THIS year's Grassington Festival will run from June 17 to July 2, offering a diverse mix of creative and colourful events celebrating the area's rich arts and music scene.

And among the events will be nearly 20 workshops, many of which will be led by Turner Prize-nominated artist Helen Peyton.

She will turn her attention to helping people manage their collections of ‘treasure’ or ‘clutter’ in a series of 15 workshops, covering everything from advising on how to finish an unfinished project and mend a broken item to upcycling a tired item and creating a new work of art or sculpture from unwanted items.

She is even hosting a "swap shop" where people can exchange items and there will be "drop-in" sessions offering practical advice about sewing, darning, quilting, knitting, and embroidery, as well as joinery and carpentry and electrical and soldering – all hosted by qualified professionals.

“It’s hard to let go of your treasures – things you’ve collected over years and years, things which are beautiful and interesting,” says Skipton-born Helen, who knows what she’s talking about as many of her award-winning projects have been based on collections, including her Turner Prize-nominated Smart Gallery which showcased at the festival last year and is now on tour.

Helen says the workshops and sessions are “aimed at helping people to unravel the modern day chaos”.

Aptly entitled The Rainy Day Project, the sessions will run every day of the festival in the ladies room at Grassington’s Festival Hall. If you are unsure about where to start or what session might be best for you, call in and chat with Helen on Saturday, June 18 or Sunday, June 19, or visit the festival website for further information.

Helen will also be running a block printing workshop on Monday, June 20, which offers the opportunity to learn how to carve simple blocks and then transfer the bespoke design to fabric, which can then be used for a variety of projects, including perhaps the Make a Drum Lampshade workshop which takes place on Tuesday June 21.

There will also be a series of dry stone walling workshops, run by local farmer and master craftsman Ian Daggett at his farm in Burnsall.

In his workshops, Ian will cover all the basics, including digging out and inserting the footings, picking the right stones for the right places and bridging the courses of the wall together.

“These are always popular workshops as people feel a huge sense of pride in seeing something standing there in a field that they’ve made with their own hands,” says Ian.

Another workshop which proved popular last year was Stephen Garnett’s photography masterclass.

This three-hour workshop enables beginner and intermediate photographers to fast-track their knowledge – learning skills and techniques from an award-winning local photographer, best known for his work as staff photographer with the Craven Herald for many year. The inspirational location of Bolton Abbey Priory Church will enable countless opportunities to photograph beautiful architecture as well as stunning landscape.

The final workshop of the festival fortnight is Amanuensis with Jane Peyton, which is a free drop-in session offering creative writing advice from an award-winning publisher.

For the full festival programme, including all the featured workshops, visit grassington-festival.org.uk or call the box office on 01756 752691.