IAA Images March 2010 - Ipswich Charity Concert Committee, ISMs by Ferial Evans

IPSWICH ARTS ASSOCIATION MEMBER GROUP
IPSWICH CHARITY CONCERT COMMITTEE

Formed in 1989 by a small group of brass band enthusiasts, the Ipswich Charity Concert Committee’s mission is simple. It brings Britain’s top brass bands to Ipswich to perform concerts in the Corn Exchange and gives any profits to charity.

The first concert was given in 1990 by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and since then a further 40 concerts have been presented – usually two but sometimes three a year - which have raised over £60,000 for good causes.

Founding secretary, Tim Mutum said, “We formed the committee for three reasons. Firstly, to fill a gap in the music scene. Appearances in Ipswich by Britain’s finest bands had been few and far between. Secondly, it gave the bands somewhere else to play away from their home ground and thirdly, we didn’t want to personally gain, so we always donate the proceeds to charity”.

All of the UK’s best bands have been featured including Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, Fodens, Fairey, Leyland and Yorkshire Building Society. The best in the Salvation Army have also appeared – the International Staff Band and the Enfield Citadel Band.

Household Troops Band
of the Salvation Army

The Cory Band

This year two bands make their first appearance in Ipswich. On 27 March the Household Troops Band of the Salvation Army are performing in a concert to raise money for the Ipswich Salvation Army Building Fund. This band, led by Major John Mott, is made up of Salvationists from Army brass bands from all over the country.

Then on 12 June the current No 1 ranked brass band in the world makes the trip to Suffolk from the Rhondda Valley in Wales. The Cory Band (Dr Robert Childs) celebrated its 125th anniversary last year in fine style becoming Welsh, European, British Open and World Champions along the way.

Proceeds from this concert, which is being sponsored by the East of England Co-operative Society, will be divided between the National Association for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease and the Ipswich Hospital Ear, Nose and Throat Equipment Fund.

“ We are very pleased to be welcoming these two fine bands to Ipswich for the first time and ticket sales for both are very encouraging,” said Tim Mutum. “Our regular supporters know what to expect, but if you have not heard a brass band before then come along and enjoy their eclectic mix of music.”

Tickets: Corn Exchange Box Office 01473 433100.

- ISMS
Ferial Evans

Continuing our occasional series on movements in the Visual Arts

Orientalism and Materialism were evident in Realism while Medievalism was a romantic reaction against both Neo-Classicism and industrialisation.

Lilium Auratum
by John Fredrick Lewis,
British 1871

Orientalism was inspired when British and French imperial expansion made accessable routes into the Middle East. Following in the wake of Napoleon who was ousted by the British, artists who became known as Orientalists travelled through Turkey, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, Arabia and North Africa. This movement spanned over a century and included hundreds of known artists. Many of them took incredible risks and endured considerable hardship. Disease was the greatest hazard and gun battles with bandits were commonplace. At other times they were received with the greatest kindness and made lasting friendships. They created some beautiful work, almost photographic in detail, yet despite this new-found accuracy it was often influenced by preconceived ideas about the region rather than observation. Accurate topographical detail was the perfect foil for works which indulged the imagination of Western viewers.
Artists: Eugéne Delacroix, William Holman Hunt, Charles Gleyre, Antoine-Jean Gros, Jean Auguste-Dominque-Ingres, Frederic Leighton

Young Boy with a Cat
by Pierre August Renoir
1868

Materialism explored the reality of people’s lives as opposed to that which was spiritual or intellectual in nature. There was a common belief that people’s moral, intellectual and emotional being was moulded by their environment. The philosophy was that human ideas and experiences came primarily through conditioning factors such as class, gender and nationality. There was a belief that science, technology and industry could know all truth, solve all problems and create human happiness. It rejected Idealism which expressed the inner soul of the intellect, and it rejected Romanticism with its emphasis on emotions and self-indulgent distraction from the reality of life; how could they paint an angel if they had never seen one?
Artists: Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Henri Fantin Latour, Jean-Francois Millet, James Tissot

Medievalists draw subjects from literature and history, using the medieval period as a model or inspiration for creative activity. It gained strength during and after the Industrial and French Revolutions. Artists rebelled against the political norms of the Age of Enlightenment which rationalised nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts. Medievalism refuted commercial Academic art produced in various Classical styles. It exalted in artistic ceremony and provided an escape for artist’s imaginations. Through allegory Medievalism could explore contemporary and social matters. The movement had a strong influence on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Artists: Edward Burne-Jones, Peter von Cornelius, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Fredrich Johann, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

More on the Pre-Raphaelites and Impressionists in a later issue.