This will be taking place at Normansfield on Sunday 20th May 2012, 3-5pm. Tickets are £4 in advance, £5 on the door and children go free. There will also be a Summer Concert on Sunday 10th July 2011.

Fran is a classically trained pianist and holds an Associate Diploma (Distinction) in Piano Performance from Trinity College of Music, London. She runs a popular private teaching practice in Teddington for children and adults, from complete beginner to early intermediate students.

The studio was established in 2006 and enables students to study for exams or play purely for pleasure in a relaxed, friendly learning environment. Regular student concerts, and opportunities to perform in festivals and competitions.

More information can be found here on the studio’s website or read about “piano playing and music, art and life” via the blog.

Photo: Peter Denton

Also coming up at Normansfield Theatre is a Blue Apple Theatre production for adults with and without learning disabilities. They are now developing a touring production of Hamlet which will play across theatres in the south of England, ending with a gala celebration of this huge achievement at the Normansfield Theatre.

For a full list of forthcoming events at this treasured theatre, check out the Langdon Down centre’s website and remember that the Museum of Learning Disability is now open to the public 2-5pm Mondays and 9:30am-1:30pm on Saturdays.

On show and for sale in this elegant and spacious venue will be a variety of paintings, original prints, botanical subjects, jewellery, ceramics, sculpture as well as cards and prints from local talented artists.

Ten regular members of this professional group will this year be joined by four invited guest artists. All fourteen exhibit widely elsewhere, often in national and international exhibitions. Each artist will show work marked by distinctive personal vision. All items will be for sale and all the artists will be in attendance and pleased to discuss their work with visitors.

Admission will be on the basis of donation, with a suggested amount of £3 per person or family group. A proportion of the proceeds will be donated to charity. There will this year be two local beneficiaries: Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital and Shooting Star CHASE.

The spring exhibition at The Architects Gallery is “Tread Softly” and features paintings, drawings and prints by eight artists from Britain, Spain, Russia and Estonia.

At Mackenzie Gallery, as always, there is a wide variety of works for sale including a charming print of Teddington town in art form by Lisa Tolley and pretty embroidered works by Priscilla Jones.

Also don’t forget that the Richmond and Twickenham Photographic Society Annual Exhibition at the Landmark Arts Centre starts this Wednesday 4th April and as well as the usual mixture of inspired photography, will also include rare photos of the Queen taken by Joan Williams.

Jamie, 23, powered her way through the audition stages and will now compete in the live regional showcase on March 11th which will be filmed for Sky TV. If successful, she will then perform in front of 20,000 at the O2 arena, a terrifying but exciting prospect for any up-and-coming artist.

As well as writing and performing her own songs on the piano and has recently recorded an EP ‘All that Glitters’ (you can listen to the tracks here) – also produced, mixed and mastered by herself!

Jamie has been classically trained from an early age on the piano and written songs since she was 11 but only discovered her singing voice and love for vocals late in her teens.

Although she will be competing against whole bands, her haunting voice accompanies her piano music perfectly and her talent will be more than enough match for the competition. We wish her all the best in the next round.

[Update 13/03/2012] Jamie is now through to the next stage of the competition after performing at the Regional Finals on Sunday.

The society invites membership from residents of surrounding boroughs including photographers of all ages and abilities.

As per usual the exhibition will include inspiring fine art prints and projected images as well as the Royal Photographic Society Visual Art Group touring exhibition and examination work by students of St. Catherine’s Girls School, Twickenham.

Also this year a former BBC and Royal photographer will be displaying previously unseen shots of The Queen to mark the Diamond Jubilee. (Incidentally you can now apply for a street party as part of the Jubilee celebrations).

Joan Williams will be exhibiting the informal portraits of Her Majesty taken when she was a senior photographer between 1969 and 1992.

Other up-and-coming exhibitions at the Landmark include the Contemporary Textiles Fair on the weekend of 10th-11th March that includes hangable and wearable art.

This innovative opera company have previously brought high quality opera to audiences at the Richmond Theatre and the Menuhin Hall in Cobham. At the Landmark they will be staging a unique evening of opera, accompanied by the acclaimed orchestra Musica Poetica London.

The unusual double-bill of early opera classics will include Purcell’s hauntingly beautiful ‘Dido and Aeneas’ and highlights of Mozart’s final work ‘La clemenza di Tito’.

If you have visited the newly opened Langdon-Down museum and marvelled at the Victorian Normansfield Theatre, you can experience it as it will have looked in its hey-day at several performances over the coming months.

Carmen will be performed here this weekend on the 18th/19th February 2012. Also back by popular demand, the Paper Moon Theatre Company proudly present another trip down memory lane into the wonderful world of traditional Victorian Music Hall that includes a mélange of song, dance, magic and laughter (March 17th).

‘I Do Believe’ (24th-25th March 2012) is a play with a magical twist, a piece of theatre which reveals that children still believe in fantasy and fairytale. Performed by a cast of 17 children and 3 adults and complimented by historical images and classical music, this production is a charity premiere presented by a talented original cast from the Twickenham Theatre Workshop.

Finally on the 26th of May 2012 by six amazing actors, four of whom happen to have Down’s syndrome, will be performing Shakespeare’s most famous play – Hamlet, at the Normansfield Theatre

As part of the Richmond upon Thames Libraries Charles Dickens 2012 bicentenary celebrations, Teddington Library will be hosting an evening with author Essie Fox on Wednesday 25th April 2012 (6-7pm).

Essie’s book ‘The Somnambulist’ is a gothic mystery with much of the action taking place in Victorian East London – in a grand garden square, and the threatening docks, as well as Wilton ’s music hall, a crumbling but magical theatre still in existence today. With many illustrations to give a sense of time and place, Essie’s talk will discuss the places, people, inspirations and themes that occur in her historical novel, with ample opportunity for any questions afterwards.

Teddington Theatre Club who perform at Hampton Hill Playhouse have a varied and exciting new season programme starting with “A Different Way Home” by Jimmie Chinn, a former member of TTC, from February 26th – March 3rd. The season continues with Present Laughter (Noel Coward), My Own Show (Lesley Bruce), Privates on Parade (Peter Nichols) and Women of Troy (Don Taylor).

For those more scientifically-inclined, as part of the National Science and Engineering, NPL is hosting “Improbable After Dark” on March 10th, an Ig Nobel Event “honouring achievments that first make people laugh, and then make them think” with speakers that will include many scientists and several QI ‘Elfs’.

One possible future for the hospital involves a Social Enterprise ownership model where the development of services would be decided locally via partnerships with the community and the health and social care services – helping to secure its future as a local GP and community hospital. You can find out about how the investigation into this and other plans are progressing at several up-and-coming dates.

There are two January ‘Drop-In’ dates – informal meetings at Teddington Baptist Church Hall on Monday 16th January. This will be split into two sessions – parents with young families 11am-2pm to discuss services for children at the hospital (any suggestions will be welcome). Then 7:30-9pm for any member of the community to talk about any additional services, clinics etc. If you are short on time you can drop in for a brief spell as these will be informal in nature.

Following on from these sessions a public meeting will be held on February 2nd at the same venue 7-9pm where a presentation on work and progress so far will be made. Opportunities for feedback will also be available – TMH is the community’s hospital and the League of Friends want your involvement.

Although strong assurances have been recently made by NHS bosses that its future more secure than it has ever been (particularly with governments plans to move more patients to hospitals in their communities), the main concern still remains that the proposed creation of a Foundation Trust which may be at risk of a future merger. If you cannot attend any of the meetings you can show your support by adding your name to the online petition.

Recently a group of artists lent their work to the hospital for an exhibition so that patients and staff could enjoy them on site. Richmond Arts Service transported 30 paintings, graphic designs and old photographs (most of local scenes) to the hospital for this special exhibition.

Studies have shown that showing works of art in hospitals can reduce anxiety, stress and depression for patients, as well as staff and visitors! The hospital has run similar schemes involving voluntary visitors to chat to patients and well-behaved bed-side pet visits.

The League of Friends of Teddington Memorial Hospital have a proud record of voluntary service to the hospital and have raised several million pounds since its inception to help improve facilities and equipment.

Based by the Wharf Restaurant the Lifeboat Station has always been run by local volunteers and the station is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 2011 saw an average of one ‘shout’ a week proving an invaluable service on their stretch of the river from Hampton Court to Richmond. The first shout of 2012 was at 3am on Tuesday 3rd January to assist a search for a missing man in the area, who was later found safe and sound.

The RNLI operates over 230 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and since it was founded in 1824 its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 137,000 lives.

Cathy with some fellow volunteers

The station would like to thank all it’s volunteers over the years and also the local community for all it’s continued support. If you want to help celebrate this milestone and help raise funds for the RNLI, an up-and-coming event at the Landmark Arts Centre will let you do just that!

West End performer and RNLI volunteer crew member Cathy Cogle will be presenting and performing ‘An Evening at The Musicals’ for one night only to raise funds.

Cathy Cogle lives in Teddington and has performed in West End shows such as Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, South Pacific and The Woman in White. She recently took part in the Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 and also appeared at this year’s Royal Variety Performance and the Classical Brit Awards.

Cathy: ‘It can be tough when the pager goes off at 3am but the adrenalin soon kicks in and we are out on the river within a matter of minutes. We get called out for all sorts of emergencies; suicide attempts, searching for missing people, rescuing swimmers and boats in trouble… The RNLI does not get any funding from the UK government and so I thought I would do my bit, combine my two passions and help a very worthy cause.’

‘An Evening at The Musicals’ is a spectacular concert of songs from the world’s greatest musicals performed by some of the finest West End performers. They will perform for one night only on Sunday 12th February 8pm. Tickets £15 /£20. Box office 0208 977 7558 or online at landmarkartscentre.org.

Handmade Frames will be hosting this show from 26th November to 24th December that will demonstrate her 35 years of her hugely popular instinctive and colourful oil paintings.

After training at Edinburgh College of Art in the 50′s, Liz spent years living in the West Indies where her love of vibrant colour was ignited. Her oil paintings are mostly of artistic or theatrical events and include new looks at local architecture including Hampton Court Palace and the newly restored Strawberry Hill House.

Another talented local artist you might not have heard of is Kimberley Scott – a freelance illustrator and designer, working in the world of Children’s Books, greetings cards, licensing and calligraphy.

Kimberley works in a riverside studio with a constant supply of green tea and pick and mix sweets to keep the creativity flowing. Her recent work includes charity greetings cards on the shelf at WH Smiths and Oxfam, Pocket Pet’s and Night and Day puzzles at Marks and Spencer and Little Shakers at Amazon.

Up-and-coming work due to be published next year includes two interactive Jungle themed stories, a heroic dog tale, a fun adventure called ‘The Terrible Time without Tilly’ for Egmont, and four little bouncing books for Small World Creations. Kimberley is also currently working on two funny and entertaining jungle and farm stories.

Kimberley Scott, a self-portrait

At the Architects Gallery (who will be celebrating their 3 year anniversary on Thursday), a mixed Autumn Exhibition brings together six artists: Esme Baker, Paul Bennett, Ray Gale, Elizabeth Rollins-Scott, Paul Smith, and Andy Waite.

Avignon – A Moment In Time, a photography exhibition by Mark Borgan will be taking place at the The Landmark Arts Centre on 2nd-5th December 12-5pm. The photos all depict Avignon, a former papal town and jewel of Provence through a collection of unforgettable images. Limited edition prints on sale from only £25.

Peregrine Roskilly is the artist of the month at Mackenzie Gallery – his work depicts London’s annual naked bicycle ride are a celebration of the bicycle and the naked form. The figures display a joyful freedom rarely seen in the city, juxtaposioned with famous landmarks. One rider describing the event said “It is wonderfully liberating but you don’t want to get left behind!“

The historic venue is one of the largest covered spaces in south-west London and by paying the small entrance fee to the fair, you will be helping with the upkeep of our treasured centre. Not many people realise that the Landmark has charity status and proceeds go towards keeping the building in good condition.

At the fair you will be able to browse a unique and vibrant collection of contemporary visual art including paintings, photographs, jewellery, prints, glass, collages and sculptures from talented artists.

This is a firmly established event in the London arts scene where visitors have the chance to browse collections as well as meeting and buying direct from the artists.

Click for show catalogue

Admission £4 – Concessions £3 – Under 16’s free. If would like to get a chance to experience the fair before anyone else, there is a complimentary ticket to the Friday night preview available. Email contact@teddingtontown.co.uk if you wish to claim this (admits two people, preview is from 6-8:30pm).

The gallery is a hidden gem on the high street – a constantly changing exhibition of affordable and original art from mediums such as paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, glass and jewellery.

Jim Woodman on his work:

“My paintings attempt to convey my response to the colours, mood and forms found in such diverse places as the Scottish Highlands and the Mediterranean.

I like to capture too the presence of human beings in the landscape – often a small isolated homestead dwarfed by the grandeur of nature reflecting the indomitable spirit of man to survive”

The “Road to the Isles” exhibition will run from 16th September to the 1st October 2011 and you can also meet the artist on the evening of 23rd September for a glass of Presecco to discuss his work (6:30-8:30pm).