Helen Peyton

Helen Peyton is a highly successful and respected linocut artist and printmaker, whose work is is well known throughout Yorkshire and the north.

The high visibility of her work is acknowledged to have helped greatly to raise the profile of the visual arts and artists in Yorkshire. Helen's generosity with her time and her talent has helped art-lovers to get revealing insights into the nature of her work.

She has been artist-in-residence at Craven Museum and Gallery and her work was central to the success of the innovative Smart Gallery, a novel concept in exhibitions - the public was invited to loan items they considered important and Helen made beautiful artworks in response.

Visitors were also encouraged to 'have-a-go' and to 'show and tell', which were highly successful thanks to the enthusiasm which Helen put into them. She was also Grassington Festival's official photographer in 2014, a further way in which she has helped to make arts and culture accessible to the whole community.

Her works are exhibited at the Royal Academy, Scottish Academy and Leeds City Art Gallery and are collected all over the world.

Embroiderers' Guild

The Skipton Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild has worked enthusiastically using embroidery and textile art to promote fun, friendship and fellowship within the community. Two major pieces of textile art have been produced involving local community groups. In addition a series of exhibitions and displays, plus free workshops have taken place.

The Skipton Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild came into being 38 years ago. During this time fun, friendship and fellowship, via the media of embroidery and textiles, have been enjoyed by all members. In 2013 the group was given the opportunity to work with the Broughton Road Women’s Group to help them design and stitch a Story Cloth about the life of the Kashmiri Community in Skipton. The experience was enriching for the ladies of the group and guild members. The resulting work has been much admired when on display and the ladies of the women's group have benefited both in the development of embroidery and textile skills whilst learning and experiencing more about the local community in which they now live.

Following on from this experience the Skipton Embroiderers’ Guild decided to apply for a Craven District Council Grant to enable them to create a piece of work celebrating the Yorkshire Dales and commemorating Le Grand Depart. Being fortunate in the award of a Grant the StArt project was born. A felted map of the Yorkshire Dales was designed, made and then quilted onto a painted calico background. Members of theb ranch, working for the first time in collaboration with the Grassington

Branch of the Guild, also sought the involvement of pupils from Christ Church School and also the 10th Skipton Dales Brownies. In addition to the Map participants were asked to depict ‘Life in the Dales’ by making a 10cm square using any technique. These squares were joined together to create a frame for the Map.

Again the involvement of the Community Groups enhanced the StArt project and they offered a special workshop to the Broughton Road Women’s group during the Grassington Festival. This was collaboration between the Embroiderers’ Guilds and the artist in residence, Helen Peyton.

The achievement of the Skipton Branch of the Embroiderers’ Guild is to have added a completely different dimension to the established norm by taking skills and experience into broader communities. The Guild members have so enjoyed the experience that further workshops accessible to all age groups are planned for the future.

Skipton Camerata

Skipton Camerata was created in 2004 by Ben Crick, a young graduate from the University of Leeds and the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). Ben uncovered a need for a professional orchestra, based in Yorkshire, which could accompany amateur choral societies and also carry out a full artistic agenda in its own right to reach audiences that might never hear a live performance of unabridged high-quality classical music. It became a registered charity in 2010.

The players are drawn from a pool of 80 professional musicians according to the size of each production. They are all paid nationally agreed Musicians’ Union rates. More expensive solo performers and singers, many with outstanding international reputations, are also hired on some occasions.

From its earliest days, the orchestra has performed in unusual venues across the district – churches, market places, shopping malls, Skipton Castle and local public houses – and in a manner that allowed the performances to be accessible to all. The aim was to try to break down the barriers that prevented people from engaging with the classical repertoire.

At the same time the orchestra had a commitment to commission and perform new works and to be involved in education with a novel ‘side-by-side’ scheme which saw professional musicians sit and play alongside amateurs and students from Craven schools in rehearsals and performances.

A year after formation, Skipton Building Society agreed to sponsor the orchestra and has been its main supporter ever since. So far they have invested more than £150,000 in the venture and the Camerata is permanently indebted to them for their help and encouragement.

In its latest annual report, the Society says that its support “cements the Camerata's valued position within the local community”.

This help has allowed the Camerata to grow and develop from four concerts in 2004 to 38 performances in 2014. Ben Crick’s work has been recognised by the BBC who made him a Music Fellow for 2013, paying for him to be Musician in Residence in Grimsby Minster, where he developed a programme of classical music in an area that has very little provision.

The group has also released its first commercial CD and has been recognised by Arts and Business with an award for audience development in 2010.

In our 10th anniversary year a major programme of events has been taking place with an artistic agenda that follows the original founding creed of making the classical repertoire available to all. There have been free and paid-for performances in venues ranging from churches to a railway station, shopping centres to pubs, and community centres to town halls. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, the group commissioned a brand new orchestral symphony for Remembrance Sunday which features that most northern of instruments - the tuba.

The group has also launched a Friends and Patrons scheme which allows individuals and supporters to contribute towards the Camerata’s success and also to receive substantial benefits in return.

Ticket prices are kept at affordable levels through the sponsorship of Skipton Building Society and via the decision of Skipton Town Council to book the orchestra for a grand sold-out Night of the Opera concert to celebrate Yorkshire Day.