Dome and Stars at the British Museum

Dome and Stars: Exploring visual aspects of Islamic Culture

Great Court of the British Museum from 24 November to 10 December

If you're near the British Museum in the next two weeks (maybe coming to the community view of I Object or Ashurbanipal on Saturday 1st?), be sure to pop in and see this amazing artwork co-created by our talented Treasurer, Helena.

Artists Zoe Dutton, Marie McMorrow and Helena Roden from Mary Ward Centre's outreach team worked with 12 local community groups to create the installation.

Participants were inspired by intense patterns from around the world including flowing Iznik designs from Turkey and the geometric tiles of Spain's Alhambra.

More information here.

November update

We're over half-way through November, and Christmas will soon be upon us! Our November activities have reflected this, both at Craft Club and our monthly meeting.

British Museum visit
To start the month, on Saturday 4th November we visited the community preview of the new British Museum exhibition, I am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, which we highly recommend! As a reminder, all members can attend these free previews, usually held the Sunday before an exhibition opens to the public, it's one of the perks of being a LWEWI member!

Craft Club
Our penultimate craft club of the year was held on Tuesday 6th November, where we combined the crafts of origami and card making to make these fab Christmas cards! More information about Craft Club is on the dedicated blog. Next meeting is Tuesday 4th December, when we're making christmas decorations for the tree.

Monthly Meeting
Our last monthly meeting of the year was held on Wednesday 21st November, when Geraldine Beskin of the Atlantis Bookshop gave us a fab talk all about the dark side of Christmas, complete with lots of gory detail! 

There's no December meeting, as that's the night of the St George's carol service (Wed 19th December). All members are of course welcome to attend the service, and as ever we'll be providing the congregation with mulled wine and mince pies after the service, email us for more info if you'd like to help out.

We'll be back in the new year - Craft Club will be on the second Tuesday of the month in January, and our monthly meeting will - hopefully - be led by some herbalists. Watch this space for more information!

January AGM - Committee Members Needed!

Our AGM has been postponed until January, when you will have the chance to be on our committee, and vote for new post holders. 

Pam and Helena are standing down as President and Treasurer for family reasons. We MUST get a new President and new Treasurer, or we will have to close. This is not a drill - we must fill these posts or we cannot legally continue to exist.

Please, please consider standing. Speak to Pam, Claude or Helena at the November meeting for more information, or email londonwestendwi@gmail.com. You don't need to be a long-standing member, just a member, with energy and an hour or two a month to help run LWEWI - most business is conducted via email.

Next Meeting: 21 November 2018

Wednesday 21st is our November meeting. The AGM is postponed until January, but we've still got a talk all about 'The Dark Side of Christmas' to look forward to!

"We all know that we have Coca-Cola to thank for the red coated, white bearded Father Christmas, and that he comes from old traditions. There is a darker side to the whole Christmas time of course, and some of it is alive and well and getting darker! Why? Not simple commercialisation again surely?"

Geraldine Beskin of The Atlantis Bookshop will talk us through the myths, legends and sometimes moving folklore associated with Yuletide.

Wed 21st Nov, 6.30 to 8.30pm, St George's Bloomsbury. Visitors as well as members most welcome!