Helmsley Arts Centre has seen sold out performances in January. There’s lots more to look forward to as the charity continues its goal of bringing the arts to Ryedale, and beyond.

Regular visitors may have noticed a new look auditorium, as the huge task of painting the 138 seat venue was completed recently. The new colour is described as a grey/blue, and works perfectly for live on stage events and the lighting technology that goes hand in hand with such productions.

Scaffolding was needed to reach the high walls and ceilings, and it took 2 weeks to complete.

For event information and tickets, hire information and to find out about HAC’s history, visit www.helmlseyarts.co.uk.

Regular Classes, workshops and activities

Friday Café, every Friday at 10am, call in and relax in our Studio Bar with a hot drink and a choice of cakes, all home-made by our team of volunteers. We have full facilities, are accessible and have highchairs for small children available.

Ballet with Jill Robertson. Children’s classes are held on a Saturday in term time from 10am for children 3+, with Mrs Jill Robertson (qualified and registered teacher of ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance). Ladies’ classes are held on a Monday, 11am – 12noon. All standards welcome. Contact Jill for more details (jillrobertson@hotmail.co.uk/01642 762911).

Helmsley Arts Centre Choir meets on a Monday 7-8.30pm. It’s £5 per session and is relaxed and friendly. Choral leader Jessa Liversidge helps develop singing voices and promises an evening of fun and joy.

Learn to Pain in Watercolour with Alezz Art is an 8-week course of watercolour workshops aimed at teaching the novice artist the basics of painting in watercolour. Cost is £145 which includes watercolour paper block, exercise paper and a carry file. Other equipment is provided each week. Visit www.helmsleyarts.co.uk for more information and dates.

Ryedale Writers meets in the Studio Bar, HaC, once a month. The next dates are Feb 21, Mar 21 and Apr 25. All writers, at all lvels of experience, are welcome. Contact Jean for more details jean.sheridan111@btinernet.com.

Yoga with Nadja Schutt is held in term-time. Nadja has a waiting list for her Thursday session 9am till 10.30am (please email to be placed on the waiting list or for up-to-date availability) and has just announced a second session starting at HAC in the Morley Room from Mar 3. 10.45 – 12.15 the price is £50 for a block of 5 sessions or £12 per drop-in session (email for availability) nadjaschutt@gmail.com.

Events this month – Tickets www.helmsleyarts.co.uk or call the box office on 01439 711700.

Cinema: West Side Story (PG), Wed 9 Feb, 7.30pm. An adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love, and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. Tickets cost £8 (under 16’s cost £5.50).

Cinema: The King’s Man (15), Wed 16 Feb, 7.30pm. As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Tickets cost £8 (under 16’s cost £5.50).

Live Screening: National Theatre Live: The Book of Dust – Le Belle Sauvage, Thu 17 Feb, 7pm, by Philip Pullman, adapted by Bryony Lavery | Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Set twelve years before the epic His Dark Materials trilogy, this gripping adaptation revisits Philip Pullman’s fantastical world in which waters are rising and storms are brewing. Two young people and their dæmons, with everything at stake, find themselves at the centre of a terrifying manhunt. Eighteen years after his groundbreaking production of His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, director Nicholas Hytner returns to Pullman’s parallel universe. Broadcast live from London’s Bridge Theatre. Tickets cost £15 (under 18’s £7.50)

Live Music: Harpy Hour Live with Olivia Jageurs, Fri 18 Feb, 7.30pm. Send songs and music requests in advance to olivia@15secondharp.com. Olivia is a professional harpist based in London and has recently been awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Fund Trailblazer for her online concert series Harpy Hour. In March 2020, Olivia launched a weekly request series on Zoom that quickly grew a large audience of regular listeners. Olivia takes audience requests and arranges them for her instrument, with audience members encouraged to tell their personal connections to their song choices. From orchestral reductions of The Lark Ascending and Stravinsky’s The Firebird to pop classics by The Beatles and Noel Coward, anything goes! This concert will be the first integrated live and online event in the Harpy Hour series. Tickets cost £12.50.

Live Theatre: Voloz Collective presents ‘The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much’, Sat 19 Feb, 7.30pm. Chaplin meets Hitchcock meets Spaghetti Western in this fast-paced whodunnit. An intercontinental, inter-genre, cinematic caper of accusations, accidents and accents. Our story follows Roger Clement - a Frenchman in 1950's New York. His days have always followed a highly predictable, yet not-unpleasant, routine - until a minor delay saves him from an explosion - igniting a powder-keg of twists and turns as Roger chases his would-be assassins around the world to discover the truth. Raucously funny and endlessly inventive, this award-winning Lecoq-trained theatre company delights and stuns with live music and virtuosic acrobatics. Includes Q & A session. Tickets cost £15 (under 18’s cost £7.50).

Workshop: Sketchbook Making with Ian Cameron, Sun 20 Feb, 10am – 3pm. Artist Ian Cameron will guide you through the process of making your very own sketchbooks.Participants will make three hard backed books with hand stitched 115gsm cartridge paper pages. An A6 sketchbook covered in hard wearing bookcloth, A5 sketchbook in a colourful paper design and an A4 covered in a different coloured bookcloth. Each sketchbook will contain approximately 30 pages. All the equipment and materials you need will be provided and there will be a break for lunch. Tickets cost £40, all materials are included.

Half Term Fun; Cinema: Encanto (PG), Wed 23 Feb, 2.30pm. Set in Columbia in the magical town of Encanto, where everyone in Mirabel’s family has a magical gift except her. Tickets cost £8 (under 16’s cost £5.50).

Half Term Fun; workshop: Dark Skies Art Workshops for children aged 5 -12. Thu 24 Feb, 10am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm. Join us for 1, 2 or 3 mega, messy, crafty, painty, foldy, sticky, papery FUN art workshops inspired by the North York Moors National Park Dark Skies Festival! We’re running three sessions through the day full of brilliant art activities that you can dip into and go crazy with your creations all with the helping hand of artist Tabitha Grove. Book as many sessions as you like and enjoy the day! Children 5 to 7 must be accompanied by an adult. If you’ve booked both session one and two, please bring a pack up! Tickets cost £5 per session.

Theatre: 1812 Live, Sat 26 Feb, 7.30pm. 1812 Live is a project funded by match funding from Local Giving as part of the Light Up HAC Fundraising appeal in 2020. The projects have been shared online and for one night only will be available to enjoy at HAC, onstage and on screen! Join us for a sharing of: Keep Your Hair On Mr Musk!, Funiculi, Funicula - Loki in a Lift, Helmsley's Whole History and Helmsley - The War Years. Please note this performance will be live at HAC and live streamed. Tickets are pay what you can donations on the night – thank you.

Half Term Fun; Live Theatre: Ugg ‘n’ Ogg And The World’s First Dogg, Sun 27 Feb, 2.30pm. Thousands of years ago in the fresh, sparkling world just after the last Ice Age there were no dogs; there were wolves but we didn’t like them and they didn’t like us. But then, luckily for us, along came two young hunter-gatherers Ugg ’n’ Ogg to befriend the wolves Tooth ’n’ Nail and embark on a fun-packed adventure where despite flying meat bones, sabre-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, forest infernos and even a time travelling stick, they finally get to invent our best friend the dog. A new play for children of all ages and their families inspired by the amazing evolutionary process that transformed the wolf into man’s best friend and all the dogs in the world today. Duration: 60 minutes including a 10 minute ‘meet the performers and puppets’ from the show session. There is no interval. For 3 Years +. Tickets cost £6, Babies in arms are free of charge.

Coming up in March:

Gary Delaney, Swan Lake (Bolshoi Ballet Live), The Ballad of Mulan, The Comedy Network and music from Howlin’ Ric and The Rocketeers, and much much more. For full details visit www.helmsleyarts.co.uk.