cecil Road, EN2 6TG that we will move there in the new year. The day and time of our meetings will remain the same - doors open from 10am for a 10.40 lecture on the last thursday in the month (except august and december ).

Meanwhile our meetings until the end of 2022 will be at the Hall as usual. 

Our 25th November talk will be live at St Pauls.

For those who do not wish to attend we will also have it on zoom.

We are continuing to plan our thursday morning meetings on zoom for the present. As soon as we can we will return to St Paul's as we all are looking forward to seeing each other again in person.

The Committee of The Arts Society Enfield

For our AGM event this year we will be having a performance by Alexis Leighton and Helix Productions via Zoom.

This will be "In the Secret Garden of Frances Hodgson Burnett", who wrote Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden. it will focus on her life and works and last about 45 minutes. It is partiularly apt as a new film of the Secret Garden is due to be released very soon.

We very much hope you will join us at 10.30 on the 29th October, the Zoom details will be sent out a few days before and you are welcome to share them with friends and family if you know of anyone you think will be interested.

As you will be aware the AGM itself will be held just with the committee this year having got all your views in advance. The AGM papers will be sent out in early October and we would ask that you return them with your votes and comments by 2nd November 2020.

In view of the changes forced upon us by the coronavirus this year we have decided to put on an extra lecture via zoom on Thursday August 20th starting at 10.30am.

Members will receive the zoom details by email a few days before the talk and we are suggesting that if possible you invite a friend round if you know of one who would like to join us. It does not matter if they are a member or not. Or -if you prefer- forward the zoom details to them to watch from their own home - the talk is open to all with the zoom details.

Our speaker Nigel Bates has been a performer for more than 40 years in and out of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. he was Principal Percussionist with their orchestra  for seventeen years and also spent eight years as musical administrator of the Royal Ballet.

It should be an excellent event and we hope you can join us.

Dear member of the Arts Society Enfield

Due to the current situation with the spread of Coronavirus it is with great regret that we have made the decision to cancel the following meetings of the Art Society Enfield. These are the meetings at St Pauls Community Centre on

Thursday March 26th

Thursday April 30th

Thursday May 28th   

Thursday June 25th

Thursday July  30th                                                                   ALL CANCELLED

 September will be kept under review and let’s hope it can go ahead - perhaps with a booking system to contain numbers. A decision on this will need to be made by the end of August so you will hear at the beginning of September what we have decided.

The outing to Piccotts End  and the Coach trip are now both cancelled but hopefully can be reinstated next year (2021).  We have been in touch separately with those who have booked.

We are aware that not everyone gets their emails so if you come with a friend then please do give them a ring and check they are aware of our decision. We will be ringing those without an email address.

We do wish you all well and hope to see everybody in September.

Best wishes

Janet McQueen, on behalf of the Arts Society Enfield.

At the AGM Elaine Hill was confirmed as Honorary secretary and Peter Vokes and Yvonne Spencer were approved as Commitee members.

Thanks to all who attended. The minutes will be placed in "documents" when available.

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