Welcome to
Connect, Create, Grow
Welcome to your creative network in Calderdale - connect with your peers, grow your skills and help build our collective voice together.
Join our
creative community:
Become part of a growing community of creative professionals to connect, collaborate and build a stronger collective voice.
Membership is currently free and open to everyone working in creative and cultural roles.
- Connect with peers
- Access training, resources and opportunities
- Increase your profile with our Members Directory
- Join advocacy campaigns that strengthen our sector
- Help shape culture and creativity in Calderdale
- Join our steering group and working groups
MEMBERS DIRECTORY
Sign up here if you are interested in sharing your information in the CalderdaleCreates directory
UPCOMING
Our events
Build the skills you need to grow your creative practice and career.
Meet your peers and find your creative community at our networking events.
22
Co-Creating with Communities
A CalderdaleCreates Culture Symposium – Presented by Northern Broadsides
- Thursday 22 January 2026
- Dean Clough, The Crossley Gallery
- Registration & welcome refreshments: 9.15am–10am
- Event: 10am–4.30pm
- Free for CalderdaleCreates or £10 others
The event focuses on the practical aspects of community-led and socially engaged creative work, including how relationships are built, how collaboration works in practice, and how impact is understood when creative projects are developed with communities rather than for them.
The programme includes sessions on building equitable relationships, funding and co-created evaluation, and creative communities in Calderdale, alongside an optional practical workshop led by Common/Wealth.
Contributors on the day include practitioners and organisations working across Calderdale and beyond, including Chol Theatre, Global Majority Collective, Visits Unlimited, Curious Motion, Shared Harmonies, Arts Council England, North Halifax Partnership and the Centre for Cultural Value.
Sessions include ‘The Making – Successes and Failures’, ‘Building Equitable Relationships’, ‘Creative Communities in Calderdale’ and ‘Funding and Co-Created Evaluation’. In the afternoon there is a pre-bookable optional workshop ‘Do It Yourself: Making Political Theatre’ by Common/Wealth Theatre Company.
The symposium is delivered by CalderdaleCreates, the borough’s cultural and creative industries network, in partnership with Northern Broadsides.
Free for CalderdaleCreates Directory Members.
For Calderdale residents/workers – £10 deposit, returned on attendance and directory page.
£10 for all others.
Register your page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk
3
Lunchtime Learning: Good Governance
Tuesday 3 February 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online
How to be an effective director, board member, or trustee
Join CalderdaleCreates for a session exploring the role of legal boards, trustees, and directors and how the role works alongside those in paid positions.
Steering Group members Adelle A’asante and David McQuillan are joined by Ruth our network manager to talk about Steering Group development of the network over the last three years. Our upcoming election process is about to start to recruit new CalderdaleCreates directors. What will joining the new board offer in terms of opportunities and what responsibilities come with this role?
More generally, we’ll look at what being a great board member looks like? What can you do to support the organisation and its key people and what should you expect from them in return? We’ll also have a brief look at different organisational structures and what this means for how each type of business is governed.
We’ll be joined by a fabulous panel to discuss all of this and more including Lucy Darragh of Locality; Helen Meller, of Arvon Foundation who is the Vice Chair of the Bronte Society; Jenn Wilson, Founder of Irregular Arts and former Chair of Happy Valley Pride; and Tudor Gwynn of Eureka, who is on the boards of IOU Theatre and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.
This session is particularly aimed at those thinking of joining the new CalderdaleCreates’ board of directors, but will be of use to anyone at the start of their board member experience or thinking of volunteering for a creative organisation in this way.
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory – book your ticket now.
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
10
Lunchtime Learning: About Advocacy
Tuesday 10 February 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online
About Advocacy – your role in representing across sectors
CalderdaleCreates has a major role to represent the whole creative sector in Calderdale. This 90-minute online introductory session is designed for creatives, organisations, and artists in Calderdale who are interested in how individual experience can inform collective representation and influence.
We’ll explore what representation means in practice, how CalderdaleCreates inputs, and how this feeds into key strategic spaces locally. Through guided discussion and short breakout activities, you’ll reflect on your own experiences, identify shared patterns and issues, and consider what makes effective representation.
You’ll also gain a clear overview of the strategic boards, partnerships and forums where CalderdaleCreates has a seat at the table, why these spaces matter, and the role representatives play within them.
This session is suitable for anyone curious about representation, considering a representative role, or simply wanting a better understanding of how collective voice works in Calderdale’s creative ecology.
It’s particularly useful if you are interested in joining CalderdaleCreates’ board, working groups, working with us as we develop our activity across sector advocacy, representing Calderdale locally, regionally, and nationally.
Peg Alexander is an award winning TV and radio presenter, journalist, commentator and event host and facilitator. She’s all about people, politics and planet – the world we live in and life in general.
Tuesday 10 February 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online – a link to join the online session will be sent to ticket holders on the morning of the event.
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
If you’re not eligible to join the Directory we ask for a contribution of £5.
Join CalderdaleCreates for one of more of our next programme of lunchtime learning sessions.
Our lunchtime sessions have been created following feedback with network members. They are designed for creative people at all stages of their career and are aimed to help them navigate governance, advocacy, marketing, evaluation and more with practical, real-world insight. Following each session attendees will be emailed links to our connected resources, available exclusively for Directory members.
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory – book your ticket now.
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
17
Lunchtime Learning: Social Media and AI Marketing
Tuesday 17 February 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online
Social Media and AI Marketing
In this CalderdaleCreates lunchtime learning session we join Mark Ashmore to explore how to sell tickets, build an audience and find new clients using Facebook Ad tools, WhatsApp groups, Instagram community tools and Tik Tok – and how you can use AI to your best advantage when undertaking this kind of marketing activity.
In September 2025, Meta—owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and I nstagram—announced a series of transformative updates across its platforms. These changes are designed to make building communities easier and more engaging: from fostering active Facebook groups (ideal for the over-30s demographic), to growing niche and passionate audiences with WhatsApp community groups, to maximizing reach on Instagram (targeting Gen Z, Alpha, and Millennials) using advanced AI tools. Mark will also look at the new features on social media including enhanced ad targeting capabilities across all platforms, to give you more control and precision in reaching the right audience.
This workshop aims to show CalderdaleCreates network members how to leverage these tools to drive your or your organisation’s success.
As well as training creatives, Mark is a storyteller using film, theatre and XR as the platforms to create meaningful and thought-provoking experiences for his audiences. Future Artists, an arts collective founded by Mark, has the motto “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible” – Frank Zappa.
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory – book your ticket now.
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
24
Lunchtime Learning: About Audiences
Tuesday 24 February 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online
About Audiences
In this CalderdaleCreates session we’ll be helping you look at how to know and understand your audiences, in order to develop who your work is reaching and how to get it to more people. How can you build this thinking into the very beginning of your creative project journey?
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory – book your ticket now.
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
3
Lunchtime Learning: Evaluation and you
Tuesday 3 March 2026
12 noon – 1.30pm
Online
Evaluation and you
What is evaluation, and why does it matter? How can you do it in a way that feels manageable (and even useful)? When should you start thinking about it — and how can it sit naturally within your project, rather than being bolted on at the end?
This introduction to evaluation will demystify the basics and give you practical ways to approach evaluation in the arts, culture and heritage sector. We’ll explore how to do simple evaluation, and how to build evaluation into your project development from the start, so it supports learning, decision-making and storytelling — not just end-of-project reporting for funders.
Kirsty Rose is the Founder and Director of The Evaluator. With over 25 years’ experience and an MA in Economics, she specialises in turning complex data into clear, useful insight. A qualified Social Return on Investment (SROI) analyst, Kirsty is known for her strategic thinking, warm approach, and ability to help projects genuinely understand what’s working, what’s changing, and why it matters.
Free for CalderdaleCreates members who’ve joined the CalderdaleCreates Directory – book your ticket now.
Register your Directory Page now – www.calderdalecreates.co.uk to come along for free.
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Supported by CALDERDALE COUNCIL, Arts Council England & West Yorkshire Combined Authority
