Walkers prepare to Light up the Night in the event organised by Keighley Town Council and Keighley Creative. Photo: Bob Smith Photography
This was the aim of a recent community walk organised by Keighley Town Council and Keighley Creative. The walk was organised as a part of Keighley Walking Festival and the theme was “Light Up The Night”.
The walk welcomed anyone who would like to come along and together we walked 2 miles round town.
Walkers prepare to Light up the Night in the event organised by Keighley Town Council and Keighley Creative. Photo: Bob Smith Photography
The walk followed a craft workshop the previous Sunday where attendees were invited to make their own light-up flower torch using recycled materials.
Some of the illuminated flower torches made by participants in the Light Up The Night workshop.
The walk welcomed people from all ages and backgrounds to join the campaign and help make Keighley’s streets feel safer.
Walkers prepare to Light up the Night in the event organised by Keighley Town Council and Keighley Creative. Photo: Bob Smith Photography
Thank you to Louise Soothill from Keighley Town Council for leading the walk and to all those who came along.
And thank you to Bob Smith Photography for the photographs.
Local primary schools have recently taken part in a project educating children about the importance of our peatlands and the latest school to take part was Riddlesden St. Mary’s.
The children were invited to take part in the Pledges to the Landscape project, a classroom programme using art and mark making to engage children, which has been designed by arts charity, Keighley Creative, working alongside the Yorkshire Peat Partnership and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
The project is designed to help children to get creative and to help educate them about the environment around them and particularly the importance of Yorkshire’s peat bogs, their plants and wildlife.
Each class was gifted their own “bog in a box” kit containing high quality drawing materials and hand-lenses to help the children observe and document the growth of their own micro-bog.
The workshops have been designed and delivered by local artist, Naseem Darbey, who visited numerous local schools and helped them create their own classroom “bog”. She encouraged the pupils to be inspired by the plants that grow in the bog and to use their drawing skills to record what they had learnt.
Artist, Naseem Darbey. Photo: Bob Smith Photography
The children were given challenges to help them connect with the bog and to improve their drawing techniques using mark-making, to help them get to know the drawing materials and using touch drawing to develop their senses and record texture.
As Naseem explained: “We challenged the pupils to try new ways of drawing. For example, we encouraged them to draw without looking at the paper, which is tricky but it’s brilliant for developing hand-eye co-ordination. We also got them to draw with their other hand to take the preciousness and worry of a perfect drawing away, and to try drawing using a continuous line taking their drawing materials for a fast, spontaneous walk across the paper!”
The children all made their own ‘Pledges to the Landscape’, working together to explore, champion and protect our important doorstep superhero wetlands!
Spokesperson from the Yorkshire Peat Partnership, Lucy Lee, said: “Although the word “bog” may sound ugly, these unique landscapes and their plants can be truly beautiful and are critical to the preservation of our natural environment. It’s important that we all learn about how important they are and we are keen to get children involved from as young an age as possible.”
Lucy Lee from the Yorkshire Peat Partnership
Naseem said: “The children that have been involved in the project loved getting dirty and engaging directly with a bog in the comfort of their classroom. From there we taught them about the importance of the landscapes around them and how their preservation is essential. We looked at the past, present and future of these environments in order to help the children understand how they work. They documented the peatbogs using drawing materials and created some beautiful art in the process.”
Laura Woodcock, a Year 5 teacher at the school said: “It has been a truly inspirational experience. We absolutely adored it!”
The sessions are also being run at other primary schools around Keighley such as Worth Valley, Merlin Top, Eastwood, Holycroft and Victoria.
Other Keighley families also will be given the opportunity to join in with similar drawing activities as well as story writing, clay modelling and painting at the Pledges to the Landscape celebration event on Saturday 10th August 2024 in Cliffe Castle Park. And everyone is welcome to come and join in the fun and get stuck in, no matter what your age or ability.
For more information on your local peatlands, please contact the Yorkshire Peat Partnership. For more information on arts and crafts workshop offerings from Keighley Creative, please email admin@keighleycreative.org
Keighley Creative are delighted to be continuing our relationship with Leeds International Film Festival and this Easter they have asked us to host the Leeds Young Film Festival (LYFF). This will involve 6 film screenings at the Stockroom Cinema within Keighley Creative across two dates. It’s a great opportunity to take the kids out and enjoy a family film for just £4 per person.
Information as follows and tickets available via Eventbrite.
Date: Friday 5th April 2024 (Good Friday)
Moomins on the Riviera (2014) @ 11am / Age rating: U
Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) @ 1.30pm / Age rating: PG
Holes (2003) @ 4pm / Age rating: PG
Date: Saturday 13th April 2024
The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales (2017) @ 11am / Age rating: U
Marcel the Shell (2021) @ 1.30pm / Age rating: PG
Labyrinth (1986) @ 4pm / Age rating: U
Stockroom Cinema is Keighley’s very own secret cinema and performance space. Co-hosted by Keighley Creative and The Unit, in partnership with Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF).
