Following the enormous success of Vision ’09, a competition aimed at young photographers in the UK and worldwide, Charnwood Arts is again challenging the world to come up with the most original, exciting and innovative photographs we've seen yet! This year there are FOUR categories, three of which are open to photographers of any age and one for young people only. For full details and how to enter, click on the web link below.

'An Evening with Daljit Nagra' As part of the 'Everybody's Reading' Festival we are pleased to announce that Daljit Nagra will be coming to Leicester! Daljit will be spending the evening with us at the very prestigious City Rooms, reading from his work and taking questions from the audience. There will also be an opportunity for local poets to read their work to Daljit after the interval. 'Daljit is of Punjabi background but was born and raised in London then Sheffield. He has won several prestigious prizes for his poetry. In 2004, he won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem with Look We Have Coming to Dover! This was also the title of his first collection which was published by Faber & Faber in 2007. This won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and The South Bank Show Decibel Award. He is a regular contributor to programmes on radio.' Date: Wednesday 15th September

Members of the Charnwood Arts Mountsorrel Creatives club spent the day at the Barefoot Festival in Mountsorrel on Saturday the 14th August. We had a brill day working with sculptor Nita Rao on a giant willow sculpture. Dodging rain showers and enjoying the bursts of sunshine we also saw dance and drumming workshops and took part in a clay workshop and a monoprinting demonstration. The weekly club sessions start on the 16th September 2010 at Mountsorrel Library from 6.30pm-8pm.

Mountsorrel Creatives we will taking part in a sculpture workshop at the Barefoot Festival in Mountsorrel on Saturday the 14th August. Joining in the fun of the festival and getting experience of working outside and on a large scale with Nita Rao, a sculptor local to Mountsorrel.

Free holiday art session for all young people in Mountsorrel aged between 11 and 19 years of age. Please bring along your family as well to look at the work the Mountsorrel Creatives have been working on recently.

The latest exhibition at the Pixel and Grain Gallery at Loughborough Town Hall is Plethora: Journey Across The Country Of Good And Friendly People by Polish photographer Jerzy Bucki.

The latest exhibition at the Pixel and Grain Gallery at Loughborough Town Hall is Plethora: Journey Across The Country Of Good And Friendly People by Polish photographer Jerzy Bucki.

Hello Knitters

Loughborough Mela has scored a double triumph by signing TWO stars of the Asian Music scene to headline at their Town Centre event on Sunday June 27th between 12 noon and 5.00pm!

Sun 13th June, 2010 - 12pm to 5pm @ Loughborough Town Centre

Picnic In The Park is 30 years old this year! Over three decades, this Charnwood Arts run outdoor extravaganza has grown into one of Loughborough's best loved annual events. And if you go down to Queen's Park on Bank Holiday Monday May 31st, you're most definitely in for a great celebratory surprise! Headlining this year are the amazing Black Umfolosi 5! The original Black Umfolosi was formed in 1982 by school friends in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, who named themselves after the Umfolozi Omnyama River in South Africa - to where their ancestors can be traced. In 2010 The Black Umfolosi 5 continue to present their spectacular songs and dances thrilling audiences worldwide with a whole new line-up. Their performances are energy driven and completely engaging, mixing a great gentleness of spirit and song with an exuberance in dance. Their trademark harmonies mixed with intricate rhythms, clicking and clapping are highlighted during their brilliantly choreographed shows with a full range of movements from subtle to vibrant stomping and leaping! Queen’s Park is a beautiful place to spend a late-Spring afternoon and this year will be even more fun than usual! This year’s activities will include Tri-Golf, Children's Rides, Sports Activities, Belly Dancing, Food and a host of speciality stalls and information points. Performances will be taking place all afternoon, in addition to Black Umfolosi. Artists appearing include Bill Brookman, Ska-Amanga, Maynard FlipFlap, Shakti Dancers and many more. This year's Picnic is taking place as part of National Family Week's Picnic Day. It will be one of hundreds of Picnics happening all over the country on Bank Holiday Monday to get the week off to a flying start. Charnwood Arts looks forward to sharing a wonderful 30th birthday with you.

An exciting new exhibition by French photographer Stephane Daupley at the Pixel and Grain Gallery, Loughborough Town Hall.

ArtZone Workshop Programme, June-September 2010

Most poetry editors are pleased if their little magazines get above issue five. Issue ten and they're ecstatic. That's why Charnwood Arts - and especially editor Deborah Tyler Bennett - is delighted to announce the arrival of Issue 20 of "The Coffee House"! Copies are available now from the Charnwood Arts Office, 31 Granby Street, Loughborough. Featured poet and translator for this record breaking edition is Thomas Orszag-Land - poet, translator and foreign correspondent who writes for The Guardian / Observer News Service and The Times Literary Supplement in London. Featured prose writer is Morelle Smith, author of "Touching The Shell" and "Diehard's River Train". Other writers in this edition include Mark Goodwin, James Conway, Jane Seabourne, Graham Hardie, Robert Leach, LIsa Parry,David McCormack and many more, including the remarkable ten-year old Ellamae Hindley,who is definitely a young writer to watch. The artwork in this edition is by Jack Yates, Deborah Tyler Bennett and photographer Kevin Ryan, a detail from whose work "C de Gull" (!) can be seen at the top of this story....

The latest exhibition at the Pixel and Grain Gallery, Loughborough Town Hall, is "Sarajevo to Sulawesi: A Look Into Muslim Diversity" by celebrated American photographer Derek Brown. Derek talked to us about his work

Charnwood Arts's Big Knitting Group invites you to contribute to Every Pocket Tells A Story a new exhibition at Loughborough's Charnwood Museum, which will explore the history and the future of the pocket. The pocket has always been a personal and a private place to store precious items. It is the subject of nursery rhymes and common expressions. Traditionally pockets were tied to clothing and made from linen or- if you were wealthy - silk. They hid precious things and personal items and were the targets of pickpockets. Today pockets are usually integral to clothing. What do you keep in your pocket? Gentlemen, does your loose change slip out of your trouser pocket and down the side of the sofa? We carry around phones, i-pods and other precious personal items but what do the Pockets look like that contain these modern day items? We invite you to make your own pockets and send them to us to be included in the exhibition. Your pockets should be inventive, humorous and individual and must include a piece of writing inside. This story will be reproduced as the label for your pocket. Please note that the pocket should not include any other contents. Pockets must be no larger than A6 size (150mm x 105mm), although we will allow you some leeway with this if, for example, your pocket has detail attached to it. Please be inventive and use recycled or reused materials where possible. We encourage you to knit, stitch or use felt for your Pockets but any medium is welcomed. All Pockets we receive will be displayed in the exhibition alongside their Stories. The exhibition will also contain interactive displays in which the public will be able to divulge the contents of their Pockets, together with items from Leicestershire County Council museums artefacts collection. Displays are also being developed around references to Pockets found in nursery rhymes and traditional expressions and slang. If you have any stories or other material to contribute to this part of the exhibition we will also be glad to hear from you. Please send your Pockets to Jemma Bagley at Charnwood Arts 31 Granby Street Loughborough Leics LE11 3DU by Wednesday 14th April for exhibition in May and June. If you would like more information, please contact Jemma on 01509-821035 or by e-mail to jemmab@charnwood-arts.org.uk We are looking to sell all the pockets during the exhibition to raise money for further Big Knitting Group projects. If you do not want your pocket to be sold, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with your entry. Further 'Pocket' inspiration can be found on the Victoria And Albert Museum web-site www.vam.ac.uk

The winners of Vision 09 are now online! This world-wide online photography competition was launched by photography students from Hind Leys Community College in Shepshed in collaboration with Charnwood Arts. The competition was open to anyone, anywhere in the world aged between 16 and 25 years of age. Entries were made in three categories: Urban, Portraits and Photo-Poetry. All the prizewinners are now online. To see them, just click on the link below.

Kala Kahani and Leicester Libraries are delighted to welcome Arvind Mehrotra , the first Indian poet to be nominated for a professorship by Oxford University to Leicester on Thursday 4th March. In his own words he will be 'entertaining us with 2000 years of Indian poetry in 90 minutes! From early Prakrik love poems to Kabir (15th Century) to Arun Kolatkar (1931 - 2004)' As the author of four books including the Absent Traveller (Penguin Classics) he is also an essayist, editor and translator of numerous works. During his visit to the UK he will be speaking at the Goldsmith's (University of London), and the English Faculty of Oxford University on Kabir and Kipling, reading poetry with Tom Paulin, Bernard O'Donoghue and others at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and at the Avril Bruton Creative Writing Prize event, also at St Hugh's. We are pleased to welcome Arvind to the prestigious City Rooms on Hotel Street from 7pm. Places are limited but tickets are free and will need to be booked in advance via email bookdoctor@leicester.gov.uk or by calling 0116 299 5426 For more details please contact Rebecca Abrahams on 01509 821035 or rebecca.abrahams@charnwood-arts-org.uk This event would not be possible without the support of the University of Northampton School of Arts and CCFN (Centre for Contemporary Fiction and Narrative)

Happy World Community Arts day 2010 from everyone at Charnwood Arts.