Make/Shift Amber Valley

We’re exciting to share the news that applications are now open for the Movers and Shakers Community Fund - a brand new fund by and for people living in Amber Valley. 🎉 🎉 🎉 If you’re connected to Amber Valley & want to bring people together, kickstart a new idea or have a go at something new…then our fund is for you! We are giving out awards from £1 to £1000 for new, imaginative ideas that benefit you and the place you care about in Amber Valley. We’re open to all and any idea – community gardening, food events, creative workshops, arts projects, local radio - so let your imagination loose and have a go at something new. 🔗 Find out more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/eZGSYK56

Tomorrow welcome our new dazzle of Neighbourhood Creative Agents for our first session together with collaborators Platform Thirty1 🌟 Six brilliant neighbours, living in towns and villages across Amber Valley, working together to activate and mobilise creativity on their doorstep. 🌟 We kick off our peer learning adventure with Platform Thirty1 at Infinite Wellbeing C.I.C. diving into the muck and the magic of co-creation. 🔗Find out more and meet our first dazzle of Creative Agents https://lnkd.in/eJQd69Gh 🦓 🌟

We bid farewell to Rebecca Morris-Buck as our Creative Community Builder this week, after a fabulous year of connections and conversations. Rebecca is off to pastures new but we've got TWO new Community Builders joining the team, Ian and Lizzie! We can't wait for you to meet them, and for new creative adventures. Good luck Rebecca, and welcome Ian and Lizzie!

Thanks to Make/Shift Amber Valley and Grow Outside C.I.C. for a fabulous evening in your amazing spaces. Always a joy to visit you 🪴 Thanks for the hospitality and utterly delicious cake. Excited to continue making new friends and connections on Platform Thirty1’s voyage of local creative discovery. Wonder where we’ll go next? 🤔😌

We loved sharing our Make/Shift Amber Valley work and showing off our collaborations #maisonfoo #growoutside to colleagues at Arts Council England and Department for Culture, Media and Sport this week. Thanks for joining us Rebecca Blackman 🌼 💚🙏 #createyourplace #letscreate #communitypower #creativepower #derbyshire #ambervalley

We had a great day in Ironville on Saturday, alongside the fantastic Infinite Wellbeing C.I.C., supporting a community art activity at the Summer Fun Day. What a warm, fun event, we felt very welcome and lucky to be involved, and it was brilliant to see what people wrote on their handprints, to add to the installation in the church hall. The art installation idea was inspired by seeing Lise Bennett's brilliant 'People Make Amber Valley' installation in Ripley, as part of the Making of the Amber Valley event we supported back in April, which is now permanently installed in Ripley Town Hall. And we're excited to be getting to know the Ironville community even further through our upcoming artist residency with the youth club which will result in a new co-designed mural on the front of their railway carriage meeting place.

Team Make/Shift had a fantastic time at Timber Festival last weekend! We were so pleased to go with some of our Amber Valley collaborators and community groups, and interact with crafty and creative people from all over the country. It's a festival of music, art and ideas, all in the National Forest. We even got blue skies, some of the time! Val and Trev (from MAISON FOO) got so many people involved with the Community Living Room and their 'Trash to Flash' workshops, and on top of that they brought Val's Pals from Swanwick Men's Shed at Turner Farm Project, Grow Outside C.I.C. and Holbrook Knit and Stitch, making bird boxes, badges, and plant pot decorating! Such a brilliant event, and lovely to be there alongside our friends from CivicLab at University of Derby too!

A collaborative artwork created by hundreds of members of the public across Amber Valley has become a permanent installation in the council's Town Hall reception area. The work, entitled 'People Make Amber Valley', was the brainchild of local artist Lise Bennett as part of Amber Valley Borough Council’s 50th anniversary celebrations in April and supported by Make/Shift. 'People Make Amber Valley' represents a map of the borough crafted from chicken wire. Attached to the map are a colourful array of 350 intricately designed figurines that were individually created by school pupils, nursing homes, community groups, and other enthusiastic members of the public. Due to overwhelming public demand, the installation has now taken pride of place at the Town Hall, on Ripley Market Place, where people will be able to view it for years to come. Artist Lise said: “The first thing most people seem to say about this collaborative artwork is that it’s full of joy! During the creation of this, we worked with young children through to the elderly across Amber Valley. The positivity and engagement in creating the mini people was incredible, as well as the stories and memories that were shared. All of this has gone into the artwork, and you can feel that. Participants are delighted about their creations going on permanent display and are excited to bring friends and family to see it. It feels like a wonderful reminder of the community spirit of Amber Valley." Rachel Smith, Creative Director at Make/Shift said: “The Making of Amber Valley was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate creativity in all its forms from across Amber Valley. The Make/Shift team are always excited to see how many people are already making and connecting across the borough and this was a brilliant chance to inspire and unleash the maker in even more people, whilst also celebrating the place where they live, work, have fun and create.” Photo credit: AVBC and Pictoria

A collaborative artwork created by hundreds of members of the public across Amber Valley has become a permanent installation in the council's Town Hall reception area. The work, entitled 'People Make Amber Valley', was the brainchild of local artist Lise Bennett as part of Amber Valley Borough Council’s 50th anniversary celebrations in April and supported by Make/Shift. 'People Make Amber Valley' represents a map of the borough crafted from chicken wire. Attached to the map are a colourful array of 350 intricately designed figurines that were individually created by school pupils, nursing homes, community groups, and other enthusiastic members of the public. Due to overwhelming public demand, the installation has now taken pride of place at the Town Hall, on Ripley Market Place, where people will be able to view it for years to come. Artist Lise said: “The first thing most people seem to say about this collaborative artwork is that it’s full of joy! During the creation of this, we worked with young children through to the elderly across Amber Valley. The positivity and engagement in creating the mini people was incredible, as well as the stories and memories that were shared. All of this has gone into the artwork, and you can feel that. Participants are delighted about their creations going on permanent display and are excited to bring friends and family to see it. It feels like a wonderful reminder of the community spirit of Amber Valley." Rachel Smith, Creative Director at Make/Shift said: “The Making of Amber Valley was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate creativity in all its forms from across Amber Valley. The Make/Shift team are always excited to see how many people are already making and connecting across the borough and this was a brilliant chance to inspire and unleash the maker in even more people, whilst also celebrating the place where they live, work, have fun and create.” Photo credit: AVBC and Pictoria

We loved supporting No Jobs in the Arts with this series of Zine Making Workshops in Alfreton - and brilliant to see this Zine sparked by that collaboration.