Hi everyone...

A quick reminder that we are having a virtual get together Monday 26th in the evening at 5pm, link is here: CHAOS Zoom

We're continuing to create a bit of online space for everyone to connect, have a chat, and see how we are all doing.

The meetings coming up for the rest of 2020 are

23rd November @10am Zoom link
21st December @ 5pm Zoom link

Pop those in your diary... we'll send reminders in the monthly newsletters. You'll see that we've alternated mornings and early evenings which will hopefully help accommodate everyone. Until we know we can safely gather as a merry group, we'll be keeping it on Zoom.

City of Culture bid
The bid for Southampton to become UK City of Culture for 2025 has begun and CHAOS will be working with the bid team to provide a space for creatives in the city to be part of the conversation. To get involved visit the City of Culture 2025 CHAOS Forum, you'll need to sign up to the CHAOS Network. It's so important that we can have a say in this bid, everyone is welcome (and encouraged!) to take part, more on the bid a bit later....

By signing up to become a CHAOS member you'll be part of the growing online community for people involved in arts, heritage and culture in Southampton. You'll have access to news, groups and forums, providing a space for people and organisations to connect and collaborate, continuing and supporting what we currently do at our CHAOS meetings. To join is free and we'll be working together to provide training, skills sharing and other great initiatives. We're looking forward to welcoming you to the CHAOS Community.

Take a look below to see what's going on in the City this month, including talks, workshops and exhibitions.

Here's the regular blurb about all of this: The CHAOS Network aims to bring together Creative, Heritage and Arts Organisations of Southampton. Whether you are a creative business, a voluntary arts group or an independent artist, we'd love to see you at the next network meeting, everyone is welcome to discuss all things cultural in the city. Bring your news and events, do some networking and have a coffee with us (virtually!).

Take care,

Becky Honeycombe-Foster
CHAOS Coordinator

This autumn The Point, Eastleigh is delighted to be re-opening its doors for a number of events and opportunities for participants and members of the community.

October Half-Term Creative Workshops
During the October Half-Term holiday, there’s an exciting line-up of workshops for 8 year olds and up, to get creative and let their imaginations run wild!

During Arts Explorers day (26th Oct) 8-11 year olds will explore the world of the arts and complete an Arts Award Discover too; Superhero School (27th Oct) will be an action packed day of daring and adventure; young theatre enthusiasts can also enrol onto Monster Academy (28th Oct) for spooky goings on, beastly games and activities; We Create Holiday Clubs (26th & 28th Oct) are inclusive arts sessions for 11-17 year olds with additional needs, mixing dance, drama, music and crafts; and 14+ year olds can work with a professional filmmaker to develop their skills and make their own mini-film at the Young Filmmakers workshop (31st Oct).

Class Programme

A selection of the venue’s classes have now resumed, offering something for a range of ages and abilities, whilst inspiring creativity and promoting wellbeing. Including contemporary and tap dance for adults, inclusive arts sessions for adults with additional needs and a social and uplifting online movement session designed specifically for the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
For the full class programme and more information visit The Point’s website.

Café Bar

The Point is also delighted that its cafe bar is now reopening on Saturdays from 10am to 3pm, as well as every week day 10am to 2pm.

Customers can book a table for up to six people online or speak to the venue’s friendly staff upon arrival to reserve a space. The Box Office has not yet reopened, so please don't try to call to book a table.

If you have a smart device, please download the NHS Covid-19 Test & Trace app to check in. The venue also has an offline pen & paper system in place.

Book your table and read our Safe and Social guidelines before you visit here.

Winter Jewels Online 2020

As we are unable to have our usual Winter Jewels exhibition this year, we have designed a Winter Jewels Gallery to showcase the work of many of your favourite jewellers at ACJ Wessex. Find out more here

Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America
Showing at SeaCity Museum until 8th November
Wampum: Stories from the Shells of Native America is the story of Wampanoag Native America. The Wampanoag people have lived in north eastern America for 12,000 years. Their nation extended beyond Boston, into Central Massachusetts and south to Rhode Island. The Mayflower passengers arrived there in 1620. Yet for almost 400 years, the impact of the Mayflower’s arrival on the Wampanoag Nation has been widely marginalised in the telling of Mayflower history. Wampum belts are of cultural, sacred and symbolic significance to the Wampanoag nation. Through wampum belts, the Wampanoag share stories of their communities and culture. The newly crafted wampum belt has been created by more than 100 artisans from the Wampanoag nation and consists of 5,000 handcrafted beads.

Find out more and book tickets here

Belonging
The Mayflower story began with the epic voyage of the pilgrims, in search of the New World and finding their site of belonging. It is a story of persecution, hope and challenges they encountered as they negotiated a new regrouping of communities to call it home.

Led by Art Asia, You can participate in Belonging in various ways. Through music, storytelling, and craftwork. These will be captured in the form of song, music, words, poems, craft, colour, and sound into a multi-sensory art installation that represents a home or a site of belonging. Would you like to see your creation, songs and stories in an installation in West Quay? Visit our website to Watch the videos and download the PDFs for more on how to get involved.

And coming soon: Shadows and light
24 Oct 2020 – 23 Jan 2021 at Southampton City Art Gallery
The exhibition title is taken from the Joni Mitchell song, Shadows and Light (1971), which declares that ‘Every picture has its shadows, And it has some source of light….’. The illuminating properties of colonial settlements casts deep and dark shadows over the world they have helped to forge. The European settlers brought new diseases to the Wampanoag people, whose population had been decimated prior to the settlers’ arrival with the lives of half of the local indigenous population dying, probably from a smallpox epidemic. This exhibition, which forms part of Southampton’s Mayflower 400 programme, is not about the Mayflower voyage specifically, but rather is an analogy for the voyage and arrival of the settlers, using historic and modern works of art.

Find out more here

Tracie’s Latin Classes are now OPEN & also available for hire

Fancy a change in your life? Then join us to learn Ballroom Waltz, Argentine Tango, Salsa, Bachata, Cha Cha, Latin Jive etc etc
Take your first step in the right direction with us - at the TLC Covid-secure dance school
Classes are throughout the week Mondays – Fridays and there’s something for everyone at TLC. Please take a look at the website

Our lovely covid-secure dance studio is also available for hire during the day, with onsite parking – click here for details

Tracie’s Latin Club, St Barnabas Church Hall, Lodge Road, SO14 6QS

We're now running live socially distanced sessions!

This half term we’ve got spooky clay pumpkins and designer broomsticks at the Southampton City Art Gallery as well as Awesome Egyptians at SeaCity Museum. You can find out more and book here

We also have a Where’s Wally? Spooky Museum Search! At the gallery until 31 October. We’re delighted to have been shosen as a partner venue for this project by Kids in Museums. All visitors are welcome to take part. Visit the Gallery website for details of how to book tickets.

a Space's current online exhibition Ripe Tomatoes is running until 31st October.

It showcases outstanding work by a group of recent graduates from Solent University and Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

The project will provide an opportunity for 18 emerging artists to exhibit a recent body of work in a new virtual gallery space: The Alfred Arcade. The artists will meet via Zoom, exhibit online and engage in critical debate; forming networks and friendships that will help them sustain a fruitful visual arts practice here in Southampton.

The Southampton 2025 team are encouraging everyone to get involved with the UK City of Culture bid.

Southampton is bidding to become the UK City of Culture in 2025, a really fantastic opportunity for the city.

You can keep up to date via their regular emails and get involved. The Southampton 2025 team has also launched their social media channels Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – please check them out and share.

To decide what sort of things should be included in the bid, the team wants to understand what the city needs and identify where the gaps are. To do this they are asking everyone for a few minutes of their time to complete a short survey or sign up to be part of on many focus groups, including the forum CHAOS is supporting to acknowledge this aim.

Please get involved. The impact of the public launch was fantastic. Read more here. Let’s build on that now.

City Eye will be recommending (and inviting others to do so too) films that you can find online, but which might not be your usual go-to subject, style or genre. They'd love you to share your thoughts afterwards too. #WeekendWatchlist will be posted weekly on social media so make sure you are following City Eye on Facebook and Twitter and join in the conversation with #WeekendWatchlist

Find out more here