Are you interested in Art and Crafts in the Colne Valley and do you wish to be part of something bigger? If so we need you for your skill and for your views to discuss a maker's cooperative (a way of your art and or craft being marketed effectively without the hassle). We also want to provide an Art Gallery and workshops in the Colne Valley area to encourage you to make the Colne Valley your home and place of work. Come along and have a say in how it should happen.

Agenda
10.00 am Refreshments
10.30 am Marsden and Slaithwaite Renaissance Group—Art Project
11.00 am A Makers' Co-op - what is it and what we can do
11.45 am A successful project - what can be achieved
12.15 pm Lunch and Networking - close

If you would like to participate in this event please contact Heather Croft to let us know numbers (for catering purposes), and whether you will require the creche facility.

The Marsden and Slaithwaite Renaissance Group is supporting a local Art Gallery project to bring sustainability to the area for employment, tourism and community engagement.

The project group, managed by Heather Croft, is currently planning a consultation day to inform and engage with local artists and makers about bringing together a makers co-operative and the future of the gallery. If you are an artist/crafts person in the local area and you would like more information please contact Heather. The one day event will be held on 12 July 2008 at Slaithwaite Community Centre and will outline the aims of the gallery and the future of the project.

• Further event details

As well as the gallery there will be an emphasis on the history of the local area and the crafts handed down through generations. Take a look at www.farfieldmill.org for an idea of what we would like to create in the Colne Valley.

Aim:
To investigate the feasability of a defined 'arts and culture' centre based in Slaithwaite or Marsden.

Achievements to date:

• Feasibility study undertaken by Knight Kavanagh Page and Burns Collett to investigate the potential for locating an arts facility in the Valley (Reported May 2007). The key findings identified the critical risks and potential benefits from such a facility:
  Critical success factors:
  • a cohesive working group
  • the development of a suitable management vehicle
  • premises – potentially sub-let from anchor tenant
  • ; the potential for Yorkshire Forward to invest in a long lease property
  • match funding
  • long term sustainability

Targets for the next twelve months:

• Refine the discussion with the arts sector locally whether there is scope for a commercial/community based facility – and how to deliver.

The major challenges of the project to date have been:

• Developing a consensus on what such a facility might be/do/have – this is ongoing.
• Identifying revenue funding to support the development of the facility and sector – this is a critical success factor.

It will be difficult to make an economic case for public investment based on the work undertaken so far; need to explore other types of funding and models of operation.