YES Arts Festival 2015 Diary of Events 9 – 19 September FESTIVAL OFFICE open daily at La Contea, by courtesy of the County Hotel, with information, tickets, competition forms, and voting slips for your favourite New Border Ballad. celebrating creative work in Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk From Wed 9 11am - 4pm Trace exhibition 1 Tower Street 11am – 4pm Landscapes exhibition The Studio on the Green 10am – 5pm Moonwatching exhibition Forest Bookstore 10am – late Willie Muirhead exhibition County Hotel (all FREE) 9, 11, 13, 16, 18 2pm – 5pm James Hogg exhibition Ettrick School (FREE) Thu 10 7.30pm Scottish Chamber Orchestra Victoria Halls £16, £14, £5 From Thu 10 Souter Stormers various locations Fri 11 leaving 6.30pm Car Treasure Hunt Country Store, Selkirk Details of £10 YES Arts Festival Sat 12 – Sat 19 2pm – 6pm Hail and Farewell exhibition Clapperton Studio and associated w/e 12pm – 6pm FREE events in Selkirk Sat 12 – Sun 20 11am – 4pm Beyond the Shutter The Haining and the valleys of £1 Sat 12 & Sun 13 12pm – 4pm Helen Douglas open studio Deuchar Mill Ettrick and Yarrow Sat 12 & Sun 13 12pm – 4pm Robert Maguire open studio Ettrickbridge 9 – 19 September 2015 (both FREE) Mon 14 – Fri 18 12pm – 4pm FESTIVAL OFFICE open daily Tue 15 2.30 & 7.30pm Poetry Challenge Read-a-thon County Hotel (FREE) Wed 16 7.30pm John Nichol & friends - Aroond the Bleezin’ Ingle Yarrowfeus Hall £10 Fri 18 1pm John Nichol & friends – Aroond the Bleezin’ Ingle County Hotel £12 Sat 12 10am – 5pm Yarrow & Ettrick Show Carterhaugh Sat 19 1.30pm Poetry Challenge Awards Bowhill House (by invitation) Sat 19 2.30pm Bravura Ballads Bowhill Theatre £10 Sat 19 4pm & 7pm Borderlands Bowhill House (FREE) Sat 19 7pm Ethel Maude in Conversation The Haining POETRY EXHIBITIONS Poetry Challenge – The People’s Prize Trace New Border Ballads poets in the Scots language – Mary Morrison, Clare Money, Inge Panneels The public also have an with work ranging from a The valleys of Ettrick and opportunity to cast their vote virtuosic translation of The This small but beautifully formed exhibition shows Yarrow were the cradle of and select their own prize- Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam, the work of three artists whose artworks are all many of the finest of the great winner from the shortlisted to verses penned during his informed by maps and mapping. The title of the Border Ballads. The entries. Copies of the shortlist residency in Ettrick as James exhibition refers to the investigative nature of their challenge for poets in 2015 are available to read at Hogg Fellow in 2013. work – tracing old, perhaps forgotten vestiges of was to bring that tradition into Rogersons Newsagents, the culture, which have formed the Borders landscape. the present day by writing a Selkirk Library, the Courtyard ballad set within fifty years of Cafe, or the Waterwheel, with Mary Morrison is an artist based in Selkirk whose 2015. The ballads had to voting slips to be completed work ‘investigate the relationship between the adhere to the convention of by Thursday 17 September. individual and the landscape that has shaped them, telling a story, have a something you carry with you – a geography of the structure of regular metre and YOUR VOTE COUNTS! mind’. rhyme, and a length of between 20 and 200 lines. Much of her work is inspired by relationships between They could be written in Read-a-thon the written word – poetry in particular – and image, and some works respond to the contemporary Scots Local residents also have Gerda Stevenson – actor, geopoetical writings of Kenneth White, and the Sufi (including Border Scots, Teri, two opportunities to listen to a writer, director, singer and poet Rumi. Dumfriesshire dialect) or live recitation of the whole song writer – won first prize in English (including shortlist presented by John the inaugural YES Arts Clare Money is an artist who reworks old maps: Northumbrian and Cumbrian). Nichol, Janet Coulson and Festival Poetry Challenge in ‘In working with erased maps I aim to examine others, with voting slips 2013, and has more recently how we communicate what is no longer; how do we The competition attracted gathered in at the end of each won acclaim for a new album tell of lost places?’ entries from across the UK, session. of self-penned songs, Night with final honours awarded by Touches Day. Her current work is topical, as it investigates the now a judging panel drawn from Scott’s Hall, County Hotel, some of the top names in UK Selkirk abandoned Riccarton railway junction, part of the old poetry and literature – Rab Waverly line to Carlisle – now partially re-opened as Tue 15 Sept, 2.30 & 7.30pm Wilson, Luke Wright and FREE the new Borders Railway. Gerda Stevenson. This year’s Inge Panneels has been mapping as a means to challenge proves that the Bravura Ballads ballad form is still alive and get a sense of place, as part of her ongoing Map-I The three judges of the New well in the 21st century. project. The works in this exhibition were informed by Border Ballads take to the an artist-in-residency at Jedburgh Abbey in 2012. stage to share some of their The Awards Ceremony Photo Steve by Ullathorne own work, in poetry and song. Selkirk formed the site of the very first Borders abbey, The Duke of Buccleuch hosts of which four remain, so it is fitting to show these four this year’s Awards Ceremony Performance poet and works on the site of the fifth and original abbey – the at Bowhill House. Prizes will broadcaster Luke Wright has exact location of which remains disputed. be awarded for the best updated the traditional ballad ballads selected by the panel form into a witty, bawdy style 1 Tower Street, Selkirk of judges, and for the most to suit contemporary stories. Wed 9 – Tue 15 Sept popular work chosen by His work is described as 11am – 4pm members of the public. ‘visceral, poignant and riotously funny. Bowhill House Bowhill Theatre, by Selkirk Sat 19 Sept, 1.30pm Sat 19 Sept, 2.30pm (by invitation only) Ayrshire-born Rab Wilson is one of the country’s foremost £10 EXHIBITIONS CABARET MUSIC Landscapes and Seascapes Aroond the Bleezin’ Scottish Chamber Karine Polwart Patricia Sadler & Helen Tabor Ingle Orchestra at the String Jam Club For the past 15 years, The orchestra pays a An unmissable opportunity to Based in the Scottish Borders, Patricia Sadler draws inspiration from the land American tourists have been welcome return visit to enjoy an evening in the and seascapes of Northumberland, the entertained by John Nichol, Selkirk, under the baton of company of the Queen of Iain Fraser and Gordon Ben Gernon. The concert Scottish folk music. Scottish Borders, Scotland’s west coast and the Hebridean isles. Kelly, as part of an annual includes Rakastava by Songs of Scotland tour Sibelius, Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ She paints in a free and fluid style using organized by Texas-based Symphony, and a watercolour, acrylic and mixed media, folksinger and radio presenter performance of Mozart’s Horn always searching for an emotional Ed Miller. Concerto featuring the response which leads the mind beyond orchestra’s award-winning what the eye perceives. Now local audiences get the Principal Horn, Alec Frank- Patricia’s work is widely collected, and chance to see the Gemmill. Friends of Ed, and enjoy has feature in both solo and group The evening starts with the their entertaining mix of Karine’s debut album exhibitions throughout the UK. premiere of a new work by traditional stories, songs and Faultlines won three awards Borders composer Chris fiddle tunes. at the 2005 BBC Folk Awards Achenbach, commissioned to and the follow-up, Scribbled in Helen Tabor is a painter who lives and celebrate the opening of the Chalk, included the song works in the Borders. Born in Middlesex, Borders Railway. The work is Daisy which won Best Helen studied English and History at York written for wind quartet and Original Song in the 2007 University, then spent a number of years Border pipes – with Borders- BBC Folk Awards. teaching in the UK and in the Himalayas based piper Matt Seattle before settling in Scotland in 1992. joining four SCO musicians Her latest CD Traces was for the performance. shortlisted across all genres Since then she has concentrated on her in the Scottish Album of the career as a painter (as well as rearing Year Awards 2012, as well as three children), exhibiting widely in the winning the accolade of UK, Germany and Denmark. All her Yarrow Feus Hall, Yarrow Album of the Year from The work is oil on canvas or board, with Wed 16 Sept Guardian and The Sunday subject matter varying according to what 7.30pm Herald. she finds inspiring at the time – usually £8 landscapes, seascapes, and images from ‘For me’ says Polwart ‘music her travels. As an alternative to the is one of the most powerful Chris has titled his piece ways of making sense of the evening performance, you Lament and Flourish – The Studio on the Green world. It’s for celebrating, can enjoy the company of recalling the sad demise of 19 The Green, Selkirk Friends of Ed over a light grieving, sharing, wondering.’ Wed 9 – Sat 19 Sept local railways under the lunch at the County Hotel, Nothing inspires me more 11am – 4pm Beeching cuts, as well as upstairs in Scott’s Hall. than the realization that any celebrating the success of one of my songs means those who’ve campaigned for Scott’s Hall, County Hotel, something to someone else.’ many years to bring trains Selkirk back to the Borders.