Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2016 Highlights

By Sheila Gaiman, Executive Producer

There were many smiling faces all week at this year's Saint Hill International Arts Festival!

According to what attendees said in their success stories, their lives were changed for the better and they were totally thrilled with what they learned throughout the week. They now cannot wait to apply all the new skills and techniques they acquired from the Festival which they now feel will make them into better artists than they ever dreamed of. They were so thankful for what they learned!

The Festival has even helped established artists like Judy Norton; it has been a favourite event of hers since she first attended in 2003. Along with running workshops and participating in evening performances, Judy credits the Arts Festival with inspiring her to reach out as a writer, director and singer leading to much of her subsequent success in these fields.

The highlights of the week included:

• Cllr Mrs Julie Mockford, Deputy Mayor of East Grinstead, helped to officially open the Arts Festival. She said in her speech, "I think it's very important to support the arts in our town."


• The Blaze Ensemble opened the Saint Hill Arts Festival once again, this time with the orchestra comprising 30 musicians - the largest orchestra ever to perform at Saint Hill. They performed Elgar's Serenade for Strings, Mozart's Bassoon Concerto with soloist Tom Hardy, and Mozart's Symphony 40 in G minor to a packed house.


• Evening showcases which gave many young artists a chance to perform in front of an appreciative audience.


• A South African song performed by the Arts Festival Choir, conducted by double Grammy Award-winning artist, Robin Hogarth.


• Stan Gerson's magic workshops teaching attendees how to publicly perform magic tricks and he also performed himself at various times throughout the week.


• Hollywood actress, Lee Purcell's drama workshops which greatly inspired many.


• Hollywood actress and singer, Judy Norton's singing performance workshops.
   
• Angie Lemon, Festival Co-ordinator, said, "The Arts Festival provides a great opportunity to learn from other artists and for talents to be shared. Very importantly, it also allows artists to express themselves in a safe environment with no criticism, only support."
   
• Adrian Pownall, Festival Co-ordinator, said, "I was delighted to be part of this great Festival and to see so many people get so much from it. The celebrities were generous in the extreme with their time and delighted us all with their performances. I'm already looking forward to next year."
   
• Vast Age Range - Artists from 6 to 94 years of age attended and benefited from the Festival!

Sheila Gaiman, the Arts Festival's Executive Producer with Cllr Mrs Julie Mockford, Deputy Mayor of East Grinstead (Photo by Scott Mathieson, 31/7/16)

The Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2016 (Photo by Jane Billing, 31/7/16)

The Blaze Ensemble performing Mozart's Bassoon Concerto with soloist Tom Hardy (Photo by Becky Danese, 31/7/16)

Judy Norton in concert (Photo by Jane Billing, 6/8/16)

Katy Norman, Judy Norton, Robin Hogarth, Lee Purcell, Stan Gerson, Chris Dresser, Sheila Gaiman, Krystyna Louw, Adrian Pownall (Photo by Jane Billing, 6/8/16)

A young Festival attendee wearing The Way To Happiness logo! (Photo by Katy Norman, 6/8/16)

Stan Gerson delivering one of his magic workshops (Photo by Jane Billing, 1/8/16)

Judy Norton in song (Photo by Jane Billing, 4/8/16)

An evening showcase for young performers (Photo by Jane Billing, 2/8/16)

Belly dancing class with Serena Ramzy (Photo by Jane Billing, 3/8/16)

The Master Chef Competition (Photo by Jane Billing, 6/8/16)

Master Chef dishes (Photo by Jane Billing, 6/8/16)

More Master Chef dishes (Photo by Jane Billing, 6/8/16)

Wednesday night was Arts Quiz Night (Photo by Jane Billing, 3/8/16)

Three of the younger attendees (Photo by Jane Billing, 3/8/16)

One of the many workshops (Photo by Jane Billing, 5/8/16)

Lee Purcell (Photo taken in 2015)

The Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2014, now in its 23rd Year

Pablo Carl Röhrig with his Saint Hill International Festival Lifetime Achievement Award 2014. Photo by Mark McQuade.

East Grinstead - From the 31st July to 10th August, the Saint Hill International Festival (www.arts-festival.org) attracted local and international artists from all walks of life.

The Saint Hill International Arts Festival was inspired by Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard who stressed the importance of the role that art plays in society and he strongly encouraged artistic creativity in all its forms. The purpose of the Festival is to inspire artists into greater productivity. Saint Hill Manor was L. Ron Hubbard's family home from 1959-1967.

The Festival’s main event, The Art Garden, included participation from the world-renowned German naturalism fantasy painter, Pablo Carl Röhrig (www.roehrigart.com), and from local painters Jane Indigo Moore, Gil Bustamante, Mira Reichl, Susanne Lawrence, Kitty Atkinson-Guy, Katherine Khann and Rory O’Neill.

Whilst the painters painted, musicians entertained both painters and visitors to the Art Garden alike. The musicians were Hungarian violinist Judit Szabo, Italian guitarist and singer Francesco Andrianni, Australian singer songwriter Neil Lemon with performances by Jane Billing and Angie Lemon.

The Festival included a poetry workshop, an arts quiz and the Jive Aces' Summertime Swing on 3rd August which was a roaring success!

Proceedings ended style with the annual Classical Concert presented by Tom Hardy and the Blaze Ensemble, attended by the Deputy Mayors of East Grinstead and Redbridge. The orchestra, composed entirely of wind instruments, performed works by Mozart and Gounod.

During the interval, this year's Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to painter Pablo Carl Röhrig by the Executive Producer of the Festival, Sheila Gaiman, who said: "We searched high and low for the world's very best artists to present this award to, and we are very honoured to be giving it, this year, to someone who has won many International and national awards throughout his career, including one for the best artwork of the year in Germany. This year, the Saint Hill International Festival Lifetime Achievement Award goes to the fabulous Pablo Carl Röhrig. We wonder who we will discover next year."

Click here for additional information and photos of the Festival, and here for photos of the Classical Concert.

About Saint Hill Manor

Saint Hill Manor, the former home of L. Ron Hubbard, located just outside East Grinstead, is a fine 18th century sandstone building. Concerts, plays, conferences and other events regularly take place here and it is also one of the few historical attractions to remain open to the public throughout the year. Saint Hill Manor is also the head office for the Church of Scientology, UK.

For more information, please contact:

Liz Ostermann
Saint Hill Manor
www.sainthillmanor.org.uk
info@sainthillmanor.org.uk
01342 315226

Saint Hill International Arts Festival 2013, now in its 22nd Year, was a Resounding Success

The Blaze Ensemble of London, conducted by Andrew Skirrow, performing "Serenade in A" by Brahms. Photo by Nitsan Simantov.

Artists enjoyed a packed weekend learning about artistic integrity, having fun at a masked ball, watching Indie films in a film festival and attending a classical concert. 

East Grinstead - 16 August 2013: Saint Hill Manor, once again, played host to the annual Saint Hill International Arts Festival (arts-festival.org) - now it its 22nd consecutive year - which took place last weekend. 

Artists came from the UK, Russia, South Africa, USA, Austria and Germany to attend this year's festival whose purpose is to inspire artists into greater productivity, as well as to help artists unlock their ability to earn a living from their art. The Saint Hill International Arts Festival was inspired by Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard who strongly encouraged cultural revitalisation through the arts. 

The Festival kicked off this year with a talk by East Grinstead's very own Ian Clarkson, trumpeter and vocalist of jump jive band, The Jive Aces, entitled "Keeping your Artistic Integrity" on Saturday afternoon. That night, attendees were treated to a glamorous Masked Ball.

Sunday morning saw the Saint Hill International Film Festival take place in the Great Hall of Saint Hill Castle, organised by actress Katy Newell (Dream Team, EastEnders). To celebrate Indie film making and to showcase upcoming talent as well as more established names, 20 short films were shown, including: 

• "Intercom" co-written by Aidan Lean, starring Jenny Agutter 
• "Choices" written by and starring East Grinstead-based Petroula Kaneti-Dimmer 

The film festival was also attended by actors Roxane Hayward, Orna Klement and East Grinstead child actor Alex Norman (Brodsky Books, Diamond Jubilee Tesco TV commercial) and by the multi-award-winning documentary maker Chris Dresser. 

The grand finale of the weekend was a classical concert by Blaze Ensemble of London, conducted by Andrew Skirrow, performing pieces by Mozart, Wagner, Bach and Brahms. The concert drew an audience of around 200 people, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Redbridge, Pinner and Medway to be there. Several Town Mayors attended including the Mayor of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Cllr Dr Ronen Basu who tweeted the following about the evening: 

"We had a very pleasant enjoyable evening with good music and company and were made to feel very welcome. Thank you!" 

Just before the interval of the concert, Sheila Gaiman, Executive Producer of the festival, presented the Lifetime of Creativity Award to Austrian artist Hannes Margreiter. In his speech of thanks, he credited a course that he studied many years ago by philosopher L. Ron Hubbard on communication for helping him to get his career started as an artist. 

The winner of the Lifetime of Creativity Award, artist Hannes Margreiter, with Sheila Gaiman, Arts Festival Executive Producer.  Photo by Nitsan Simantov. 

Hannes is most well known as a postage stamp designer who designs the stamps for Austria. Additionally, he designed a stamp for Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was Governor of California, as well as for the country of Germany. 

Sheila Gaiman, the festival's executive producer, said: 

"I'm very proud that East Grinstead does have its own international arts festival, now in its 22nd year, and hope that one day, it will be as well known as the Edinburgh Festival." 

About Saint Hill Manor 

Saint Hill Manor, located just outside East Grinstead, is a fine 18th century sandstone building. Concerts, plays, conferences and other events regularly take place here and it is also one of the few historical attractions to remain open to the public throughout the year. Saint Hill Manor is also the head office for the Church of Scientology, UK. 

For more information, please contact: 

Liz Ostermann 
Saint Hill Manor 
sainthillmanor.org.uk
01342 326711