Creative Community Commissions

2025

OUTSIDE awards 33 Creative Community Commissions

OUTSIDE has awarded 33 Creative Community Commissions to artists, community groups and organisations across the Staffordshire Moorlands. The successful funding applications, totalling £26,200, 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 the creation of a unique village flag by the people of Flash, a project exploring Staffordshire Moorlands folklore through photography and cyanotype printing, and capturing the stories and memories of residents in Draycott in the Moors.

OUTSIDE’s creative director Sarah Bird said: “The quantity and quality of applications received for the Creative Community Commissions this year was exceptional. It was wonderful to see how many proposals had the local community and residents at the heart of activity.

“Huge thanks to our advisory group and youth advisory group for their involvement in the process. They put in a lot of effort to design the call out, and to deliberate and select the successful applications. They didn’t take the task lightly and gave all the applications their deserved 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 2025 Creative Community Commissions are:

  • 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.