Thanks to the efforts of Harold & Doreen Stacey, Tedburn Art Group began life in January 1991 as an adult education class, under the 'umbrella' of QECC. Students paid fees to Devon County Council, who employed artist David Lublinski as their tutor, & Teignbridge generously provided a start-up grant towards the hiring of Tedburn Village Hall on Thursday afternoons for three terms of ten weeks each.
Most of the students were complete beginners & all became so keen that at the end of each ten-week term none of them wanted a long break until the next official term began. After a group discussion with their tutor, they gratefully accepted his offer to provide free tutoring for the extra weeks & voted unanimously to dip into their own pockets to hire the Hall. The additional weeks totalled thirteen that year!
Towards the end of the autumn of 1991 DCC announced a sizeable increase in fees for adult education classes. This caused very long faces amongst the majority of those attending Tedburn's Art Group, especially as terms were to be cut from ten to eight sessions. So an urgent group discussion was held with their tutor. Someone
put forward the idea of breaking away from QECC to 'go it alone' as a Village Club. This turned out to be feasible largely because David Lublinski [who was on the verge of retirement from work as a DCC adult art tutor] agreed to continue as Tedburn's tutor for very little remuneration, as & when the new club had sufficient funds in their kitty after Hall hire bills had been paid. ..
Students voted unanimously to give it a try so, with the full approval of QECC's Melville Hope & of the Parish Council, Tedburn Art Group became a Village Club. Their first, fully-independent session took place on the afternoon of Thursday, 9 January 1992 -& has been going strong ever since, still with David Lublinski as their tutor for drawing & painting. His wife, Margot, teaches calligraphy to beginners on request.
The club meets on Thursday afternoons, from 2pm, throughout the year [except for breaks at Christmas, Easter & August]. Dates of all meetings are published monthly in the Tedburn Times. A low membership subscription is payable in January , after Easter & in September; in addition there is a very low contribution, payable only on the Thursdays they are able to attend.
New members are always welcome at this friendly club -no matter what their level of experience they will be helped to make progress. As many a formerly nervous novice will happily testify, David Lublinski frequently proves that anyone who really wants to do so can learn to draw & paint.
If you think you might like to join this Art Group, call in at 3.30pm on any of our club's afternoons, to meet members over a cup of tea & see their work in progress. Or ring [01647] 61204 for further details.