Friday 1st May

‘Swing Into Summer’ – Tea Dance, 7.30pm-10.30pm

An Evening of Music and Dancing with Benita and Her Jazzmen

Inverkeithing Masonic Hall, Hope Street, KY11 1AU.

A jazzy night on the town with Benita and Her Jazzmen: Benita Baugh (vocalist), Sean Hughes (drums), David Graham (piano), John Vance (Bass), Bill Marshal (Clarinet). Ms Baugh and Mr Hughes are well known from their work with local favourites, the Inverkeithing Community Big Band (Facebook) Entry price for ‘Swing Into Summer’ included tea, coffee and delicious cake (created by Millbrae Cafe, High Street, Inverkeithing).

 

   

            

 

Local artist Rosie Gibson baked and decorated a May Day Cake especially for the event, which was raffled during the evening. She embellished the cake with a version of one of the ‘nuggets of wisdom’ from Generation 1925 -35 that she gathered in Inverkeithing and beyond, as part of her Luminate Festival of Creative Ageing art project:

“Work and Play as tho’ we are living in the early days of a better world.”

The nugget is derived from writer and artist Alisdair Gray’s “Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation”, which is engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament building. He attributes the quote to Canadian author Dennis Lee.

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Saturday 2nd May 2015

‘Spring Into Summer’ – Art & Craft Fair, 11am-5pm

Inverkeithing Civic Centre, Queen Street, KY11 1PA, free entry, all ages

We celebrated that freshness of early summer, the changing of the seasons, and the excitement of new possibilities. The Art and Craft Fair featured the work of hobbyists and professionals, both local and from further afield, and offered a range of items to suit all budgets: textiles and clothing, jewellery, paintings and drawings, ceramics, aromatherapy products, wooden crafts and much more.

Participating Artists: Annsdoodles, Black Rock Textiles, Hunter Aromatherapy, Earthen Images, Lainy Allison, Tom Bishop-de-Main, Filo di Lana, My Cherry Pie, Seacycle, Tartan Hearts, The Inverkeithing Sewing Group, Karen Trotter, Tubular by Lucie Macauley, Serenity, Bluebell Design, Darren McWilliam and Jenny Stewart. 

The event also featured:

• Free children’s creative activities, led by local artist volunteers
• A ‘Wee Beastie Hunt’ around the Art and Craft Fair
• THE BLOOMIN MARVELLOUS ART RAFFLE – featuring pieces donated by each of our participating artists and crafters. A great opportunity to own a beautiful work of original art.
• INVERKEITHING COMMUNITY FOOD GROUP – served a delicious homemade lunch made from locally sourced fresh ingredients – from 12.30pm in Inverkeithing’s gorgeous 14th century Friary, or ‘Hospitium of the Grey Friars’, Queen Street, KY11 1AU. Donations were welcomed and all proceeds went towards the development of the food group. For further information  about the Inverkeithing Food Group email InverkeithingFood@gmail.com and visit Facebook/InverkeithingFood.
• Information stall with information about setting up community and social enterprises.

I think everyone who was there will agree that the standard of art and crafts on show was incredibly high throughout the Fair.

IAI love to mix up all kinds of creative people at our Art and Craft Fairs, from community groups who create for fun, skills-building and community participation, to amateur hobbyists who like the social buzz of meeting with fellow creative folk, to professionals whose creative work provides their livelihood. We think this makes for a fascinating mix, one which caters for all kinds of visitors to the Art and Craft Fair, and for different tastes and budgets.

Local artist Rosie Gibson kindly volunteered to be the photographer at our most recent event – the  Spring Into Summer Art and Craft Fair on Saturday 2nd May 2015. Here are the fabulous images she captured of all of the bloomin’ marvellous creative people who took part.

  

Tom Bishop-de-Main                                                The Inverkeithing Sewing Group

  

Tubular, Karen Trotter, aisydaisy                           Seacycle

 

Hunter Aromatherapy                                             Darren McWilliam

 

Lainy Allison                                                             Annsdoodles

 

Earthen Images                                                         Jenny Stewart 

 

Bluebell Designs                                                       Black Rock Textiles 

Filo di Lana                                                               My Cherry Pie

Tartan Hearts                                                           Serenity

Our younger visitors had lots of fun making art works of their own at the kids activity table, and searching for the super-cute wee beasties, hidden at all the artists’  tables – supervised by volunteer Margaret Robertson and helped out by Ollie Kidd.

       volunteer Margaret Robertson at the kids activity table

With many thanks to The Inverkeithing Food Group for collaborating with Inverkeithing Arts Initiative for this event and providing an excellent lunch made from locally sourced ingredients for visitors at the Friary (next door to Inverkeithing Civic Centre). It was extremely popular and received a lot of praise! Thanks also for providing the IAI directors and volunteers with some well needed sustenance. Delicious!

Also many thanks to Celebrating Fife for their support of this event.

 Pre-event publicity

Inverkeithing Venues

images:’ Hospitium of the Grey Friers’, locally known as ‘The Friary’ and view from The Friary and Civic Centre

If you’ve never been in the Inverkeithing Civic Centre main hall you’ll find it’s a beautiful venue. It is large and airy, with big windows looking out onto the traditional ‘Inverkeithing children’s playfield’, and with an incredible view right across the bay to the Forth.