POCKLINGTON Arts Centre will celebrate its fifth anniversary next month.

Starting off with a beautiful, but very empty, converted listed building at Oak House with no funds, the centre now draws 25,000 visitors a year.

Supported by volunteers from the community, who work as box-office staff and ushers, the venue presents live music, theatre, dance, comedy, weekly film screenings, exhibitions and festivals.

Music highlights begin with Homespun, featuring Sam Brown and Beautiful South songwriter and guitarist Dave Rotheray, supported by Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy, on January 24.

Louisiana blues singer and guitarist Chris Smither returns to Pocklington on January 29, having last played there in 2002. Support act Jeffrey Foucault, from Wisconsin, will be showcasing his Stripping Cane album.

Innovative Polish folk and world musicians Warsaw Village Band, winner of the Best Newcomer prize at the 2004 World Music Awards, follow up last autumn's appearance at the National Centre of Early Music in York with their Pocklington debut on February 8.

Pop star turned jazz singer and saxophonist Curtis Stigers plays on February 17; Scottish singer Barbara Dickson opens her spring tour in support of her Full Circle album at Pocklington on February 23; Martin Carthy, Juan Martin, Martin Simpson and Martin Taylor link up in the folk, blues, flamenco and jazz guitar supergroup Martins4 on March 8.

Harp and violin duo Eleanor Turner and Roger Owen play works by Dvorak, Saint Saens, Albeniz and Gershwin, plus John Williams's theme music for the Harry Potter films, on March 13 at 3pm; country music wild card Hank Wangford performs with his Lost Cowboys on March 31.

Comedian Jeremy Hardy is the pick of the humorous entertainment. This regular guest on BBC2's QI has his own Radio 4 series, Jeremy Hardy Speaks To The Nation, and appears as a guest on Just A Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue; he picks over life's bones on February 16.

The Kissing Gate team presents Answer On A Postcard, a frantic farce about a director with a problem, a problematic actor, a sheep and the small matter of who will inherit Edward's millions, on January 26 and 27 at 7.30pm.

Reform Theatre Company performs John Godber's Brits Abroad comedy, April In Paris, on March 29 at 7.30pm. Peter Searles's Hey Gringo! Through Peru, on April 8 at 7.30pm, takes this radical explorer on a roller-coaster ride through encounters with drug smugglers, Dutch airline hostesses, Carmelite Monks, Maoist guerrillas, Mancunian ornithologists, Amazonian Indians and a French Shaman.

Shows start at 8pm unless stated. For tickets and brochures, ring 01759 301547.

Updated: 16:15 Thursday, January 20, 2005