THE Festival impresario and artist Richard Demarco is planning to stage a show in Venice from 4 to 28 May.

Demarco will hold the show at the La Chiesa SS Giovanni e Paolo, a joint exhibition of the work of the sculptor John Hale, as well as his own archive.

The exhibition will show twenty of John Hale’s sculptures arranged on plinths.

The other section will be devoted the Demarco Archive emphasising" the importance of the Italo-Scottish cultural dialogue which has been inspired by a special relationship between the Demarco Gallery’s and Foundation’s Edinburgh Festival programmes and those presented at the Venice Biennale."

The Demarco Archive will be presented through eight decades, from the 1940s to this present decade of the 21st century.

Mr Demarco said: "The Venice exhibition will thus focus on a particular aspect of the Demarco Archive, and with a specific reference to the Demarco Gallery’s exhibition programme beginning with ‘Strategy: Get Arts’,followed by the avant-garde spirit of Romania 1971 and Poland’s avant-garde in the 1972 Festival and the Yugoslav, French and Austrian avant-garde at the 1973 Festival.

"It should be noted that this programme inspired the Demarco Gallery’s expeditions to the Mediterranean, from Malta to Italy, France and to the Celtic regions of the British Isles, including Ireland."

This exhibition in Venice will make use of the Demarco Archive presently at the Summerhall arts centre and venue in Edinburgh.

www.richardemarco.org

A QUARTET of musicians from Lithuania, Bulgaria and the UK are to play at the next Milngavie Music Club concert.

The concert, on 5 April, features the ensemble, the Consone String Quartet, that specialises in playing the music of the 18th and 19th centuries as it would have sounded at the time.

The prize-winning quartet play on period instruments and their concert at Cairns Church, Milngavie focuses on music by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

Also in the programme are two pieces by Boccherini, who produced a huge amount of music including nearly 100 string quartets.

The Consone Quartet’ first met and played as students at London’s Royal College of Music and have now performed inFrance, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland.

In spring 2018 they toured in South America performing across Bolivia and Peru.

The concert starts at 7.30pm.

www.milngaviemusic.org

DUMFRIES and Galloway Arts Festival has unveiled its 40th Anniversary programme, which includes a tribute to Scotland’s fishing communities.

The ten-day festival runs from 24 May to 2 June.

Its venues include village and town halls, theatres, arts centres and pubs in almost every postcode of south west Scotland and new venues, Moat Brae; The Birthplace of Peter Pan and The Bridge in Dumfries.

Lost at Sea is a tribute to Scotland’s fishing communities.

Written by Morna Young and directed by Ian Brown, the play features an all-Scottish cast including Tam Dean Burn as the skipper.

Dani Rae, director of Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, said: “It’s a real privilege to return home and programme the 40th Anniversary of Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival which has been part of the creative life blood of the region since 1979.

“As well as the ten-day festival we work year-round delivering Arts Live, supporting venues and artists throughout the region to bring the best performing arts to our communities and encouraging them to try something new.

"Part of the essence and original focus of those who pioneered the very first arts festival in 1979 was to enable local communities to be able to see the highest quality shows without having to travel to the cities. I very much want Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival and Arts Live to build on this legacy going forward”.

www.dgartsfestival.org.uk