blog - Great Place Lakes & Dales

Second Guest Blog Post from Beatrice Benn: An Interview with Piers Tempest

Guest Blog Post 2 from Beatrice Benn at Hinterlands Film Festival 2023, who interviewed Piers Tempest at the screening of his latest film ‘Emily’ at Skipton Town Hall. “I’ve always felt that an independent film is a film that almost doesn’t get made.” This is something that Hollywood icon Glenn Close once said but…

Guest Blog Post from Beatrice Benn: Hinterlands at the Plaza Cinema

As the only cinema in Skipton, the Plaza not only fulfils a unique cultural role in the town, but exists as a charming, historic building dating back to 1873, when it was originally built as a temperance hall. The Plaza has been operating as a cinema for more than one hundred years, making it more…

Watch This Space Pocket Artist Residencies Now Open!

‘Watch This Space’ (WTS) is a Great Place Lakes and Dales project currently funded by Skipton Heritage Action Zone as part of its cultural activity programme. WTS is about looking at spaces (any spaces) differently and asking how they might be used to support, encourage, and build the creative and cultural sector in Skipton. Previously…

16 – 35? We’d like your thoughts!

If you’re aged 16 – 35 and from Manchester or Leeds we’d love you to come to one of our focus groups in September or October! Now in our fourth year, we have led on a number of exciting projects for young people in the area. These include an architects’ competition in collaboration with RIBA…

Free business spa day – register now!

The Business Spa day, being held at Skipton Town Hall, is a chance to refresh how you feel about your business. The day will be fun, full of creative activity, with opportunities to really focus on your business and the stories that you tell. There will be lots of practical skills to take away,…

Guest Post from Innovate Educate: Create Your Future

Create Your Future In our role with Great Place Lakes and Dales, we created films of young creatives working in the Lakes and Dales where they gave some great business advice: Love what you do Recently we asked young people working in creative small businesses for their top tips for business success. This is…

Nurturing Creativity – our work in 2022

We were thrilled to be awarded Arts Council funding last autumn to help continue our work to support young people and creatives in the Lakes and Dales until the end of 2022. Our new project ‘Nurturing Creativity’ will focus on two strands; Youth Voice & Representation and Creative Careers, supporting young people in becoming advocates…

Guest Blog: Great Ideas for Pandemic-Friendly Fun During School Holidays

There is nothing more exciting for kids and parents than a much-deserved holiday from school! This is a chance to refresh their brains, spend time with family and enjoy wondrous new adventures. With COVID-19 still being a very real issue, the fun we have still has to be a bit limited, but that doesn’t mean…

Guest Blog Post from ‘Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker’ Contestant Billy Arthur Walden

In light of his recent success becoming a contestant on Channel 4’s new show ‘Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker’, we asked Billy Walden to write a guest blog documenting his journey and how his passion for carpentry has helped get him to where he is today. My name is Billy Walden and I have a passion…

We say farewell to our two young placement students

In July and August of this year we said goodbye and good luck to two of our young work placement students as they finished their projects with us and moved onto the next chapter in their lives. Ava Grace, GPLD project intern and Seth Benn, RIBA work placement student both began working with GPLD on…

Great Place: Lakes and Dales’ Artful Ways

Awaken, reflect, think, feel, understand, laugh, walk and animate your space. An Aerial perspective of the words, sounds and landscapes of the Romantics – aka Harriet, Rob, Manon, Beth, Richard and Karen, who like me love a walk, love nature, love the Lakes and most of all loved being back together in person, inspired our…

Yorkshire Dales Photographer captures honest portraits of young people in the Lakes and Dales reflecting on their home

A series of portraits titled ‘HOME’ reveals glimpses into the lives of young people living and working in the Yorkshire Dales and Cumbria. The portraits will be exhibited first at Brewery Arts in Kendal in August, followed by independent shop and cafe Car and Kitchen in Settle, North Yorkshire in September. The new exhibition is…

Traditional Sign writer takes influence and direction from young people for new mural unveiled in the Dales

A striking new mural has been unveiled in the heart of Settle, North Yorkshire, painted by Signs by Umberto with co-design led consultation involving young people in the local area. Stretching the full height of the three-story facade, the eye-catching mural is sited at the top of historic Kirkgate, close to the main marketplace in…

Dales based Cellist, singer and songwriter merges music with environmental messages.

Dales-based Cellist, singer and songwriter Sarah Smout releases her new single ‘Atlas’ on the 4th June in collaboration with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as part of her new project, Wild Music. Sarah, who has worked with Michael Chapman, Bridget St John, King Creosote, The Magpies, The Mediaeval Babes and others, has been involved in many…

Is the Future Rural?

Since launching in 2018 we’ve been working to change perceptions of the area to tackle the fact that the number of 16 – 35 year olds choosing to live and work here is 44% less than the national average. We’ve funded some really impactful projects and worked with a huge variety of people. Before we…

Writer turned lockdown thoughts into shop-front poetry

Freelance Poet, Melissa Davies kicked off Watch This Space 2021 by creating a poem live from Kendal restaurant, Comida, as part of our joint project with Kendal Poetry Festival. People sent in their responses to the question “How do you feel when you step out of your front door?” during February and Melissa used the…

Live More, Run More: Celebrating Fell Running in the Dales

A brand new website, Run the Dales, is shining a light on one of the most accessible and traditional sports of all – Fell Running – the original sport of the Yorkshire Dales. Sponsored by the Yorkshire Dales National Park and us, Run the Dales and its accompanying photographic exhibition celebrates one of oldest…

Our project, The FOLD donates activity packs for children over half-term

The disappointment of a third national lockdown, school closures and cancelled gatherings was challenged by the producers of The FOLD who, prior to the half-term holiday, donated 100 activity packs for primary school aged children to Skipton children’s charity, SELFA and Kendal Foodbank. The ‘Lets Create’ activity packs aimed to encourage creativity at home, particularly…

Artists and young people join together to brighten up skate park

Artists Charlie Kondras and Mr Ben returned to North Yorkshire to complete a mural at Bentham’s skatepark as part of The FOLD, a co-designed programme with young people from the area. Both artists attended Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale and now work in Sheffield as professional artists across a range of disciplines as well as teaching…

Image by Yorkshire Dales photographer selected for Portrait of Britain 2020

An image taken by Juliet Klottrup, a 27 year-old photographer from Clapham, here in the Dales, and featuring a young farmer from the area has been chosen as one of 100 winning images for this year’s Portrait of Britain. 1854 Media and British Journal of Photography announced the 200 shortlisted and 100 winning images for…