Keighley Creative
Keighley Creative is a volunteer-led arts organisation, providing exciting projects and fun activities for local communities from a repurposed department store in Keighley town centre.
Two young female artists painting onto huge pieces of paper hung in the window of Keighley Creative as part of a COVID-safe interactive art class with members of the public drawing and watching through the windows
Image Credit ©Gemma Hobbs
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At Keighley Creative, we’re trying to show people how to work as artists. It’s a little bit behind-the-scenes. Everyone sees the polished end result of a gallery. But we want to open up our doors to show the general public what it’s like to work in the arts, the beautiful reality behind it.
10 images of women and young girls of all ages in Keighley, part of a larger photography project about the creativity of women and girls in the town. On is arranging flowers, some are writing, some are drawing, some are dancing outdoors
We don’t want it to be that people have to go to somewhere like London to experience the arts, things like this can exist on our doorstep.
This idea of ‘making the most of what we have’ is very true to the Keighley Creative project. It’s about making the most of our artists and their work as well as making the most of the old Sunwin House department store we are based in. It’s about working across organisations, too recognising and valuing what we have right here in our town, all of the skills, the talent and the enthusiasm.
We have studio holders. We have a yearly arts and film festival that started in 2019 and was a fantastic success. Then we’ve got our exhibition gallery programme where we show professional artists alongside community shows. Then there’s the educational side of what we do and our outreach work which we kept going right through the pandemic with our ‘Drawing Box Project’ and the drawing sessions we ran with the public through the big shop windows of our building.
Now we want to find a permanent home for arts and community in the heart of Keighley and we’re working with our Towns Fund board and have had massive support locally for the idea. We have thought about all sorts of places including old mills which say so much about our past. In the end we have decided old stores are just as important a part of our heritage. They are real landmarks too, familiar and friendly for people, designed to welcome people in, accessible to all. And our high streets need to be reimagined and rescued and we want art and culture to play a big role in that.
Gemma Hobbs and
Naseem Darbey