Creative Community Commissions

2026

OUTSIDE awards 30 Creative Community Commissions

Arts programme OUTSIDE has awarded 30 Creative Community Commissions to artists, community groups and organisations across the Staffordshire Moorlands. The successful funding applications, totalling £24,183, were selected by OUTSIDE’s advisory group and youth advisory group made up of local residents, and will support a wide range of arts activity to take place over the next year in the district’s towns, villages and rural areas.

Funded projects span all kinds of art forms from heritage crafts to dance, and a variety of formats from workshops to festivals. These include a dance festival in Leek, a drawing for wellbeing project that takes referrals from social prescribers, cob making workshops, and an exhibition of young people’s artwork in Biddulph Town Hall. We will also be supporting an 8-week after-school knit and crochet activity in Cheadle.

OUTSIDE’s director Katie Aldous said: “Once again, the quantity and quality of applications received for the Creative Community Commissions this year was fantastic. It was wonderful to see how much thought had been given to community engagement and innovation particularly, something that the Advisory group was keen to see represented.

“Huge thanks to our advisory group and youth advisory group for developing and refining the application process to make it accessible and clear for applicants. They thoughtfully designed the call out, and deliberated and selected the successful applications with a huge amount of care, time and attention.

“The Creative Community Commissions are a big part of OUTSIDE’s ambition to support high quality creative arts activity across the whole of the Moorlands. The selected proposals ensure a wide range of residents will benefit from these projects.”

The successful 2026 Creative Community Commissions are:

  • Artificial Silk – How I want my Planet to be (Ex Objects), Werrington
  • Autin Dance Theatre CIO – Autin Dance Theatre Workshops, Biddulph
  • Beau Pudsey – Folklore, Nature & Storytelling Workshops, Leek
  • Biddulph Methodist Church and Victoria Centre – Portable Histories
  • Biddulph Moor Community Association – Biddulph Moor Well Dressing
  • Biddulph Town Council – Young People’s Art & Photography Exhibition
  • Biddulph Youth and Community Zone – SEN Youth-led Creative Project
  • Bolton Gate Arts CIC – Bolton Gate Bloom
  • Borderland Voices – Pride Banners, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Brown Edge Well Dressing – Brown Edge 80th Well Dressing
  • Caverswall Community Society – Creative Writing & Spoken Word Project
  • Cheadle Arts – Cheadle Arts Festival
  • Danielle Beardmore – Cheadle Young Makers
  • Endon Village Hall – Community Garden & Youth Arts Design Project
  • Endon Well Dressing Organising Committee – Create Your Own Well Board
  • Foxlowe Clay Collective – Foxlowe Clay Collective, Leek
  • Grindon Parish Council – Community Wall Hanging
  • Kate Dawes Studio – Pen Drawing for Wellbeing, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Kingsley Holt Centre – Summer Community Event
  • Leek Yarn Bombers – Leek Yarn Bombers
  • Many Strands – Knit Network Skills Workshops, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Staged CIO – Read to the Beat Flash Mob, Biddulph
  • Stephanie Akerman – Community Threads, Tean
  • Stockton Brook Time and Space – Big Draw Festival
  • Teresa Pattison – Teresa Pattison Dance Festival, Leek
  • The Happy Makers – The Happy Makers Community, Leek
  • The Leek Polish Connection – Polish Arch
  • The Navel of the Moon – The Navel of the Moon, Leek
  • Waymark Interpretation CIC – Centenary Hum, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Victoria Motika – Cob Making Workshop, Leek

In 2025, 33 successful Creative Community Commissions were granted:

  • Ale Bravo – The Day of the Dead Celebration, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Amy Ford – Mum’s the Word creative sessions, Leek
  • Art UK – Tagger workshops, Leek
  • Bev Reardon – Collecting memories, Draycott in the Moors
  • Biddulph Methodists – Creative workshops
  • Biddulph Moor Community Association – Biddulph Moor Well Dressing Tableau
  • Biddulph Youth and Community Zone – Young women’s photo project
  • Bolton Gate Arts – Schools & community group arts workshops
  • Borderland Voices – The Blackpool of the Potteries workshops & exhibition, Rudyard Lake
  • Brown Edge Parish Council – Brown Edge Well Dressing
  • Cheadle Arts – Cheadle Arts Festival
  • Cheadle Cog – magazine printing
  • Cheddleton Flint Mill Industrial Heritage Trust – Flint Garretaw: Music At The Mill
  • Creative Cheadle Staffs – Outdoor creative messy sessions
  • Draycott in the Moors Parish Council – Bus stop mini art galleries
  • EqualBase Cheadle – Lion sculpture for The Wizard of Oz wellbeing garden
  • Flash Village Hall – Community Flag
  • Greenwood Growth – Bat trail, Leek
  • Karen Hare – Leek Yarn Bombers
  • Kate Dawes – Pen Drawing for Wellbeing Workshops, Blythe Bridge & Werrington
  • Leek Open Studios – Participatory workshops
  • Leek Town Council War Memorial Committee – Wool for poppies display
  • Louie Young – Pugin After Dark festival, Alton
  • Many Strands Textile Group – Scarves exhibition, Leek
  • Moorlands Climate Action – Wassail event, Leek
  • Moorlands Climate Action Youth Action group – The Lost Words at Wild Week
  • Ruby Nixon – Mapping Myths, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Stockton Brook Time & Space – Mini ‘en plein air’ art festival, Endon & Stanley
  • The Happy Makers – creative sessions for people with additional needs, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • The Rudyard Lake Trust – Volunteers’ art workshop
  • Teresa Pattison – Festival of Dance, Staffordshire Moorlands
  • Waterhouses Youth Project – The Water That Joins Us series of events
  • Woolly Wednesdays – Portable weaving loom, Staffordshire Moorlands

 

In 2024, eighteen successful seed funding projects were granted. The OUTSIDE Advisory Group and Youth Advisory Group helped the OUTSIDE team select the applications. We were all pleased to support such a variety of creative activity across the Moorlands. Here are the projects which received seed funding:

  • @21 Youth Club, music workshops
  • Alana Wheat & Tean Youth Club & Wilder Youth, nature connection zine
  • Alstonefield Village Hall, family shows
  • Biddulph & District Community Orchestra, new music scores
  • Cat McGill, bass aux pieds for workshops with disabled children & children with learning needs
  • Caverswall Creative Hub, community arts trail
  • Cheadle Arts Festival, touring theatre show
  • Chris Thompson, exhibition of miniature art works
  • Creative Cheadle, courtyard garden for outdoor crafting
  • Doctor Plot’s, parade & workshops
  • Emma Dawson Varughese, ‘The Language of Flowerz’ pyrography & tattoo project
  • Endon Village Hall, community breakfast club craft activities
  • Greenwood Growth, ‘Plant with Me’ project
  • Kingsley Holt Centre, children’s arts and crafts furniture
  • Lighthouse Women’s Refuge, shadow puppet theatre
  • Moorlands Climate Action, ‘Storylogs’ at HuG Green Arts Festival
  • Social Connective, circus workshops at Community Hive, Biddulph Town Hall
  • Stockton Brook Waterworks, open day

We also separately funded Borderland Voices and Cathey Yardley’s yarn group through our funding for the Leek Textile Heritage projects, and in collaboration with Film Hub Midlands, supported Foxlowe Films.