About
What's the story behind Derbyshire Makes?
Aims
This programme of cultural activity seeks to achieve a wider awareness of Derbyshire’s creative legacy. We will engage new and existing audiences through a programme of high-quality creative events – including community-produced projects and artist-led commissions – across the Derbyshire Makes Festival and Countywide activity.
This three-year programme of making-related events and activities across Derbyshire, led by Derbyshire County Council is delivered by Local and Arts Derbyshire and is funded by the county council and Arts Council England.
Derbyshire Makes recognises the importance of the county’s creatives, and looks to work for longer and more deeply with this community – supporting, nurturing and sustaining local talent through paid commissions, sector support, and live and online resources. There will be new opportunities for skills sharing, learning and job openings, helping to create a resilient making and heritage sector for the county.
We have a commitment to celebrating global making across the Derbyshire Makes programme and developing methods for targeted audience development to reach diverse communities across the county.
Each year will build on the last – making connections between past and present, between people, and between new and traditional skills.
Our Approach
The Derbyshire Makes Festival sets out to raise the profile of the county, championing the fact that making still runs in Derbyshire’s lifeblood – shaping its communities and as a source of local pride. The festival’s six Hub locations are a reflection of Derbyshire’s unique industrial heritage, with stories local to the area inspiring our programme of making activities at each place.
Chosen for their spread across the county, Bolsover, Chesterfield and the wider North East Derbyshire area are also Arts Council England Levelling Up for Culture and Priority Places, making them the focus for additional Arts Council England engagement and investment. In addition, Heanor is one of Arts Council England’s Creative People Places programme, which funds partners to empower residents to decide what kind of creative activity they want to experience on their doorstep.
Beyond the festival, our Countywide programme of activities is designed to provide year-round engagement opportunities for artists and makers – with Women Who Make focussing on artists, makers, designers and activists who identify as women, and MAKE Room exploring our relationship to Nature. Our mass making project Dare to Dream invites thousands of people to be a part of a monumental artwork in celebration of Derbyshire’s textiles heritage – and come together to dream of a better future through making.
Funders
Derbyshire Makes is an Arts Council England Place Partnership funded programme, which uses money from the National Lottery, and Derbyshire County Council.
Derbyshire County Council has already secured 50 partners to support the delivery of Derbyshire Makes - see the Team section below.
Find out more about the organisations behind Derbyshire Makes below.
The Team
Find out more about the team delivering Derbyshire Makes
Derbyshire Makes is a new programme of cultural activity across the county, an inspiring celebration of making in all its forms. The scale of this project is only possible because a group of specialist organisations has come together to work in partnership.
Based in Glossop, Local is leading on the countywide activity – including the Dare to Dream mass participation project, The Makory, MAKE Room and Women Who Make – as well as the creative approach to the annual free festival, digital and creative engagement and the marketing and communications across these strands. Local has brought in the strategic marketing and audience development consultancy Palmer Squared to oversee and manage the delivery of marketing and communications for Derbyshire Makes, supported by the team at Local.
Arts Derbyshire, based in Derby, is leading on the six Hubs and has subcontracted lead partners local to each Hub area to deliver programme activity. These local partners are Junction Arts for Bolsover and Chesterfield, Make/Shift for Heanor, High Peak Community Arts for Glossop, The Arkwright Society for Cromford and People Express for Swadlincote.
Derbyshire County Council
Based at County Hall in Matlock, Derbyshire County Council is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England.
Local
Local is a creative placemaking arts organisation, specialising in place-based community engagement and cultural programming.
Arts Derbyshire
Arts Derbyshire is the strategic arts charity for Derbyshire and is at the heart of the county’s creative sector. The organisation’s aim is to enrich people’s lives through the arts.
Junction Arts
Junction Arts is an award-winning participatory arts charity based in Chesterfield.
Make/Shift
Part of the Creative People and Places programme, funded by Arts Council England thanks to the National Lottery, Make/Shift collaborates to create projects that support communities in the Amber Valley.
High Peak Community Arts
High Peak Community Arts provides opportunities for people to participate in high quality creative arts projects.
The Arkwright Society
The Arkwright Society is a registered charity aimed at promoting education and conservation, focusing on the Cromford Mills site.
People Express
People Express is a professional participatory arts organisation, rooted in communities in South Derbyshire since 1990.
Derbyshire Makes team
The team from Derbyshire County Council, Local, Arts Derbyshire and some of the artists at C.W. Sellors, Waters View, Carsington for the launch of Derbyshire Makes, 13 February 2025.
MEET THE ARTISTS
We are working with artists across the county and will be adding more artists in the coming weeks as the programme develops.
Sue Reddish
Mixed media and textiles artist, based in the High Peak.
Sue has developed her own mixed media process that combines paint, print and prominently hand stitch. Whilst the final pieces are often abstract, they are based on observation of the world around her.
Sue is lead artist on one of our countywide programmes, Dare to Dream, a mass participation project.
Alex Murphy
Alex is based in the High Peak. She is a maker, primarily sewing, with a particular interest in recycling and reusing materials. She was a contestant on the BBC's The Great British Sewing Bee.
Alex is working with Sue Reddish to champion the Dare to Dream mass participation project.
Cathy Newbery
Cathy is a Public Art Curator and Consultant.
She has extensive knowledge and practical experience of public art commissioning, project delivery, strategic work and public sector partnership.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Christine Thomas
Christine is an artist, researcher and educator based in Belper. She works with textiles - hand and machine embroidery, using stitch for mark making, and 3D Textiles. She also works with Mixed Media Collage, Printing & Photography.
She has recently received seed funding from Make/Shift to organise meetings for Neurodivergent Artists in Amber Valley.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Lois Blackburn
Lois is an artist specialising in arts and health based in the High Peak. She creates issue-based artworks, with a particular focus on batik and quilt-making.
Lois’s art tells stories, offering both artist and audience a space to relax, laugh, cry, and find solace. It celebrates resilience and frames experiences in new ways—helping to understand, share, and ultimately celebrate life’s challenges.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Bernie Rutter
Bernie is a visual artist, working with photography, printmaking and sculpture, based in Wirksworth.
She is fascinated by the layers of both geology, history and industry that leave its traces in the
landscape across Derbyshire, the impact of sedimentary processes and the later human intervention and invention.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Abigail Wastie
Abigail is a sustainable textile activist based in Derby with extensive experience in ethical fashion and textile development.
She is passionate about promoting sustainability through educational initiatives and community-driven events.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Karen Logan
Karen is an artist and creative practitioner, with a passion for nature and wildlife and is based near Heanor.
She engages audiences in creative processes, assisting participants in questioning, exploring, inventing and enjoying visual art.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Rosie Sykes
Rosie is an emerging artist based in the High Peak.
Drawing with thread is at the heart of Rosie’s hand embroidery practice. Her approach is compelled by narrative, creating a web that ties together all aspects of her current process, devising a story and character for each project.
Part of the Dare to Dream team.
Glassball Studio
Artists Cora Glasser and David Ball of Glassball Studio, are based in Buxton. Glassball Studio is an interdisciplinary arts practice rooted in place-based research and collaborative making.
They are leading on one of our countywide programmes, MAKE Room, exploring our culture-based connection with Nature.
Stephanie Walsh
Stephanie is a photographer, creative practitioner, workshop lead and guided walk facilitator with a passion for arts, wellbeing and nature connection. She is a project manager for Derbyshire Makes and manages the international partnership between Derbyshire and Toyota City in Japan.
Steph is currently the Derbyshire correspondent for the Great Food Club.
She is one of three curators for the Women Who Make Countywide strand, working with Claire Tymon, Derbyshire Makes Creative Director.
Samantha Whelan
Samantha is the Chief Executive of Platform 31, a women-led organisation working across the arts, culture, community and education sectors in the East Midlands.
Samantha is one of three curators for the Women Who Make Countywide strand, working with Claire Tymon, Derbyshire Makes Creative Director.
Sophie Gresswell
Sophie an artist and poet exploring interconnected belonging and identity and is based in Bolsover.
Life transcends our individual lifespan and we connect over continents, through generations, between cultures and along a shared history. Her work aims to remind us of these connections and is greatly influenced by her mixed British, Saint Helenian and South African heritage.
Sophie will be leading workshops in The Makory in Bolsover during the Festival and is one of the curators for Women Who Make, working with Claire Tymon, Derbyshire Makes Creative Director.
Verity Foster
Verity has a background in ceramic and pottery training and is based in Birchover, near Matlock.
She will be delivering workshops in The Makory in Chesterfield and Heanor during the Festival.
Gordon MacLellan
Gordon works as artist and storyteller Creeping Toad and is based in Buxton.
He uses creativity to help people explore their relationship with the world around them.
He will be leading workshops in The Makory in Cromford and Bolsover during the Festival.
Dr. Tim Campbell-Green
Tim is an archaeologist and researcher based in Glossop.
Tim runs the website The Glossop Cabinet of Curiosities, which looks at the archaeology and history of the Glossop and Longdendale area. He also publishes the allied journal Where/When, which details curated archaeological walks.
He will be leading workshops in The Makory in Glossop during the Festival.
Jenny Stevenson
Jenny is a Derby-based collage and book artist whose work is inspired by memory, architecture, and community. Her mixed media collages, layered with paper, fabrics and materials from local industries, explore the legacies of workers and industries that shaped their communities.
She will be leading workshops in The Makory in Swadlincote during the Festival.
SUPPORT US
There are a range of ways to get involved and support Derbyshire Makes. Why not host an artist workshop, provide us with waste materials for use in our projects, or host a large-scale installation on your premises?
Even just spreading the word amongst your team can have a huge impact: we’d love them to get stuck into our mass making project Dare to Dream, or sign up to be a volunteer by emailing joinus@derbyshiremakes.co.uk.
By supporting us, you’ll help to make a success of this celebration of making – and enable us to offer more transformative opportunities across the county.
Want to join the special group of partners who’ve come together to support Derbyshire Makes?
PARTNERS
