The month of April brought the news of some unexpected and sad changes to the Wayland Partnership team.

During the summer, Susan will be moving to France and Suzanne will be moving to Scotland. Both will be sorely missed - not only by the team of trustees and volunteers but also by our Wayland House clients and Wayland residents, by the community of artists and crafts people, and by the local businesses and community groups that we engage with each day.

This news has inevitably produced a flurry of activity as we review staff roles, write job descriptions and set the recruitment process in motion.

It is not often that an organisation loses its entire staff at the same time and the trustees now need to meet the challenge of building a new team to work with us, the partners, the dozens of groups and businesses and the hundreds of individuals with whom we work each week.

The deadline for applications is past. Over the next two weeks we will be shortlisting and interviewing candidates so that, by the end of May, we hope to have appointed a development manager and administrative assistant

The open day will take place on Saturday, May 20, when the Wayland community is invited to drop in at the Queens Hall in Watton between 10am and 2pm to find out about the partnership’s current projects and learn about the partnership’s plans for the future.

We look forward to hearing your questions and comments and your ideas. Joining us on the day will be some of our partners – the chamber of commerce, the Wayland Festival, the tourism association, the sports association, the Wayland Show. Blossom and Yarn. The town council will also be with us with their exciting plans for the town.

Meanwhile in the Dragonfly Gallery now is a new mixed media exhibition – The World of Christine Watson - which runs to May 13, followed by New Horizons, from May 19 to 21, which is a preview of the 2017 Open Studios.