Open Doors Day September 2021 by Jonathan Bird

BRISTOL OPEN DOORS DAY: 11 and 12 September 2021

The day dawned bright and clear, thank goodness, since the Pagoda had to be erected in the Knot Garden, signs had to be put up to direct the public from Park Row, some weed clearing needed effecting and, we hoped, the public would come to our smorgasbord of 04 Arts activities. The small 'Open Doors Day team', consisting of Jonathan Bird, David Bedford and Robert Dawes, had been working on the timetable for weeks. They had negotiated with the organisers of ODD to have specific timed slots and the programme put on by Bristol 1904 Arts was the most complex and, dare we say, most exciting of the whole Bristol-wide event. We had talks, a magician, painting workshops, country music, classical music, accordion music, real jazz and topped off with a Jonathan Price piano recital. Our Chair, Michael Newstead, kicked off with a fascinating talk about our history and 'a room full of objects'. He instructed his audience on a focused range of fascinating artefacts and paintings and then took audience members around a tour of our Wigwam. Chris Payne, as always, astounded his audience including a number of quite small children who had come specially to the only magic show in the whole Open Doors event. They went away with their horizons and their eyes widened. Chris Payne's was only the first of the six half-hour entertainments of the event. Steve Price ensured audience involvement and clearly had several fans in the Wigwam as well as first-timers. They joined in, chanted, clapped and had a wonderful time with several of his own compositions. Something rather different followed with Stephen and Julie Browne playing flute and piano to a large and appreciative audience, who again had singled out this as one of the main things they wanted to see in the whole Open Doors Day event. People walking by, outside the Knot Garden, also wandered in when they heard the strains of such beautiful music and sat to enjoy the rest of the day.

Throughout that first day there were also two artist presentations, Mike Long led a workshop on the compositional features of landscape painting, and drew an audience of both professional and amateur artists as he helped them to understand how to construct a painting, not only with his own works, but also by taking them out into our corridor to see a number of the Savages paintings there. Bill Phillips took the afternoon workshop, of which more below. The day had, in general, run smoothly from 10am until 5pm, by which time the organisers, the many stewards and all those who had helped out were feeling fairly exhausted. Nevertheless, they turned up again at 10am on Sunday 12 September when Cass Caswell entranced his audience with a photographic walk around the Red Lodge neighbourhood in bygone times. His archive was a treasure trove of fascinating insights into the history around us. Our own accordionist extraordinaire, Ian Watt, then turned up with his Crucianelli and had his audience swaying and even dancing, particularly the two children who came out of the audience and sang and danced to their hearts' content in front of the platform. Tours of the Wigwam and its artefacts were carried out throughout the day by pairs of enthusiastic stewards whilst, on Saturday, Alan Shellard played in the background. After-lunch entertainment with Stuart Potter and the 1904 strollers gave us a full sixty minutes of real jazz, again attracting people from outside as well as aficionados, to this tour de force. Meanwhile Pat Shipsides led a workshop on painting sea and sky (with the occasional boat) for a large audience in the artists' studio, there was standing room only. In the afternoon Bill Phillips, who the previous day had painted modern landscapes, having taken over at the last minute from Tim Willmott, who had sent the reasonable excuse that a tree had fallen on his house in France. Bill had travelled outside his comfort zone and into modern city architecture and then, as he usually does, on Sunday he sketched with wit and bravado, to the delight and instruction of his appreciative audience, again in the artists' studio.

The day finished with Jonathan Price and a full half-hour piano recital. Having agreed simply to play some background music, Jonathan Price was surprised and eventually quite pleased to receive the applause and 'bravos' of the crowd which had gathered to hear him play proper music. As the ODD organisers said, "together we pulled off something memorable and inspiring. Feedback from audiences was overwhelmingly positive and we reached visitors from every Bristol postcode and beyond, whilst reaching younger and more diverse audiences". This certainly was our experience on the two Open Doors days in the Wigwam.

Jonathan Bird