Young creatives use heritage to explore green spaces
A group of young creatives is transforming the way we see nature, blending heritage, environment and creativity to explore green spaces and shared places.
The project is part of Going Places, a nationwide celebration of collections, heritage and community from Art Fund, the national charity for museums and galleries.
Going Places brings together 20 museums across the UK to share their collections through touring exhibitions, co-created with local communities, and made possible with major support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Julia Rausing Trust, with additional support from a generous group of trusts, foundations and individuals.
Launched in 2025, the project will see young people exploring and connecting with nature through museum collections and creative activities, and sharing their voice through the exhibitions.
Eight young creatives, aged 18-30, are working with the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, engaging in monthly meet-ups led by Museum staff and the Authority’s Access & Engagement Project Officer, alongside external creative practitioners.
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August 26 with Hester Cox
The Young Creatives group met with Hester Cox for a wood engraving workshop.
Hester told us all about the history of wood engraving and we looked at Marie Hartley woodblocks and her contempories who also printed, for example Agnes Miller Parker and Eric Ravillious.
We used a mixture of lemonwood, boxwood and pearwood which we inked and carved test marks onto so we could understand how our tools worked.
We used a spitsticker for the lines and a scorper for making broad lines. We then printed from our blocks using a spoon as a barren to press the ink into the paper.
It was an amazing day, very calm and mindful and we all agreed that this would make a great relaxing, creative workshop for adults to do.
December 25 with Jo Coates
We met at Jo’s farm and Jo spent time with us talking about how she starts a project and how making an Artist’s manifesto help everyone involved understand what is happening and expected of them. After tea and biscuits and a lot of snuggling with Glen Jo’s gorgeous sheep dog we were taken on a tour of the farm. With Jo explaining how they are farming the beautiful Coverdale landscape. After a great lunch, provided by Jo we went to a barn to do some portrait photography, Jo explained her processes and working with the light and let the Young Creatives use her digital and her Rolleiflex SL35 camera.
After a great creative session, we went back to Jo’s cosy kitchen to recap on the day and add to the manifesto. We all had an amazing day, and our Young Creatives learnt a lot from Jo about exhibiting and portrait photography.
November 25 with Yorkshire Peat Partnership.
We met Lucy Lee from the YPP at Nethergill Farm and walked up the blanket bog on the moorland opposite the farm. Lucy explained that our area in North Yorkshire has 27% of England’s blanket bog with Northern Yorkshire’s peatland storing around 27,500,000 tonnes of carbon. This really made us all think that it is a landscape that needs looking after. Lucy showed us the species of plant living in the damp, often misty environment…Cotton grass and Heather, Soft rush and Round-leaved sundew and Sphagnum moss. All of which work together to make a blanket bog.
We then moved into the meeting room at Nethergill Farm to warm up and Charlotte Wilkinson led a session on Collagraph printing using recycled materials and the plants from the bog and objects from the museum collection as inspiration. The Young Creatives all produced some great print and got to know each other better.
