ALMA Winter Arts Festival

About

Friday 29th November –  Sunday 1st December 2024

A Celebration of Creativity + Community

Introducing the inaugural ALMA Winter Arts Weekend (WAW)! Part of the Be Newquay Festival, happening on the closing weekend of the festival, WAW is a vibrant gathering of artists, storytellers, musicians and makers, from Cornwall and beyond. Join us for a weekend filled with fun and creativity as we brighten the winter months and celebrate community. 

Explore and celebrate Newquay’s history and heritage through an array of high-quality, engaging and accessible art and cultural experiences. 

The programme offers something for everyone, aiming to connect people to the town, its extraordinary landscape, and each other. 

Below is a run-down of the weekend programme.

Friday 29th November

Organ recital and mulled wine 

St Michael’s Church Hall, Newquay 

6pm – 7pm

Free – just drop-in

To mark the start of the Winter Arts Weekend, we are thrilled to welcome organist Martin Palmer to Newquay for a special performance at St Michael’s. As the town prepares for the Christmas Light Switch On celebrations, join us for a glass of mulled wine and listen to the wonderful sounds of the organ at St Michael’s Church.

Saturday 30th November

Opening Ceremony Story Telling with Recalling Fire

St Michael’s Church Hall, Newquay 

10am - 11am

Free – just drop-in

To mark the first full day of the Winter Arts Weekend, join Sam and Alex of Recalling Fire and wander along the byways of the “otherworld” as seen by Newquay’s ancient forebears. Suitable for all ages, this story-telling session promises to ignite a spark of curiosity as we delve into Newquay’s amazing past! There will be warm drinks and food from our friends at Agweres.

Find out more at www.recallingfire.com

Community Flag Making Workshop

St Michael’s Church Hall, Newquay  

11.00am – 4.00pm

£10 pp

Join artist Amy Brock-Morgan for a fun and collaborative community flag making workshop as part of the ALMA Winter Arts Weekend. The workshop is open to everyone age 16+. No skills or prior experience required. All materials provided.

Book Tickets – there’s ONLY a FEW tickets left!

At sites across Newquay, experience exciting and inspiring artworks and installations by artists working across all disciplines.

Tom Sewell Works on Paper
Collage, drawing and cyanotypes

Now showing at Newquay Orchard Heart & Soul Cafe

9.30am – 4.00pm daily

Free, drop-in

Tom’s work investigates human relationships with nature. Using research into (pre)history, mythology, archaeology, language, landscape and life to offer ideas of a space that can be used to transit the porous border between nature and culture; questioning that dualism and exploring how that border moves through time and space. Tom’s work touches on ideas of speculative fiction and utopian-idealist narratives. At the core of it I’m asking, where are we?

Art Installation by Leila Galloway

The Fly Cellars, Newquay

11.00am – 3pm daily

Free, drop-in

Hebaska is both the Cornish word for calm and new work that will transform the Fly Loft, a cavernous space previously used for storing pilchards, above Newquay Harbour. The installation is a re-working of the organza originally exhibited in a collaborative installation Sound Solid Liquid Light, shown at Two Queens, Leicester, earlier this year with artists SJ Blackmore, Naomi Frears and Alice Mahoney.

This installation will be accompanied by performance violinist Juliet Walshe on Saturday 30 November, 1pm – 3pm.

 

Moogie Wonderland Workshop

St Michael’s Church Hall, Newquay

1.00 -3.00pm

SOLD OUT

Learn how to make electronic music on modular synths and how to create visuals using live programming software.

FREE Family + Drop-in Activities

St Michael’s Church Hall, Newquay

Free, drop-in

10am – 4pm

Following on from the story telling session with Recalling Fire to launch the festival at 10am (as above), there will be family-friendly drop-in activities:

11am – 2pm: Drop-in art sessions for kids, young people + families run by Newquay based artist Delphine Gwilliam-O’Connor

2pm – 4pm: Make a Mini Monolith drop-in clay workshop for kids, young people and families.

The New Eves & Daisy Rickman

St Michael’s Church, Newquay

Doors at 6pm

£15 pp

ALMA is honoured to present a special evening with live music from The New Eves and Daisy Rickman in St. Michael's Church in Newquay.

BOOK TICKETS

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Sunday 1st December

A Day of Monolith Celebrations

St Michael’s Church, Newquay  

2.00 – 6.00pm

Pay by donation (suggested: £15)

ALMA and Stone Club invite you to a curated day of celebration, music and conversation as we explore The Newquay Monoliths - a new public sculpture commission for Newquay, created by artist Robin Sullivan. 

With artist talks, family art workshops and live music from the inimitable Angeline Morrison, it promises to be a beautiful finale to the Winter Arts Weekend.

BOOK TICKETS.

Seaweed Pressing with The Seaweed Institute

WI Hall, Newquay

10am – 12.30pm

£10 pp

Join Alma to learn the craft of seaweed pressing - a Victorian practice that captures the underwater beauty of seaweeds.

During the workshop you will learn to recognise and identify local seaweed species. The cultural history of seaweeds will be discussed, as well its agricultural, scientific and ecological uses. You will learn how to forage, store and use abundant local seaweeds.

BOOK TICKETS

The Be Newquay Festival is a new season of events, activities and workshops that celebrate Newquay’s culture and creative spirit. Throughout each weekend in November, the festival will be taking place at various venues across the town. Find out what else is on the programme here.

The Be Newquay Festival has been curated by Cornwall Council project ‘Experience Newquay’ in collaboration with local project partners Love Newquay and Visit Newquay. It is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.