Falmouth Decorative and Fine Arts Society is the most southerly society in Britain, situated in a county that is extremely rich in artistic tradition and also has a flourishing contemporary art life. There is a great interest in all aspects of art among people living here - something that is reflected in the success of our society, which is very active and has enthusiastic and supportive members.
History
We held our Inaugural Meeting on 13th October 2000 with a Founder Membership of 212. By the end of the first year we had a waiting list of 75 and felt confident enough to increase our total membership to 230. Membership currently stands at 360 and over 200 of those members came to the 10th anniversary event in October 2010.
Art Projects
Falmouth DFAS has been involved with various art projects in the local community. For several years we funded an award to students in the new 20th Century Art and Design course at University College Falmouth (formerly Falmouth College of Art), which was presented for the first time at our AGM 2003. In addition we funded a Young Arts project for pupils at the Falmouth School.
We have also been supporting, together with University College Falmouth, a Children's Illustrations Archive at the award - winning Falmouth Art Gallery. The archive was created in December 2004, and Falmouth DFAS has funded some purchases of children’s book illustrations, adding to an already existing collection in the gallery. It is hoped that the illustration archive will also attract gifts from professional illustrators.
In 2010 the society donated £1,000 to the Falmouth Art Gallery which enabled the gallery to ‘unlock’ the main sum from the Art Fund to acquire the painting entitled Innocence by Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854 – 1931). In 2012 we made a small contribution to help with the acquisition of Anne Killigrew’s ‘Venus attired by the Three Graces’.
During the summer of 2012 we donated £2,000 to the National Maritime Museum, Falmouth to enable the creation of a Museum Assistant (Graduate Trainee) work placement. The key barrier to any young person gaining a job within the heritage sector is a lack of experience, specifically a lack of initial paid experience. The graduate trainee work placement was a new initiative by the Museum that aims address this issue by providing invaluable experience, knowledge and transferable skills to a young person at the start of their career.
The Society has two groups of Heritage Volunteers, one of which is at work in the library of the splendid new National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, which houses the largest collection of books of maritime history in the South West. A second group is helping with the costume collection at the Helston Museum.
A Church Recording Group has completed the records of 3 local churches and is currently working at a fourth.