We are pleased to say that we are hosting events for the Isle of Arts. The schedule includes talks and films over the long weekend and we look forward to some interesting and stimulating sessions.

Friday 19 April, 20.00 – 22.00 RC Bridgestock, Life in Crime Fiction
http://artsisle.org/events/16-life-in-crime-fiction

Saturday 20 April, 12.00 – 13.30 Jane Austen Her Life & Works
http://artsisle.org/events/36-jane-austen

Saturday, 20 April, 15.00 – 17.00, Town of Runners film screening and director’s talk

Sunday 21 April, 15.00 – 17.30 Benjamin Britten  film screening and director’s talk

Tickets and box office information available from http://artsisle.org/tickets

We are only a couple of weeks away from the arrival of our chef.  Graham joins us having worked in sous and head chef positions in multi rosette kitchens on the Island and in Michelin starred eateries across the water. He cooked at the Deli and the George Hotel in Yarmouth and at the Seaview Hotel.On the mainland, he worked in Michelin starred kitchens including Lords of the Manor, Newbury and The Vineyard in Stockcross before making a journey back to the seaside to work with Nathan Outlaw in Rock, Cornwall. Graham is looking forward to getting to know our members and will be opening our kitchen on Friday the 5th April. More information later but here is a preview of his original and exciting menu:

PLATES

Club Sandwich
Grilled chicken and bacon, red onion marmalade, avocado, whole grain mustard mayo, baby leaf salad

Open Steak Sandwich
Mini steak, onion confit, fried egg, fries

Slider and Fries
Mini home-made cheese burgers, tomato relish, fries

Chicken Liver Parfait, truffle salad, toasted bread

 Baked Isle of Wight Soft
With fig and apple chutney, selection of biscuits and bread

Caramelized red onion balsamic, sun dried tomato, purple basil jam tart, and baby leaf

Crayfish and Prawn Cocktail

Sushi
Smoked Salmon, Crab and Avocado with pickled pink ginger, soy, wasabi

Isle of Wight Crab Cakes
Flavoured with chilli, lime, coriander and spring onions with a sweet pepper and chilli dressing

Crudités
Selection of fresh vegetables, humus, avocado & chilli dip, yoghurt & mint dip

Meat Platter
Selection of salamis, Parma ham, chorizo, sun dried tomatoes, olives

Isle of Wight Cheese Platter
Soft, blue, gallybagger, purple basil jam, bread, biscuits

SIDES

Selection of breads, island rape seed oil and balsamic vinegar

Olives

Anchovies

Fries

Mix leaf salad

DESERTS

Minghella ice cream

Warm chocolate and orange soup, cinnamon doughnut, honey foam

Tasting of cherry Bakewell tart, milk shake, ice cream

 Vanilla panacotta, poached strawberries

Jelly and ice cream
Pimms jelly, lemon sorbet

One of the aims of the club is to help creative people and projects in the area complete interesting projects. We are putting together a panel of members and associates who, during their careers in media and the arts, have learned lessons along the way and managed to achieve what they set out to do. Or at least a variant of it – few things end up exactly as they were envisaged. The plan is still forming, but in principle, we will invite people who have a creative project already underway to come along and talk to a member, or members of our panel who can give advice, encouragement and generally help to nudge a project forward with the benefit of their experience. It’s not a pitch process, it’s a sort of creative clinic. You may well be talking to an accomplished artist, a seasoned film producer or a recorded musician but it’s not intended to be an opportunity to sell in a project. Sometimes the advice is all it takes for a project to get moving again. More details later.

Our programme of club film nights continues with a screening of 5 Broken Cameras, a first-hand account of protests in Bil’in, a West Bank village affected by the Israeli Wall referred to as the the fence in this documentary. The documentary was shot almost entirely by Palestinian farmer Emad Burnat, who bought his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son. In 2009 Israeli co-director Guy Davidi joined on to create the film. Structured around the destruction of Burnat’s cameras, the filmmakers’ collaboration follows one family’s evolution over five years of turmoil.

To view the trailer click here.

Prepare to be challenged, enlightened & positively moved as you experience the infectious creativity of Sherika Sherard. Born and raised in South London, this 21 year old has been gigging for 5 years and has already played at venues such as Ronnie Scotts and Jazz Cafe Camden. This is Sherika’s debut performance on the Island and her first visit across the solent. Dont miss this.
Her rhymes speak with the authority of a seasoned wordsmith within tunes that are destined to become hugely familiar to anyone with an ear for melody and an emotional core. To find out more about Sherika click here.

Unexpectedly large crowds, almost three times recent Film Society audiences, arrived to see the fairly obscure, subtitled Iranian film ‘About Elly’ that the society showed on their first night at the club. Those who watched the film enjoyed the comfort, quality of the HD projection and surround sound at the club. Film Society screenings are open to anyone, but to avoid disappointment at the door, places should be booked by emailing paddiecollyer@hotmail.com Entry to each screening is £5 which covers the costs of the Society’s screening license. The Society’s programme is available at www.facebook.com/VentnorFilmSociety

Ventnor Arts Club members’ film nights are on alternate Tuesdays between Society screenings,  free to members and their accompanied guests, places (but not specific seats) should be booked by emailing tracey@ventnorartsclub.com. Flms programmed will be included in members’ emails.

There will be other occasional screenings announced, some of which will be open to non members in association with local special interest groups.

As you can tell from our site, we now have our brand identity worked out. It will be engraved on a piece of portland stone where the bank’s night safe was, on membership cards and appear on a variety of items from stationery to coasters. It is heavily inspired by Eric Gill who is responsible for at least one of the standard fonts on your computer and many more things of a much more exotic nature. We expect some of his work to feature in a few paces throughout the club. We are grateful to Mark Norton at Thinkfarm for development of the identity.

A note to thank all of you who supported our planning application for change of use. It was a long and stressful process but we were strongly encouraged by the number of comments and the overwhelmingly positive reponse. We hope that the club lives up to your expectations and provides an enjoyable and culturally enriching new experience in Ventnor and for the Island.

As everyone knows Grand Design projects have a habit of going over time and over budget.  Ours is not struggling to be an exception. But the building  is enjoying its new plaster, first stabilising coats of paint and giving us a glimpse of how it will look. We’re testing colours, restoring the mahogany vestibule, repairing and replacing deep skirting along with other little gems so you wouldn’t notice. But possibly the singularly most worrying piece of work has been completed. The vault door, all one and a half tons of it, has left the building.

Our first thought was that the vault door was a great legacy piece and as such should be left in place. However, the risk to life and limb it presented was too much of a worry, and it obstructed access to the wine cellar; totally unacceptable. So it’s gone. In a guerrilla operation that resembled the Italian Job more than Restoration Man It made its way up the high street and eventually on to a weigh-in at the scrap yard. But the Vault still retains its character and with unfettered access to the cellar, will not be short of wine.