Community Arts in the High Peak
Thank you for joining us on Thursday 28th Feb to unveil the beautiful silk painted panels, inspired by the Charles Eamer Kempe stained glass windows in Spring Bank Arts Centre. These window and wall hangings were made by participants in Project eARTh ( Environmental arts and health) with artist Amanda Whewell. They will be displayed at Spring Bank Arts Centre, alongside a book of smaller silk painted pieces also inspired by the windows.
A huge thank you to White Stuff, Buxton who are doing an amazing job donating all the profits from their paper bags to High Peak Community Arts!
Previous activities have also included a second hand book sale, sweet sale, cake sale and ‘best in show’ pet photo competition!
The initiatives are part of White Stuff’s international campaign entitled “Live.Love.Local” which is all about giving back to the local charities that each White Stuff’s shop support.
Please do pop in to the Buxton shop and support the great work the staff are doing to support us.
High Peak Community Arts were very happy to install a beautiful flock of ceramic birds in the gardens of Reuben’s Retreat in Glossop, unveiled by the Mayor of the High Peak, Cllr Linda Grooby, on 18th October 2018.
The birds were created by Project eARTh participants, working with the acclaimed ceramic artist Caroline Chouler- Tissier. Participants had expressed a wish to make some art work for Reuben’s Retreat, a Glossop charity that aims to provide a retreat to relieve the distress of families and their close friends who have suffered the bereavement of a child, or who have a child suffering from a life limiting or life threatening illness. Reuben’s Retreat said they would love some ceramic birds, and so the project began.
This project is particularly poignant as Reuben (in whose memory the Retreat was established by his bereaved parents) used to love looking at ‘birdies’ in his garden before he tragically died aged 23 months.
Participants used reference books and posters to select a variety of garden birds to design, and with the assistance of Caroline, set about creating them in clay, then using oxides, slips and glazes to add colour. 23 birds on steel poles were placed in one garden area, in memory of the 23 months of Reuben’s life, and more birds were placed by the entrance, and in a bird feeding area that can be viewed from the Lodge – the bereavement, counselling and support centre.
On 18th October, participants were warmly welcomed by the staff at Reuben’s, and delighted to see the results of their work in the beautiful settings. “It’s been a lovely project” said Alison Bowry from High Peak Community Arts. “Each bird is different, and I love how they have expressions and characters of their own. We certainly had a great deal of fun creating them. I hope the children and families enjoy looking at them, and the sight of the birds helps to lift their spirits.”
Project eARTh is an environmental arts and health project for adults in the High Peak experiencing mental distress or other long term conditions. It runs 2 groups per week, and is free to attend with free transport for those who need it. Working with professional artists, participants work together to create art works for the community. It is funded by the Big Lottery Fund.
Do take a look at Reuben’s Retreat website to see the work the fantastic work that they are doing, how you can help, or how they can support you. For details visit: https://www.reubensretreat.org or call 01457 680 023.
‘Join the Fight’, the show created by young people in their summer school this August, held its final performance on Saturday 29th September as part of New Mills Festival.
Work started in April at the Young Writers’ Camp when nearly 30 young people from across the High Peak came together for a trip to the People’s History Museum in Manchester. In two following days they wrote characters inspired by the centenary of some women winning the vote and other campaigns they found in the museum.
More young people joined the project from April to July, in workshops in 
Gamesley in Glossop and Fairfield in Buxton and signed up for our August summer school. Over 7 days nearly 40 young people aged 8 – 18 came together to turn the early ideas into a performing arts show and created “Join the Fight” – a performance trail for New Mills Festival 2018. The final show includes music, drama, dance and film set in different locations in New Mills and starting from High Lee Hall in the park on St Mary’s Road. For the first time our older participants have created all the work in one venue, which is suitable for an audience age 13+ and presents a young view of gender and sexuality issues. However, skipping that venue, there is still plenty for a family audience!
High Peak Community Arts couldn’t provide this fantastic range of youth programme without their range of funders; from Santander Discovery Fund for the Young Writers’ Camp to National Foundation for Youth Music, local Bingham Trust and Derbyshire Councillors’ Initiative Funds for workshops on the estates and our recent grant from Arts Council England joined by One Stop Carriers for Causes and Tesco Bags of Help funding for the summer school.
The young performers were excited to present their work, and pulled out all the stops for the public when they arrived!
We are celebrating winning the support of Arts Council England for the Youth Programme, with the news coming just ahead of our annual creative Summer School.
We asked the Arts Council to support us in producing original creative work by, with and for young people of the district and beyond. We will be putting it to use straight away in August as we can now put on performances in Buxton, Glossop and New Mills. Over the next 3 years we will reach out to those with the least access to arts and culture to create performances for families, a book for babies and children in early years and new original writing by teens from the High Peak.
The programme includes extending the early years project ‘For the Love of Books’, running Tall Tales (a performing arts project for anyone aged 8+ ) and adding a second Young Writers’ Camp, specifically aimed at age 13+.
Anyone interested in knowing more should get in touch with Sophie on 01663 744 516 or sophie@highpeakarts.org, or come and see this year’s youth performance ‘Join the Fight’, which will be part of New Mills Festival on 29th September.
Take a look at some of our recent Project eARTh artwork in the form of ceramic birds.. adding some oxides and colour. Making them for the garden.
With artist Caroline Chouler-Tissier.
We are starting a new project in partnership with New Mills and District Volunteer Centre – ‘Together Through Art’ – for elders in the area who would like to get out, meet others, have fun and be creative. We will be working with artist Amanda Whewell, and the project will create a wall hanging for the Volunteer Centre. We want to reduce loneliness and isolation amongst older people – or if you know of anyone who would benefit – friends, family, neighbours – please let them know – if you want information, you could print out this flyer, or get in touch and we can give some to you to pass on – as can the Volunteer Centre. The project will be FREE of charge. The Volunteer Centre can provide transport for those who need it. You can also phone me, Alison on 01663 744516 or email alison@highpeakarts.org
We
are delighted to be starting a new project with the residents of Charis House, Buxton, a safe place where homeless women, including those escaping from domestic violence, and women recovering from drug and alcohol dependency can find rest and recovery.
High Peak Community Arts has worked with Good News Family Care (who run Charis 
House) since 2014 via the Creative Wellbeing project. This programme works with its residents and other women in the community in a wide range of creative arts. Workshops are held at Good News Family Care’s Family Centre or Oldfield Farm.
Funded by The Ashley Foundation, The South West Peak Landscape Partnership, and the John Booth Charitable Trust, the project seeks to provide a fun, creative way of learning new skills, socialising and doing something different. The main ingredient in this project comes straight from local fields, courtesy of our four-legged fleeced friends at Oldfield Farm! Local Lleyn sheep take centre stage, with women learning all the processes about how to transform a sheep’s fleece into carded wool – washing, sorting, dying, and carding – and then using the carded wool for wet felting, needle felting and weaving, as well as spinning the carded wool into yarn.
Working with local artist Carol Wilson, project participants will create final pieces from the fleece – these may be woven, knitted, crocheted or felted. The idea is that the yarn can also be sold in local shops as a way of generating much needed extra funds for Charis House.
“The first project we ever did at Charis House was felting, which the women really enjoyed so, when the farm acquired 6 Lleyn sheep, it seemed ideal to revisit and expand the idea, this time involving the whole process from the shearing to the finished items. We see this is a long term venture so that staff can use their sheep to generate useful activity and income” (Alison Bowry, Project Co-ordinator, High Peak Community Arts)
“It’s fun doing it all together, working as a team. You get that feeling that people have been doing this kind of activity over centuries. And you really appreciate all the work it takes to transform wool into, say, a jumper…” (Jan, Volunteer, Charis House)
In 2018, the project will be using commercial dyes. Next year, participants will be using natural dyes, including those that will be created from plants (such as woad) that grow on Oldfield Farm.
Between 2018-19, the project aims to work with a minimum of 30 women in over 40 workshops.
For more information, please contact Alison on 01663 744516 or at alison@highpeakarts.org.
We are excited to announce that we have received the backing of the National Foundation for Youth Music with a 3 year grant which will bring musical activity to schools and community spaces across the High Peak.
Youth Arts Programme Manager, Sophie Mackreth says “We are so happy to have won this grant, which will fund music at the heart of our whole youth programme, from early years to open workshops for age 8+ and new partnerships with some of our local High Schools.” Young people should look out for local music workshops from Easter and a chance to take part in an annual Summer School which will produce a performing arts show for the general public. Young participants can also submit their work for a national Arts Award and join the steering group that plans future projects.
Our next job is to sit down with the steering group and choose material for the coming year – and to raise funds for any non-musical artforms we want to use! There’s never a rest from grant writing!