Memorabilia | oxfordtabla

Hélène organised many workshops, lectures and concerts, which happened in the Pitt Rivers Balfour Building, its garden and elsewhere.

The following, by courtesy of Caroline Howard-Jones, is a collection of

programmes and other memorabilia from those amazing and exciting times when Hélène was involved in supporting so many people and different activities with her usual boundless enthusiasm, much kindness and much devotion.

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This press cutting dated Friday, July 1, 1988 reads:-

'Children from all over Oxfordshire have been dressing up to go to a typical Indian School in Islip.

The School was specially constructed in part of an old tithe barn at the Old Rectory in the village as part of an exhibition and workshops on the Indian sub-continent being held from May to July.

Pictured are pupils of St Phillip and St James School, Leckford Road, Oxford, getting into the spirit of the orient.

The exhibition was organised by Mrs Jane Skinner, Mrs Emily Norton and Mrs Kay Hussain, who make up an organisation in Islip called the Barn Bureau which seeks to show children the music, culture and arts of other countries.

Indian dancing, puppetry, cooking and pattern making are some of the workshops that have been taking place.

But one of the highlights for the children was dressing up in the colourful costumes worn by children in Rajasthan. They were given an Indian name, a slate to write on and learnt from an Indian teacher in a specially-constructed Rajasthani school.

The exhibition is sponsored by Christian Aid, Southern Arts, Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council.

Mrs Skinner said that if schools wanted the exhibition to be taken to them this could be arranged.'

'Puppets Please' is a booklet which includes sections on puppets from India, the West Indies and Greece and how they are used and on puppetry in the classroom and appendixes giving scripts and stories and instructions on how to make a simple ghost marionette and other appendixes listing books and resources, museum collections of puppets and useful addresses. It was published in May 1987 by the Oxford Development Education Unit.