Lark in the Park 2018

A good day, with lots of different activities, although the weather was a bit rainy.
The canopy tent had a good range of performers, magician, harpist, spoons workshops, spoken word poets. Also arts activities.

LUMINATE Lantern & Light Festival

A wonderful Luminate festival at the start of November, over 200 people came along, the weather was dry, a bit chilly but perfect for a lantern procession. 

We were accompanied by violinist, Helen Hitchcock, together with Chip Off The Old Morris team, musicians and dances, and Mick McNaught providing guitar and hurdy-gurdy music in the Orangery.
The Friends of Derby Arboretum helped organise the event, supervising the sculptures, making and serving the hot soup and taking photos. Well done to everyone for a great community event.

We invited artists to create light sculptures for around the park as well as having 100 lanterns to carry in the procession. 

Patrick and Ria Ashcroft, Green Man and Ice Queen

Luminate Lantern & Light Festival 2016

Wow, what a wonderful festival we had last Saturday. 

Friends of Derby Arboretum, Spiral Arts, Rotary Club of Derby and Derby City Council Parks hosted a magical Lantern Festival on the historic Derby Arboretum as part of its community celebrations.

They were celebrating the park in its anniversary year of being open to the public for 175 years.  They invited the local community and people of Derby to come along and they had a great turnout of over 150 people joining the Lantern event.

The event started at 5pm with local families and friends gathering at the Orangery in the Arboretum. Lanterns made from willow and tissue paper, were distributed to everyone and they stepped out into the night air to watch the first dance from the Morris Team ‘Chip off the Old’.

The procession began towards the Boar statue accompanied by magical music from violinist, Helen Hitchcock together with ‘Chip off the Old’ Musicians. The procession trail wound its way down the paths towards the fountain which was covered by twinkling tealight candles. The Morris team danced their way around the park, towards the Community Garden and then led us back to the Orangery. The crowd were pleased to warm up with hot soup and rolls and more magical music and dancing. The lanterns made a beautiful display outside of the Orangery building, they will remain on display in the Orangery until Friday 11^th November.

‘Such a lovely event, the lanterns looked beautiful, we really enjoyed taking part’ Lesley Marshall ‘Chip off the Old’ Morris dancer.

‘We were very pleased with the success of the event, the whole community got involved, and it was lovely to see all ages joining in. It was a great way to celebrate 5^th November. I hope this event becomes an annual celebration bringing the community together. The Friends of Derby Arboretum are working hard to make the park a welcoming, inviting place to enjoy and meet.’ Jenny Anthony, Creative Director Spiral Arts

Lantern making

We were busy making lanterns at St James Juniors, at Madeley Youth Centre as well as drop in sessions in the park.
They all made our Luminate lantern festival look wonderful.

Luminate Lantern & Light Festival 2016

On Saturday 5 November 2016 5pm - 8pm, Friends of Derby Arboretum, Spiral Arts, Rotary Club of Derby and Derby City Council Parks are hosting a Lantern Festival on the historic Derby Arboretum as part of its community celebrations.

We are celebrating the park in its anniversary year of being open to the public for 175 years.  We are inviting the local communities and people of Derby to come along and join us for this wonderful evening Lantern event.

The event will start around 5pm with people gathering at the Orangery in the Arboretum. There will be a simple lantern activity for people to take part in while everyone gathers for the procession. We have a Morris Dance performance from ‘Chip off the Old’ starting off the celebrations at the Orangery.

The procession will begin at 5.40pm leaving the Orangery and processing around the park accompanied by magical music from violinist, Helen Hitchcock and a Morris dance performance at the fountain. Weather permitting, there will be illuminations displayed in the trees around the park and the fountain. We will return to the Orangery to warm up with hot soup and rolls and more magical music and dancing. Grove Lodge and the Orangery building will be decorated with lights and lanterns.

The lanterns will be on display in the Orangery until Friday 11^th November.

If you would like to make a lantern see our 'park workshops' page for details of our free lantern making workshops in half term.

'Lark in the Park' @ Derby Arboretum

Come along and enjoy the summer celebration

'Lark in the Park' at the Derby Arboretum

Sunday 21 August 12 noon til 4pm

Stalls, activities, music performances, games, refreshments, cakes, owls, paper rockets, RSPB, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, storytelling, sports, Derbyshire Fire Service, Photography competition, WW1 Green Spaces Exhibition and more...

Hope to see you there

A Wonderful Spring Celebration in the Arboretum Park

A wonderful day was spent last Sunday celebrating the spring sunshine and having fun on the park.
Pancake races, egg decorating, drumming, owl display, ice-creams, relaxing in the park, daffodils and crocuses.Well done to everyone involved who worked with us for a fabulous day, the Friends of the Park, the Rotary Club, the Community Cafe, and the Council Parks Dept.

Bunting up

Floral Display in the Orangery 

  

Bottle Blooms

Drumming Circle

  

Relaxing in the park

Pancake Racing

Arboretum Spring Fest - Sunday 20 March

New ‘Friends’ Group celebrates Spring in the Arboretum

On Sunday 20^th March the newly formed Friends of Derby Arboretum group and the Rotary Club of Derby are organising a Spring Fest which will include various activities to celebrate Spring in this wonderful city centre park. A key theme will be the pancake in all its forms.

There will be many activities including pancake races, pancake decorating, spring hat making, a drumming workshop, floral exhibition in the Orangery, clothes and bric-a-brac sales, craft activities and a photography competition. It is intended that it will not be limited to the traditional English form of pancake but will represent all cultural forms. So naans, chapattis, anything that is cooked in a pan and can be tossed!

The organisers are calling for any local groups or businesses to enter teams of four in the ‘pancake’ tossing relay races. The entry fee will be £5 per team. Contact Richard Benfield on 01332 824403 for an entry form.

The photography competition is open to all amateurs and is aimed at finding inspiring images of this historic and beautifully laid out park in Spring.

Luminate Lantern & Light Festival

Luminate Lantern

& Light Festival

in the Derby Arboretum

Thurs 26^th November 2015

There will be a choir performance, lantern procession, illuminations around the park, followed by soup & rolls.

Meet at the Orangery - 3.30pm finishing about 6.00pm.

The lanterns will be on display in the Orangery till Monday 30thNovember

                      For further information contact spiral_arts@hotmail.co.uk            


funded by People's Health Trust using money raised by Healthcalm through The Health Lottery
       

Luminate Lantern workshops

We have begun our lantern-making for our Luminate Lantern and Light Festival on 26 Nov. We delivered workshops over the half term holidays with participants of every age. We made star shapes and owl shapes using willow and tissue as well as glass jar lanterns to decorate the fountain in the park.
Go to the news page to see details for the Festival.

Beeston Well Dressing

Another lovely celebration at Broxtowe Community Celebration, we created a well dressing to celebrate Culture.
We do enjoy being part of this festival.

Roundhill Multicultural Festival

We are always pleased to be asked to attend this fantastic event. Once again we provided a participatory activity in the form of a Well dressing. 
There were some very keen helpers who made sure we finished in time to take it over to the Beeston library, where it was displayed in the gallery space upstairs.

Artworks at Wirksworth

We spent a busy 2 days up at the Wirksworth Festival being arty with Wirksworth's young creatives.

Animal Art ~ Monkey Masks, Crazy Crocodiles, Weaving Birds

Puppet Art ~ Pop-up Insect Puppets, Jumping Jack Horses, People Puppets

Musical Art ~ Groovy Guitars, Shiny Shakers, Twirling Drums

Flying Art ~ Whirling Windsocks

Everyone very busy creating

Very attractive monkey masks!

Woven Birds

Insect Pop Ups

Groovy Guitars

Pour the lentils in here Maureen!

Choosing smiley face stickers.

A big thank you to Headteacher Mrs Poyser

for allowing us to the school and for making us feel so welcome.