The funding is available for Wakefield district creatives, cultural organisations, and community groups to support new cultural projects to ensure the entire district creatively thrives.
This June sees investment by the Council into Culture Grants which support the creative sector to produce high quality projects and enable communities to lead their own activity in their local area – giving everyone access to arts, culture and heritage.
Councillor Michelle Collins, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Sport, said: “I am pleased to be announcing grants to support creativity, culture and heritage across our district today. It’s great that people in so many of our communities will be able to participate in and benefit from a diverse and inclusive range of activities in the coming months."
“This is about embracing and developing creativity wherever it is in our district. I’m excited that we’re supporting such a wide range of really important projects, from community-led murals to wellbeing workshops to musical events and activity.”
There are two grants available - Made in Wakefield for the creative sector and Culture Everywhere for community groups to apply for. Made in Wakefield grants range from £1,500 to £15,000 to support new creative work, and ambitious participatory projects.
One of the recipients is Our House Wakefield, who will launch a year-long programme of cultural activity at Our House – the new LGBTQIA community hub in Wakefield city centre.
The programme will offer opportunities for all community members to participate creatively, to learn new skills and share with monthly creative workshops and community open mic nights.
Louie Stafford, Founder & Managing Director, said: “We are building something special for the Wakefield LGBTQ+ community through Our House; we are bringing local people together in a safe, affirming environment where we can share our passions and express ourselves freely. Receiving this funding has come at a critical time for our organisation and will enable us to deliver an exciting creative programme of events and workshops over the next nine months. We are so excited to get started!”
Culture Everywhere support community groups, charities and CICs, to run small arts and culture activities and events with their local communities. These grants support residents across the district to have the opportunity to experience culture in their communities and are for up to £1,500.
The full list of recipients of the Made in Wakefield grants are:
The Made in Wakefield grants are:
Artist Claire Walker will run six community yarn making and weaving workshops, and display a large piece, to commemorate the strength of the community at The Brig’s Summer Fair on the 9 July 2023.
Featherstone Rovers Foundation will develop a year-long project called ‘Pit to the Pitch’, a celebration of the history and traditions of Featherstone Rovers RLFC and its association with the heritage of coal mining in Featherstone through creative activities.
Our House Wakefield will launch a year-long programme of cultural activity at Our House – the new LGBTQIA community hub in Wakefield city centre. The programme will offer opportunities for all community members to participate creatively, to learn new skills and share with monthly creative workshops and community open mic nights.
Wakefield Live will celebrate its second year as a free city centre festival in Wakefield. The festival will grow, with a new public city centre open air and solar powered stage as well as more venues taking place rooting the festival in Wakefield and engaging with more local people.
Portobello Community Forum will come together over 12 weeks to ‘Sow, Grow and Know’. An exciting new community initiative for families to get involved with growing their own food, storytelling, supper sharing, seed sowing and building bird boxes.
Sustain Wakefield will be working with artist Lewis Ryan over 10 weeks to create a new large colourful mural at St Catherine’s Church Wakefield celebrating LGBTQIA themes, with workshops in Drag make-up and confidence. There will be a public launch including 20+ stalls at the event to share information and services available to all Wakefield residents.
Creative Suzie Cross will be working at Anglers Country Park to create a series of wellbeing workshops in the woodlands, as well as an experimental bone-conductive sound sculpture which Suzie is developing so that deaf participants can ‘hear’ the sounds of the woodlands.
The Community Choir Wakefield will be performing across the district with their summer singing for wellbeing campaign. The choir will perform at WDH coffee mornings in the district. Providing inclusive and accessible opportunities for elderly isolated Wakefield residents to be involved in fun community singing events.
Wakefield District Sight Aid will be developing a series of inclusive art workshops in Wakefield open to all its service users. Each free course will consist of eight weekly two-hour sessions, facilitated by Ruth Fones, a leading visual artist from Wakefield, and supported by two facilitators who have lived experience of sight loss.
Clarence Park Festival 2023 will go ahead with 22 live music performances over the weekend of the 29 and 30 July 2023. The festival is well established in Wakefield, and this year trainee DJs from Wakefield College have been invited to perform, as well as a poetry space for a series of workshops for children and young people in poetry writing and spoken word performance.
Wakefield Pride continues to grow, hosting 5,000 people in one day on Borough Road. As one of the largest events taking place in Wakefield city centre, this year looks to be an exciting and celebratory programme of artists and acts on stage to entertain the crowds.
The Culture Everywhere grants are:
Featherstone Male Voice Choir in September 2023 will be celebrating their 60th Anniversary special concert at Wakefield Cathedral with Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Wakefield Council’s support will help 150 Featherstone residents to attend the Wakefield concert by providing coach travel and subsidised tickets.
Pontefract Civic Society will be running a full programme of events for Heritage Open Days in September 2023. They have started their planning of over 50 heritage related events to help celebrate Pontefract’s heritage. Many local performers and local history talkers will be involved in the series of events.
Darrington Village Field Trust will run their summer annual Darrington Feast & Fayre Festival this year, growing on their festival which has been run by the community since the 1980s. The community day celebrates their local community in the green space and will include children’s activities, musical acts, walk-about theatre performers and a competitive tractor pull for adults.
Portobello Gala 2023 has been awarded a Culture Grant to support professional and community created outdoor entertainment for the gala day. This summer’s gala will promote integration in the community and there will be a full day of performances and 10 stalls for workshops and crafts.
The Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract will host an informal, sociable and inclusive Friday afternoon craft group which will act as a friendly peer support group for people with shared experiences. Activities and craft therapies with an emphasis on enablement will be themed to mark celebratory dates throughout the year.
Love 2 Act based in Wrenthorpe will work with a Makaton tutor to teach children and young people aged 5-15 a Makaton performance. They will rehearse the performance over a series of weeks, before releasing a film of the work for everyone to enjoy.
Portobello Craft and Camera Group will work in Pontefract Valley Gardens using the giant pin-hole camera working with artists Bob Clayden and Rose Knight. They will produce life-sized portraits, which will then be exhibited at up to 10 hair salons across the Wakefield district and at the community led Fitzwilliam Station gallery.
Pontefract Art Club, along with Pontefract Civic Society, will run their second annual art trail as part of Pontefract Liquorice Festival 2023. All nine Pontefract schools receive the required materials, and each school will create an artwork which will be exhibited in shop windows throughout Pontefract town centre. Maps will be printed so that visitors can enjoy a self-led walk of the town finding the street-gallery images during the festival weekend.
