Bridport Art & Culture

"Bridport Art & Culture" is lively view of the eclectic arts and cultural scene in and around Bridport in West Dorset. This historic market town and its surrounding villages are home to many artists, craftspeople and writers.

For more information about Bridport Art & Culture please visit http://www.spiritofbridport.org/

Bridport hosts an astonishing variety of festivals and events, including Bridport Hat Festival, Bridport Open Studios, gig boat racing and the Torchlight Procession, all of which feature in the film. We see inside the studios of artists Kit Glaisyer, David Risk Kennard, Andrew Leppard, sculptor Greta Berlin (http://gb.c8.com/biography.html), potters at New House Farm in Broadoak, Sladers Yard gallery in West Bay and Eype Centre for the Arts (St Peter's church, in this video showing work by Michael Devlin Taylor).

There's a haunting dance performance of the intercultural love poem Antara, written by Jo-Jo Spinks and performed by Interwoven Productions at Bridport Arts Centre. Painter Marion Taylor talks about Colmers Hill and the Wessex Military Band perform in Bucky-Doo Square in Bridport. There's also glimpses of local performers including Tinker's Cuss, FreAK Circus, Bridport Ukelele Group and AC/Beebies.

The writer Richard Mabey is seen on stage at Bridport's Electric Palace with Sue Clifford, formerly of Common Ground, giving local publisher Little Toller Books' first Kenneth Allsop Memorial Talk.

The film also includes two original pieces of music composed and performed by Andrew Dickson, who lives near Bridport, and is known for his award-winning compositions for film director Mike Leigh. The first piece, 'Saw', is performed on a musical saw, guitar and piano, and the second, 'Dance Piece', is performed on piano, guitar and viola (copyright Andrew Dickson 2013, all rights reserved; both used with Andrew's permission in this video).

Bridport Art & Culture is one of three videos filmed and edited by Bridport-based Watershed PR for The Spirit of Bridport group (http://www.spiritofbridport.org). The other two videos are Bridport Food & Drink and Bridport Landscape & Seascape. All three were filmed by Jonathan Hudston, Stephen Banks and Nick Gilbey, and directed and edited by Stephen and Jonathan. The producer was Sara Hudston. See http://www.watershedpr.co.uk The project was part financed by the European Agricultural Fund for European Development 2007- 2013: Europe Investing in Rural Areas and delivered through the Chalk & Cheese Local Action Group with Defra as the managing authority.