Since the Arts Club was launched in 2013, with the wonderful support of Sir Humphrey Burton and Diana Quick, it has grown and developed into a vibrant, organic phenomenon involving many of Suffolk’s most exciting arts people. The Arts Club is based here on Aldeburgh Beach from where it initiates, supports and publicise events around the county, organised by its members.

If you would like to join, please email me at caroline@carolinewiseman.com, reach me on 07808723309, or sign up below. Membership is very inexpensive, at £40 single, £60 double or £25 if you are a practicing artist, poet, writer or performer.

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Caroline Wiseman, founder of the Arts Club Aldeburgh Beach, says “Sir Peter Blake encouraged me to take on the Lookout Tower on Aldeburgh beach, as he knew it from his painting visits to Aldeburgh many years ago; so Peter is our founding member of the Arts Club Aldeburgh Beach and he made a print entitled A Walk Along Aldeburgh Beach as a fundraiser.”

Because it nurtures the cross fertilisation of ideas, the Arts Club is a catalyst for the extraordinary creativity of East Suffolk and continues the innovative legacy of Benjamin Britten. The results of this flourish around us. One example is our Venice Biennale adventure which took place in 2019. Another example is The Angel of the East, created and named by members of the Arts Club, it is our very own social sculpture on Aldeburgh Beach - a celebration of the rising sun.

Benefits to members include: fellowship of like-minded art lovers, the opportunity to get to know (and collaborate with) other creatives, free publicity of your art events through our monthly bulletin, monthly arts club lunch, weekly arts club zoom call and much more!

There are incalculable, innumerable benefits of membership of the Arts Club Aldeburgh Beach but here are just a few which come to mind...

1) The invitation to join in exhibitions, including important ones overseas such as the Venice Biennale when in 2019 over 100 members of the Arts Club came with us to Venice as part of ALIVE IN THE UNIVERSE.

2) You are invited to have a one day residency in The Lookout

3) The opportunity of hiring the Lookout for specific functions or events like art courses or to make art.

4) Opportunities to collaborate with other members - many wonderful projects have been created by artists who have met as members of the Club.

5) We go on fun arty annual trips - e.g to Cyprus, to the prestigious Cill Rialaig, Arts Project in Western Ireland, to the Tuscan Hills and more...

6) We have members who are poets, writers, musicians and scientists as well, as visual artists and the opportunities for the cross-fertilisation of ideas are exhilarating.

7)) The life of an artist can be lonely and the Arts Club has nourished many, many friendships.

8) The chance to make influential contacts. The Arts Club has many members and contacts who are influential in the arts world here in Suffolk, in London and in the wider arts establishment. In the past few years, many RAs have visited us as well as museum directors and well-known personalities such as Andrew Marr.

9) Annual week-long exhibition in the Lookout. Each member is entitled to show one work of art, which can be for sale.

Our 340 or so members are amongst the most exciting and influential arts people in Suffolk including:

PETER BLAKE RA, HUMPHREY BURTON, LIZ CALDER,
EILEEN COOPER RA, PETER DICKINSON, RYAN GANDER,
JILL GREEN, MAGGI HAMBLING, MICHAEL & PATTY HOPKINS,
ANTHONY HOROWITZ, IAN MCMILLAN,
BLAKE MORRISON, BEN PRESTON, LIBBY PURVES,
DIANA QUICK, JANICE TURNER, ALISON WILDING RA,
ROGER WRIGHT, HELEN ATKINSON WOOD, DEREK WYATT