This newsletter is normally emailed weekly, to inform you of local events, clubs, businesses, community organisations, services, support, and volunteering opportunities.

Welcome to the 27th April edition of Ulverston News. It seems that Spring might have arrived for a few days, so let's enjoy the warmer weather while we can.

This week, by pure accident and definitely not because of any conscious planning, many of our articles are about art. We hope that you enjoy our unintended art edition. If you want to share or read more about any other topic of general local interest in future editions, please get in touch.

Remember, there is always a lot more happening in the area than we can fit into this newsletter. For the latest events information, visit ulverston.com.

Artworks Art4All CIC is a volunteer run not for profit company (yep completely run by volunteers!), and is the winner of the Oak Tree Love Barrow Award 2024. We want to create an art hub for the community so we can support people who have mental health, isolation, low income, or disability issues.

We need a space where we can hold workshops for all ages, abilities and artyness! It needs to be accessible for all, so ideally ground floor or with a lift. It also needs a sink for washing brushes etc, and it needs to have a toilet on the same floor.

We know there aren’t many low cost properties available in the Barrow area. If you know anywhere, or know a business that would like to support an accessible community art hub, please let them know!

The photo above shows one of our monthly art classes for the Furness Stroke Group. We work regularly with groups with a range of abilities, and we can adapt projects so that they are fully inclusive. The Stroke Group has explored gelliprinting and printing onto fabric, papermaking, writing memories of times by the sea, making foam clay pots, Christmas baubles, and painting with natural dyes.

Please share and help ArtWorks Art4All CIC continue to create community art projects and events. Each of our projects engages with over 900 people in the Furness area. 

Website: Friendly Ghost

We're delighted to feature this photograph by young professional photographer, Kasper Emery. Kas is currently studying Event Technology at The Academy of Live Technology. Kas already has an extensive portfolio, and a website where you can view previous work. Kas is looking to do some festival or event photography, and would love to get pictures of the upcoming festivals in Ulverston. If you're looking for a photographer or want to know more, please visit the website and send a message.

Website: Current vacancies

If you enjoy driving, meeting new people and would like to help your local community we want you and your wheels to join our Voluntary Car Service.

Every day our non-emergency Patient Transport Service assists hundreds of people to attend a variety of medical appointments and this is supported by a dedicated team of volunteer car drivers.

For the patients they help, our volunteer drivers provide a friendly face and listening ear by putting them at ease during what can be an anxious and stressful time. They provide that personal touch to brighten their day as they collect a patient from their home, help get them to where they need to be at the hospital and make sure they get safely back to their own home.

Our drivers often become a regular part of someone’s life and for some their journeys together may be the only chance a patient has to get out of the house for days or even weeks.

The service currently has more than 200 volunteer drivers who come from all different walks of life and have a shared aim to help lend a hand. However, it’s not just the patients that benefit as our volunteers see and feel the difference that they are making to someone else’s life.

All fuel costs and additional expenses are refunded and full training is provided. You don’t need to have any previous medical experience; all we want is a friendly and caring attitude.

We encourage applications from drivers of all ages, from all communities and cultures. For more information please email the team on VCS.Recruitment@nwas.nhs.uk.

For those who have retired from work but never from life

Furness u3a was started in 2006 to promote learning and enhance the quality of life and its enjoyment for people who are no longer in full time employment. We are part of the u3a movement in the UK, which has over 1,000 u3as with 450,000 members. Furness u3a has some 600 members.

Furness u3a is run by its members. We have over 40 different interest groups from Walking to World History. You can see what activity groups there are and what events we run by looking at our website furnessu3a.org. We also have monthly meetings with guest speakers presenting on everything from Bee Keeping to BAE’s latest site developments. We run a drop-in session once a month where selected activity groups showcase what they do to members, especially new members. We provide help with annoying frustrating computer problems through our computer helpdesk. Again, further details are provided on our website.

All these activities are provided by volunteer members which is why our annual membership fee and event charges are so low. Our current annual membership costs only £14 a year. Our monthly meetings charge is only £2 and that gets you a guest speaker and tea/coffee. We also have a great Christmas party with food, drink, and entertainment.

Furness u3a is a very interesting and involving way that retired people can remain mentally, physically, and socially active with like minded people. So have a look at our website and if you like what you see join us. We will also be at the Retro Rendezvous Festival on Saturday 1st June if you want to talk to us there. Our stand will be easy to spot.

PromArt showcases fine art and crafts from some of the regions finest and most respected artisans along the Victorian Promenade at Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria in the Southern Lake District. If you love art it’s a great day out!

Each month there are up to 80 stalls set up ready to display a wide range of beautiful original art work and crafts on the Promenade overlooking the beautiful Morecambe Bay estuary.

PromArt has earned it’s reputation as the best and largest Art and Crafts fair in Cumbria. Come and see why at our next event!

Event Dates 2024

Sunday April 28th 2024
Sunday May 12th 2024
Sunday May 26th 2024
Sunday June 9th 2024
Sunday June 30th 2024
Sunday July 28th 2024
Sunday August 25th 2024
Sunday September 29th 2024

Website: Printfest

This year is a celebration of 21 years of Printfest!

Printfest has been quoted as one of the most important print fairs in the national calendar. It is dedicated to the exhibition and sale of contemporary hand-made prints. It offers the public the opportunity to view and purchase quality affordable artworks direct from the artists and learn more about printmaking. It is a rare opportunity for the best of the UK’s printmakers to gather under one roof, share practice and learn from each other.

17 venues and six cafès are taking part in Ulverston Fringe, celebrating the arts & culture over the Printfest weekend. You can download a map to find out more.

23 schools have submitted work in response to a prepared brief as part of the Printfest in Schools programme. Their work will be displayed at The Coro up the stairwells, along the corridor, in the Supper Room, and on a reel on continuous display in the Vintage Bakes cafè: you can have a cuppa while you watch it.

You can also become a Friend of Printfest and get a little bit of red carpet treatment.

Website: Ford Park Events

Not just one FREE event, but two FREE events at the same time. Come along to enjoy the day, and support our local car enthusiasts and artists.

Art in the Park takes place in the walled garden and Coach House. This is the first of two Art in the Park events at Ford Park this year, showcasing some amazing local artists, including Peter and Marie Graves, Val Stangoe, Rebecca Bennett, Sarah Brown, and Nisha Halo.

The car show takes place in the main part of Ford Park, where you'll see all manner of vintage cars and bikes. There are almost 70 exhibits registered. You are welcome to talk to the owners, who are always keen to share stories of their pride and joy.

There will be a bouncy castle and face painter to help keep little ones happy, and several food and drink vendors so you can make the most of these two fabulous events.

Tickets: Book here

One of the finest and most loved duos on the British and World folk/roots stages.

“They light up the room with their amazing energy”, James Taylor.

Truly gifted human beings”, Richard Hawley.

With 30 years of unrivaled musical partnership and gathering numerous nominations, awards and critical acclaim along the way, much beloved British singer-songwriters Chris While and Julie Matthews celebrated a quarter of a century last year as one of the best loved and most prolific female duos to come out of this country.

They have played more than 2,600 gigs, appeared on over 100 albums, written hundreds of original songs and reached millions of people around the world. They are also part of female super group, Daphne’s Flight (Helen Watson, Melanie Harrold & Miranda Sykes) and Christmas band, St. Agnes Fountain with Fairport’s Chris Leslie. Now, 30 years after their debut, they sound as fresh and vital as ever.

2024 marks their 30th anniversary and will see the release of their 12th studio album as well as several festival appearances throughout the summer, then culminating in an extensive celebratory tour in October.

It’s a real honour just to be an audience member but I’ve had the added honour of standing on a stage with them playing along in the background, things like that I’ll treasure forever, truly gifted human beings”, Richard Hawley.

“Chris While is the best singer in England”, Eddi Reader.

Froots simply called Julie Matthews “awesomely talented”.

Chris While (vocals, guitar, banjo, dulcimer, bodhran and percussion) & Julie Matthews (vocals, piano, guitar, mandolin and bouzouki) are stunning singers, songwriters, musicians and performers whose energy and commitment to their craft and their audience is boundless.

Though internationally acclaimed, they continue to be a leading force on the UK’s acoustic/roots arts circuit. Their songs cover life as they see it, from the industrial waste lands of the north, to injustice and freedom, matters of the heart and everything in between. Their songs are covered by many revered singers the world over but it is While & Matthews’ musical partnership and obvious joy of performing together that really brings their songs to life. As performers they are unrivaled and their audiences leave their concerts having been through an emotional journey.

Chris and Julie have been nominated ten times in the BBC Radio 2 Folk music awards in the ‘Best Song, Best Duo, Best Live Act’ categories and winning Best Duo in 2009 but it is their longstanding and devoted growing fans that they care about most.

Tickets online £15. There will be a bar so no need to bring refreshments.

Tickets: Book here

Centred around an extraordinary letter written by Renaissance composer/lutenist John Dowland to spymaster Sir Robert Cecil in 1595, this spell-binding concertplay (where music and theatre collide) by award-winning writer Clare Norburn and BAFTA-nominated director Nicholas Renton imagines what might have happened next.

I, Spie tells the story of how John Dowland manages to foil an Italian plot on the life of Queen Elizabeth I and his ensuing grisly dealings with the Secret Service. Think Blackadder meets Spooks, 16th Century-style! But ultimately, Dowland’s fate is in your hands as you’ll vote on how the show should end.

The drama is accompanied by music by John Dowland and his contemporaries, alongside Elizabethan tavern, street and courtly masque music performed by The Telling.