OUTSIDE awards 30 Creative Community Commissions across Staffordshire Moorlands

Arts programme OUTSIDE has awarded 30 Creative Community Commissions to artists, community groups and organisations across the Staffordshire Moorlands.

The successful funding applications, totalling more than £24,000, were selected by OUTSIDE’s advisory group and youth advisory group, both made up of local residents. The funding will support a wide range of arts activity taking place over the next year across the district’s towns, villages and rural communities.

The funded projects span a broad mix of art forms, from heritage crafts to dance, and include everything from workshops to festivals.

Among the projects being supported are a dance festival in Leek, a drawing for wellbeing project that takes referrals from social prescribers, cob making workshops, an exhibition of young people’s artwork in Biddulph Town Hall, and an eight week after school knit and crochet activity in Cheadle.

OUTSIDE director Katie Aldous said: “Once again, the quantity and quality of applications received for the Creative Community Commissions this year was fantastic. It was wonderful to see how much thought had been given to community engagement and innovation particularly, something that the Advisory group was keen to see represented.

“Huge thanks to our advisory group and youth advisory group for developing and refining the application process to make it accessible and clear for applicants. They thoughtfully designed the call out, and deliberated and selected the successful applications with a huge amount of care, 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.”

March 2026 - The Staffordshire Signal Magazine

Issue Number 5

The Staffordshire Signal Magazine

The successful 2026 Creative Community Commissions are:

• Artificial Silk – How I want my Planet to be (Ex Objects), Werrington
• Autin Dance Theatre CIO – Autin Dance Theatre Workshops, Biddulph
• Beau Pudsey – Folklore, Nature & Storytelling Workshops, Leek
• Biddulph Methodist Church and Victoria Centre – Portable Histories
• Biddulph Moor Community Association – Biddulph Moor Well Dressing
• Biddulph Town Council – Young People's Art & Photography Exhibition
• Biddulph Youth and Community Zone – SEN Youth-led Creative Project
• Bolton Gate Arts CIC – Bolton Gate Bloom
• Borderland Voices – Pride Banners, Staffordshire Moorlands
• Brown Edge Well Dressing – Brown Edge 80th Well Dressing
• Caverswall Community Society – Creative Writing & Spoken Word Project
• Cheadle Arts – Cheadle Arts Festival
• Danielle Beardmore – Cheadle Young Makers
• Endon Village Hall – Community Garden & Youth Arts Design Project
• Endon Well Dressing Organising Committee – Create Your Own Well Board
• Foxlowe Clay Collective – Foxlowe Clay Collective, Leek
• Grindon Parish Council – Community Wall Hanging
• Kate Dawes Studio – Pen Drawing for Wellbeing, Staffordshire Moorlands
• Kingsley Holt Centre – Summer Community Event
• Leek Yarn Bombers – Leek Yarn Bombers
• Many Strands – Knit Network Skills Workshops, Staffordshire Moorlands
• Staged CIO – Read to the Beat Flash Mob, Biddulph
• Stephanie Akerman – Community Threads, Tean
• Stockton Brook Time and Space – Big Draw Festival
• Teresa Pattison – Teresa Pattison Dance Festival, Leek
• The Happy Makers – The Happy Makers Community, Leek
• The Leek Polish Connection – Polish Arch
• The Navel of the Moon – The Navel of the Moon, Leek
• Waymark Interpretation CIC – Centenary Hum, Staffordshire Moorlands
• Victoria Motika – Cob Making Workshop, Leek

About OUTSIDE

OUTSIDE is a Creative People and Places project, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

It is a participatory arts programme led by local residents in the Staffordshire Moorlands working with professional artists. Together, they co-curate arts and cultural activities and events celebrating life in the rural landscapes, villages and market towns of the Moorlands.

Thanks to National Lottery players, Creative People and Places is focused on helping more people choose, create and take part in creative and cultural experiences where they live.

Since 2012, there have been more than 15 million engagements with the CPP programme, and 90 per cent of people who participate in CPP were not previously engaging regularly with creativity and culture.