Artistic tributes to town’s heritage unveiled for Skipton Now

Four artists have created imaginative works in response to Skipton’s rich cultural heritage. The pieces, of varying designs, will be on display as part of the Skipton Now Festival, where events are happening every day in August to celebrate the heritage and culture of the town. Funded by Skipton’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ)…

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Meet the Filmmakers: A Rural Film Showcase

Enjoy a free film at the Plaza Cinema this month! A group of award-winning local young filmmakers and artists are proud to present a Hinterlands Fringe event at the Plaza Cinema in Skipton on the 31st August. Funded by Skipton HSHAZ and managed by GPLD, this free event will be the culmination of a month-long…

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Guest Blog Post from Beatrice Benn: Faces Places

What is art really for? Why is it important? These are two questions I often consider when contemplating the importance and relevance of art in our society. Personally, I think art comes down to one central purpose: connecting people. This connection might be an individual feeling seen or represented by an artwork, or it may…

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Meet the Filmmakers: Local Short Film Showcase

A group of award winning local young filmmakers and artists are proud to present a Hinterlands Fringe event at the Plaza. Grab some popcorn and immerse yourselves in some of the area’s most impactful and relevant stories which showcase the rich rural and creative heritage of Skipton and the Dales. Interspersed with Yorkshire Film Archive…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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,…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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