Community Organisations
Case studies
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge honeycombed with caves, including Britain's only known Ice Age rock art. The gorge is part of the Creswell Heritage Landscape Area and incorporates a Museum and Education Centre. Since 2005, Creswell Crags has been delivering a pilot project to provide young people at risk of exclusion from school with an alternative environment in which to learn. read more
Bend in the River
Bend in the River is an organisation that exhibits contemporary British painting from a Georgian warehouse adjacent to the River Trent. It hosts five shows a year, four of which are solo. It is also the driving force behind an ambitious project at the redundant church of St John the Divine, Gainsborough, called Slumgothic. At the church it provides a vast arts project space plus community rooms for mixed use. read more
Sites of meaning
Sites of meaning is a millennium project of Middleton and Smerrill in the Derbyshire Peak. It marks the seventeen entrances to its parish with boundary stones each inscribed with a text chosen by members of the parish. read more
Centre Screen
Centre Screen takes mobile film screening equipment into village halls and other community-based venues throughout Leicestershire and Rutland, so that those who might otherwise have to travel some distance to cinemas can enjoy film on their doorstep in an informal environment. read more
This Place
Derbyshire County Council's Cultural and Community Services Department, which incorporates libraries, museums, archives and arts, collaborated with local professional photographer Kate Bellis to develop This Place. Kate worked with residents of Derbyshire to record their daily lives, first producing her own work and enabling local people to respond by photographing personal interpretations of what makes "Their Place" special. read more
Lincolnshire Local History Workshops
Lincolnshire County Council's Library services provides short workshops to introduce participants to the wide range of local studies resources available through their local libraries and to demonstrate how these resources can be used and interpreted to gain an insight into the history of the locality. read more
Derbyshire Film
Derbyshire Film is a project that brings cinema to local rural communities that other-wise may not have access to the big screen. Its first two years have been an outstanding success, having sold over 3200 tickets and screened over 200 films. read more
Arts Meets Environment Festival
The Arts Meets Environment Festival (AMEF) is a three-year programme of arts workshops and festival days to celebrate rural life and culture in the Rockingham Forest by making the best use of the area’s natural and cultural resources and improving the quality of life in rural areas. read more
artsNK Intergenerational Project
This exciting and successful project took place in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. Its aim was to break down the social barriers existing between two distinct groups of people.These were older people living in sheltered housing and and young people in assisted housing. The objective was to bring together these two diverse groups and encourage them to work together to produce a piece of work that both groups could equally be proud of. Whilst all this was occurring the two groups were able get to know each other and begin to understand each other’s lives and the issues they each face. read more
Oundle Festival
In 1985 James Parsons, the organist at Oundle School, set up a weeklong summer school (now entitled Oundle for Organists) for students of the organ, and the Oundle Music Festival to run alongside the summer school. Keen that budding organists should be encouraged to learn how to play the rare Frobenius organ the school had acquired, Parsons came up with the idea of providing training at the school during the summer holidays. The idea of a public festival was conceived at the same time. The festival now runs events at other times of the year in addition to those scheduled during the summer school, and has extended its summer concert season to ten days. read more
Lowdham Book Festival
Lowdham Book Festival is a high quality literature festival which also combines the atmosphere of a village fete. The 2006 event attracted around 5, 000 people, plus over 1, 000 took part in our schools’ programme. We use marquees, the village hall, the Primitive Methodist Chapel… attracting audiences of up to 300 to each event, ending the week with a huge book fair and masses of free events for adults and children. The organisers are Jane Streeter (The Bookcase in Lowdham) and Ross Bradshaw (Five Leaves Publications). read more