2023 funded projects
About our 2023 funded projects
Please find on this page a list of the projects that we have supported so far in 2023. They are arranged by the following categories: Access, Community events and festivals, Crafts, Film, Heritage, Literature, Music, Performing arts, and Visual art and sculpture.
We are immensely proud to have supported 41 projects in 2023 through our Made in Wakefield and Culture Everywhere grants.
Access
- Love 2 Act (PDF) (accessible) will work with a Makaton tutor to teach children and young people aged 5-15 a Makaton performance, creating a film to share
Community Events and Festivals
- Bless Community Support ‘Little Buds at Bless: Save the Bees’ is a one-day workshop for primary-aged children at the community allotment at Upton and North Elmsall Village Hall
- Darrington Village Field (PDF) (accessible) Darrington Feast and Fayre Festival 2023 will include children’s activities, musical acts, walk-about theatre performers and a competitive tractor pull
- Five Towns Christian Fellowship (PDF) (accessible) and the ‘Five Towns Community Day’ an all-age celebration of groups, activities and organisations in and around the Five Towns Area based in Pontefract Park
- Our House Wakefield will launch a year-long programme of cultural activity, including monthly creative workshops and open mic nights
- Portobello Community Forum (PDF) (accessible) ‘Sow, Grow and Know’ is a new 12-week project for families to get involved with growing their own food, storytelling and building bird boxes
- Portobello Community Forum (PDF) (accessible) Portobello Gala 2023 will provide a full day of entertainment, performances and ten stalls for workshops and crafts
- St Catherine's Church Centre Community Coronation Celebration Weekend featuring arts and craft stalls, musicians providing live music, and the creation of a mixed media community artwork
- Wakefield Pride will host an exciting and celebratory programme of artists and acts to entertain the crowds at Wakefield Pride 2023
Crafts
- Claire Walker (PDF) (accessible) will run six community yarn making and weaving workshops, and display a large community art piece at The Brig’s Summer Fair 2023
- The Crafty Creatives Let’s get Crafty is a series of 6 craft workshops as a women’s cancer support group, with 4 guest creative facilitators followed by an online showcase of the works on social media
- The Prince of Wales Hospice will host an informal, sociable and inclusive Friday afternoon craft group in Pontefract for people with shared experiences at the hospice
- Wakefield District Sight Aid will develop a series of free and inclusive art workshops open to all of its service users, facilitated by artist Ruth Fones
Heritage
- Age UK Wakefield will run oral histories workshops with up to 30 older people from communities in Castleford, resulting in histories being collected for people to listen to
- Empath Action CIC ‘Breaking the Mould’ will tell the histories of Alice Gostick, teacher to Henry Moore, Albert Wainwright and many other artists. Empath will work with Red Ladder Theatre to write a play and debut it in Castleford. Alongside this, free workshops will include ‘Peasant Pottery’ classes with Jasmine Pottery, and to install a new blue plaque in Castleford
- Featherstone Rovers Foundation ‘Pit to the Pitch’, a year-long project with local schools, to celebrate and explore the heritage of Featherstone Rovers RLFC and coal mining in Featherstone
- Harrison Architectural Heritage Ltd ‘180 years of Eastmoor: its people and their houses’ is a heritage research project of architectural and social heritage of Eastmoor housing estate
- National Trust - Nostell ‘Herbal Histories of Wakefield’ - Taking inspiration from Nostell’s Apothecary Garden, a community recipe and social history project will result in a new recipe book and a 4-month exhibition of the findings
- Pontefract Civic Society will run a full programme of over 50 events for Heritage Open Days in September 2023 to help celebrate Pontefract’s heritage
- Stanley Residents Group Stanley Heritage Trail Map for Stanley village designed by Rhubarb Design House. A new print the trail for people to use as a self-guided trail with 37 historical landmarks on a 10km route
- Wakefield Civic Society production of a new Blue Plaque guidebook, with 1,000 copies distributed for free throughout 2024 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of Wakefield Civic Society
- Wakefield Civic Society Discover Wakefield Leaflets 2023 are 4 self-led walking guides in Wakefield on: The Barbara Hepworth Connection, Historic Pubs of Kirkgate, The History of Wakefield’s Railway Stations and The Lost Buildings of Wakefield
Literature
- Community Media CIC (PDF) (accessible) will develop a new community news site and will deliver free open access workshops on content creation, creative writing, and journalism
Music
- Featherstone Male Voice Choir (PDF) (accessible) will celebrate their 60th Anniversary with a special concert at Wakefield Cathedral with Grimethorpe Colliery Band in September 2023
- Go Pop CIC will deliver a participatory song writing programme for women from Wakefield who have barriers to cultural engagement. There will be a celebration event at Wakefield Cathedral for the public and exhibition of artworks created as part of the project
- Long Division CIC will run the second annual free city centre festival ‘Wakefield Live’, including a public city centre open air and solar powered stage
- Pontefract Choral Society 150th Anniversary celebration concert of Pontefract Choral Society. A joint celebration with Wakefield Festival Chorus and local school children, the performance will be in March 2024
- The Bandwidth Project will run a community rehearsal and performance group consisting of musicians with learning differences and disabilities
- The Community Choir Wakefield (PDF) (accessible) will be performing at WDH coffee mornings across the district with their summer singing for wellbeing campaign
- Wakefield Music Collective (PDF) (accessible) Clarence Park Festival 2023 will have twenty-two live music performances, and poetry writing workshops for young people
Performing arts
- Millennium Community Hub CIC delivered in partnership with Red Ladder Theatre. 10 high quality touring theatre performances at Queens Mill in Castleford, the Cluntergate Centre in Horbury & Lupset, and the Grove Hall in South Kirkby. Plus, 3 free participation courses in clowning, stand-up comedy, and beginners acting
- Shazia Ashraf ‘Woven Worlds’ a pilot project for women from a lower socioeconomic status, minority, refugee and asylum seeker communities. 10 x workshops in performing arts delivered at Lightwaves
Visual art and sculpture
- Andy Singleton – ‘Internal’ is a large-scale immersive visual arts installation at 7A Creative Space Warehouse in Wakefield. A sculptural piece of human organs constructed from paper with music, lighting and projected visuals
- Blossom Training and Development CIC Rebels Rise is a series of women’s self-defence and art workshops, with participants designing and drawing on t-shirts during the session
- Kirstie Williams will explore Wakefield’s textile heritage using sustainable printmaking processes. An R&D project to explore sustainable alternatives to screen printing inks, and to raise awareness of Wakefield’s rich textile heritage
- Pontefract Civic Society along with Pontefract Art Club are running the second annual Pontefract Schools Art Trail. Thirteen schools will each create an artwork for shop windows as part of Pontefract Liquorice Festival 2023
- Portobello Craft and Camera will collaborate with artists Bob Clayden and Rose Knight using the giant pin-hole camera in Pontefract Valley Gardens to produce life-sized portraits will be exhibited in hair salons across district and at Fitzwilliam Station gallery
- Sustain Wakefield (PDF) (accessible) Love and Pride project will deliver 8x 2-hour workshops over 10 weeks, to create a colourful floor-based community artwork focused on gender and LGBTQIA+ issues, along with a half day Drag Queen makeup workshop
- Sustain Wakefield My Family Were Miners! Over 6 participants will create an obelisk sculpture to be installed at the National Coal Mining Museum, depicting their own personal experiences and memories surrounding the mining industry around Wakefield
- Suzie Cross will be developing an experimental bone-conductive sound sculpture accessible to d/Deaf visitors, as well as running a series of wellbeing workshops at Anglers Country Park
- Tony Wade ‘Water Marks’ is a visual and geographical exploration of the Wakefield district’s waterways with 3 x barge based participatory workshops, followed by an exhibition at Wakefield Cathedral