Carlisle Unity Festival
Join us in in the main marquee at Carlisle Unity Festival Saturday, July 8th 2017.
Design your own colourful hand in our Hands Together sessions and win prizes in the Treasure Hunt!
You did it!
A huge thank you to everyone who voted for Creative Wellbeing in the Community Choices competition.
You helped secure vital funds for our exciting Creative Energy project.
Hundreds voted for us to expand our Creative Wellbeing offer and support even more people across Cumbria.
Planning is now underway for activities in Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland later this year.
Our venue in Carlisle will be Carlisle Train Station. If you know of, or work at, a venue in Allerdale or Copeland that would be interested in hosting activities, please get in touch.
Thank you to everyone who has made this project possible!
Creative Energy!
We’ve been shortlisted for funding that would help us deliver free creative activities in West Cumbria!
We would also be bolstering our delivery in Carlisle too so, wherever you are, it’s a great time to support us.
It’s all down to a public vote so PLEASE vote for us (you get 10 votes!) at: http://decidingtogether.org/register-to-vote/
It’s a simple process, register with your email (and a password you don’t need to remember!), you’ll receive a confirmation email, click the link in that, then another email with a link to the voting page. There are 10 drop-down menus, we’re Creative Wellbeing Creative Energy Allerdale, Copeland, Carlisle under the Improving Cumbria category. It’s simpler than it sounds.
Thank you!
(Another) New Platform
We’ve spent the past two weeks hauling all of our lovely stuff and materials over the bridge to Platform 1. Our new home, at the end of the platform, is glorious…
With the amazing help from many of our participants and friends we’ve relocated to the other side of Carlisle Train Station. It’s a little further to walk (you can use the elevator to avoid the up-and-down of the bridge) but the new space is perfect—friendly and warm, full of colour and interesting things.
Come down on Thursdays and Friday afternoons to join our brilliant WEA courses in writing, reading, and experimental mark making (drawing!) for all levels of ability. Everyone very welcome.
There’s also our regular Friday morning drop-in Creativity & Craic session for a whole range of creative bits and bobs. Come on down and see what it’s all about! It’s really very good.
Sessions are free to attend but we do welcome donations. Creative Wellbeing is unfunded and only continues through the love and sheer determination of our founder, Rebecca Mellor, and with donations from our many participants.
Please share with anyone and everyone who may be interested! Thank you.
Workers’ Educational Association
In addition to our Friday Creativity and Craic drop-in and monthly Saturday Taster sessions, we’re excited to be adding three new 10-week courses in association with the Workers’ Educational Association.
Writing Wellbeing
Reading for Wellbeing
Experimental Mark Making
So, our program of activities this week looks like…
Thursday 7th January
10-12 Writing Wellbeing* @ Carlisle Train Station
12.30-2.30 Reading for Wellbeing* @ Carlisle Train Station
Friday 8th January
10-12 Creativity and Craic Drop-In @ Carlisle Train Station
12.30-2.30 Experimental Mark-Making* @ Carlisle Train Station
Saturday 9th January
1-3 Taster Session @ Best Life Building, Botchergate
All sessions continue to be free to attend and are open to all members of the community.
Sessions marked with * are 10-week courses which require registration at the first session and that you attend at least 50% of the sessions. Please be aware that these sessions will run depending on minimum sign-up figures, so please get yourselves there to sign up and support future provision of Creative Wellbeing in Carlisle.
Continuation of our Thursday sessions requires anyone interested to be there on 7th January to register—even if you can’t stay the whole session!
Please share with anyone and everyone who may be interested!
Radio Wellbeing
If you’re still unsure about what we do and of the impact we have on the members of our community, spend a few minutes listening to last week’s Up For Arts show on BBC Radio Cumbria.
Broadcaster Jennie Dennet came along to a Friday session and the stories she recorded, well, speak for themselves.
Are you Up For Arts?
BBC Radio Cumbria’s Jennie Dennett will be recording a Creative Wellbeing session for her Up for Arts show on Friday 31st July at 11am in the Creative Wellbeing Rooms at Carlisle Train Station.
We are looking for everybody who has been involved in Creative Wellbeing, in any way, to come along and share your story about what Creative Wellbeing has been for you, how you got involved or how it has supported someone you care for.
Come on down to support us and hear your voice on the radio!
Leading Wellbeing Research Festival
We’ll be in Ambleside 16th-18th July for the Leading Wellbeing Research Festival at Brathay Hall presenting Creative Wellbeing’s journey and the value of leadership and sustainability in its development.
This three-day research festival will offer fresh insight, new ideas and rejuvenation to scholars, leadership development professionals, corporate responsibility executives, and social change practitioners.
If you, your friends or colleagues are there, come and say hello!
Community Heroes Awards
We were honoured to be selected as a finalist at the Community Hero Awards 2015.
Sponsored by the Cumberland News and United Utilities, amongst others, we were in excellent company at Dalston Hall for the ceremony. Many lovely people doing excellent things in their community.
Thank you to everybody who nominated us and to all the many, many individuals who are involved in the project as participants, volunteers, ambassadors, student placements, facilitators and partners who make Creative Wellbeing what it is!
Success out west
Well, it’s all over now… and it was fantastic! Our first foray into West Cumbria was an unqualified success. We had a smashing time, met loads of lovely people and delivered, even if we do say so ourselves, many excellent activities.
A full ten-week programme in Cockermouth, Maryport, Whitehaven and Cleator Moor has helped re-affirm our conviction that Creative Wellbeing is needed and welcomed wherever we can deliver it.
Many, many thanks to all the people who participated, the venues who graciously hosted us and to Cumbria County Council for funding us — we couldn’t have done without you!
We’ll be looking to make our provision in West Cumbria a more permanent proposition. Watch this space…
If you can help, or know someone who can, please get in touch so we can go west again.
Only 3 weeks left!
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve only three weeks to go before the end of our initial West Cumbria Sessions.
We’ve always room for more participants so, if you know anyone who might like to come along to a variety of creative sessions in Maryport, Cockermouth, Whitehaven and Cleator Moor, let them know.
Don’t forget, we have three sessions every week in Carlisle too!
A new platform
Our tenure at the Old Fire Station has come to an end. While the city council spends the next year or so renovating the building into a new, long-overdue, arts centre for the city, Creative Wellbeing has partnered with Virgin Trains to deliver our weekday sessions in the magnificent Carlisle Citadel train station.
Built in 1847 in a neo-Tudor style, our rooms are beautiful, spacious and splendid. Come down on Friday afternoons, 1-3pm, for a variety of creative sessions.
We’ll be updating our calendar with all the latest events so please check back regularly or, even better, subscribe to our mailing list.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Showcase success!
A very successful Showcase Event at the Old Fire Station marked the end of our time there, and celebrated the achievements of the project and our wonderfully diverse participants.
We raised over £450, which will be invested into providing more activities in Carlisle.
A huge thank you to everybody who came along and supported Creative Wellbeing.
Awards
Creative Wellbeing came Second Place and was ‘highly commended’ in the Community Social Enterprise of the Year 2014 category.
Founder, Rebecca Mellor, was also shortlisted for Social Entrepreneur of the Year.
Thank you to all who have supported us and to each and every member of the diverse CW community which has grown up around the project.
Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up — we were honoured and humbled to have been involved.
Showcase Week
As a celebration of our time at the Old Fire Station we have arranged a week of activities and our very own Pop-Up Restaurant!
There’ll be a Pop-Up Café everyday 11am-3.30pm to help sustain you through a variety of daily activities.
On Saturdays 17th & 24th we’ll be Making Peg Animals plus, in the evening, our Pop-Up Restaurant will be open 6–8pm: 17th is Finger Food, 24th is Italian!
All monies raised will be invested into providing free activities in the Carlisle community and the development of future work.
Go West
We’ve secured funding to take the project the Allerdale and Copeland.
We’ll be taking Creative Wellbeing to Wigton, Frizington, Maryport, Whitehaven, Workington and more to be confirmed.
We’re still finalising the timetable but we’ll keep you posted. Sign up for our newsletter and tell your friends in the west to keep an eye open.
