Canolfan Porthceri Centre

Canolfan Porthceri held a pretty good quiz night at The Park Hotel last Friday. I was a bit worried when I arrived and there were only about 4 people there, but it soon filled up nicely, and we ended up with ten teams. After the third question I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t be able to answer ANY, but fortunately, the topics broadened out and I started to get one or two right. In addition to four standard Q and A rounds, there were two Picture quiz rounds, and I’m pleased to relate that I did better on the Star Wars one than the Celebrities one!

The final team scores were -

• Pukka Bandits (36)
• The Gardeners (48)
• The Stargazers (49)
• The InterContinentals (24)
• Thee Misfits (44)
• No Overall Control (49)
• The Expendables (42)
• Where’s Kenny (48)
• The Whipper Snappers (46)
• Team Porthceri (55)

As Team Porthceri had obviously rigged the result, after much verbal abuse (mainly from me) they decided to forfeit the result, and the prize went to the joint runners-up.

The bag of compost that has apparently been circulating local raffles was sent on its way, along with a few other (perhaps more coveted) prizes.

Special Thanks to Craig (Crag) Palmer, our Question Master, and to Mark Davies for his work on the questions.

And we made £190 for the funds!

Jeff Howard will be leading our choral day on 29th July. I wonder what music he’ll choose to do?

Went to meet Devinder and Anna about having a Word 4 Word event, possibly also on the 29th July.  I wandered along past Scarlet’s in Broad Sreet thinking that this might be a good venue, and lo and behold I find that there’s a book group meets there.  Must make contact…

We now have a Twitter account thanks to Pat. @BarryArtsFest

In the last 72 hours we have had three meetings with a community art group, an arts council officer and a well-known local politician. We’ve confirmed details of an event featuring a national literary figure, booked four venues and put publicity out for our wall-hanging project. Great strides have been made!

Pat and Dot met with Tracey Harding a few days ago. Tracey is the Vale Arts Development officer and she’s responsible for the Barry Summer School which is being regenerated this year during the summer. We’ve reached the sensible conclusion that Canolfan Porthceri Centre and the Vale should collaborate to deliver a festival that’s got the biggest WOW factor. Lots to do for this festival – we need a name for the event for starters…

The meeting on February 11th was well attended – about 40 people in total, plus “us five” and Cllr. Rhodri Traherne who had agreed to chair the meeting for us.

A number of organisations were represented, including three or four amateur dramatics and dance groups, two or three art groups, photographic groups, plus some individual artists and music teachers. The Save Our Cinema Association (SOCA) were represented, and the Baruc ward councillors Nic Hodges and Steffan William were also present, along with a few local residents.

Following a brief introduction by Rhodri, Catrin gave a brief presentation on the project, before the floor was thrown open for discussion. The general tone of the discussion was supportive, although some of the questions asked confirmed that we need to do a better job of letting people know what we are about – and a website rewrite will be required.

As part of the meeting, a simple questionnaire was circulated, and we had about 18 responses to this, with a number of people indicating that they would be prepared to help on the management side of the project, and give us their public support. We’ll be working on this in the next few weeks.

Thanks to all that attended, and to Councillor Traherne for chairing the meeting.

Canolfan Porthceri Centre invites you to an open meeting on Saturday the 11th of February at 10am in Windsor Road United Reformed Church.  The meeting will be chaired by Rhodri Traherne, Vale Cabinet member for Economic Development and Regeneration and chair of the Barry Regeneration Board.

The purpose of the meeting is:

•     to provide an update on progress
•     to consult opinion of interested groups
•     to establish common ground with other groups
•     to find a way forward

Here is the agenda:

10.30      Welcome
10.35      Presentation  by Canolfan Porthceri Centre
10.45      Open discussion chaired by Rhodri
11.15      Summing up and way forward
11.30      Close (perhaps a little optimistic but let’s aim to finish promptly!)

If you are interested in making this happen or just want to find out what’s going on please come along.

Groups and individual members of the community are equally welcome

In March of this year National Theatre Wales (NTW ) is offering a unique opportunity to communities in South Wales.  In January NTW called for submissions to its Assembly project, and a project proposal by Dot (CPC Chair) has been short-listed.

The project asks the question “Can groups in Barry work together to access Regeneration funds before the money runs out”, and the proposal is supported by a short video.  The winning project is chosen by an online vote, and to view the short-listed projects and register your vote go to http://assembly.nationaltheatrewales.org.

If the project wins, a team from National Theatre Wales will spend one month in Barry working with the community, culminating in a bespoke piece of theatre designed to resolve the problem, or answer the question posed in the original proposal.

To find out more about what would happen if Barry wins go to http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profiles/blogs/call-for-proposals-for-assembly-1-south-wales

You may have seen the announcement in the Barry Gem and the Barry & District News regarding a public meeting next Saturday, 4th February.

Well, it’s still planned, but due to an unexpected challenge, it’s been moved a week later – so it’ll now be on the 11th February!

Sorry! Hope you can still make it!