'Here's to the next 40': Jersey Arts Centre celebrates four decades with three days of art and shows
Words and video report by Will Tullis, who joined artists and performers as they prepared for the Festival 40 Weekend celebrations
The stage is set for three days of art, music and performance as Jersey Arts Centre, celebrates forty years since it first opened.
The Festival 40 Weekend begins on Friday (20th January) evening.
Visitors will be able to enjoy a specially commissioned art exhibition with pieces looking ahead to what Jersey artists imagine the world to look like in forty years.
There will also be live music and a poetry reading.
On stage, the MacDonalds - a family of Jersey creatives - will perform in a production involving seven of their family members.
The family have a special relationship with the Arts Centre. Lisa, an artist, remembers a time before the Arts Centre existed.
"Forty years ago I was living in Jersey and wanting there to be an Arts Centre and it felt very abstract at the time", Lisa told ITV News during a rehearsal of her family's play, "One of Those Streets".
"When you're an artist in a small community, you need all the help you can get.
"I'm so grateful for the Arts Centre for giving us a space. And for my children too, who decided to go into the arts."
'When you're an artist in a small community, you need all the help you can get': Lisa MacDonald remembers a time before the Arts Centre.
Martha MacDonald, who is performing on stage, has equally fond memories of the Arts Centre.
"The Arts Centre has been like a home from home for me when I was growing up", Martha told ITV News.
"I was involved in theatre projects here since I was a kid, my first job was in the box office on Saturday and it's always been a hugely important community hub for me."
Martha's brother, Joss, joins her on stage. The Jersey stage has a special place in his heart.
"I will always return to this stage to perform if the opportunity comes up. Always."
"Living in London, people ask what there was to do in Jersey...they're always surprised when I tell them there's an Arts Centre", Joss added.
Performers Martha and Joss MacDonald have grown up with the Arts Centre. Martha's first job was in the ticket office.
The Arts Centre's director, Daniel Austin, has been in post for twenty of those forty years.
He said Edinburgh Festival was the inspiration behind the Festival 40 programme.
"[The idea is] if you bought tickets for all ten shows over the weekend, you'd have the kind of experience in the music, drama and dance and performing arts, visual arts kind of experience that you might have in Edinburgh", he said.
Daniel also hopes the Centre can be at the heart of Jersey's art community for decades to come.
"I would imagine that the Art Centre - maybe on a different site, maybe in a different form - will still be here, celebrating 80 years."