Our interdisciplinary projects bring the experience of playful, exploratory creativity to people of all ages to support heritage, sustainability and transformation at the heart of community and place. Central to what we do is our belief in the benefits of open-ended, playful creativity that goes far beyond the idea of art to think of creativity as part of everyone’s story. We have a roaming programme through innovative projects to “go where people already go” making our projects accessible and inclusive and working across a range of places and in collaboration with different organisations. More than this we aim to be artist-, volunteer- and community-led, and committed to supporting the local and regional arts and rural ecology by working in close partnership with a range of local, regional and national organisations and groups across culture, health and social care. We are working to remove barriers to participation and to an understanding of intersectionality where a number of factors might contribute to issues accessing our activities. Over the last year we have continued to run our weekly Cool Beans Children's creative club at Babbinswood Farm. This is part funded by National Lottery and is pay what you can. We have also run our weekly PaintAble sessions for adults and have maintained the low cost. We have also coordinated and facilitated a number of other projects including The Villages Project for Love Oswestry, OsNosh Outside Project and Possibility Machines.

We provide activities for stakeholders of all ages from 5 to 95. We aim to be community-led, developing opportunities for co-production and feedback wherever possible. Our creative activities are person-centred, responding to each participants needs and interests, and have been developed through actively asking for and receiving responses and ideas, about local interest and need, from hundreds of local residents through regular posts on a number of social media community groups. We have an open portal on our website for gathering feedback. As well we initiated and developed the Creative Activities Mapping survey this year, working in partnership with Vibrant Shropshire, A Cultural Compact and Designs in Mind, to learn more about creative provision across Shropshire. We have also gathered direct feedback from participants of PaintAble, for example: "I’ve been coming to PaintAble for a couple of years, having been encouraged to join by a painting friend. I struggle with social anxiety & it’s a great way to connect with a small group of friendly like-minded people with no pressure. As someone who enjoys painting because it is something I do alone, but was frustrated with my lack of progress, PaintAble has enabled me to improve - thanks to gentle encouragement from the tutor & fellow artists. The teaching style is informal & artists chose what they want to paint, using whatever media they prefer. I now enjoy tackling much more challenging pictures & this is hopefully resulting in some better output (or at least some learning for the next painting!) I look forward to classes & would really encourage anyone who’s feeling lonely or isolated to give it a try." "I started attending PaintAble back in January 2023 with absolutely no experience of drawing or painting.I was immediately welcomed to the class,given materials to use and encouraged to have a go.The support and encouragement from Joseph and the class soon gave me the confidence to continue and develop some new skills.Joseph continues to support everyone in the class( some very talented artists)he encourages people to develop their skills and gives them the confidence to try new styles and approaches in their work.The experiential learning approach allows freedom to be fully creative.The flexibility of his tutoring means it's an open book with endless possibilities.Our Monday morning session is a fun,friendly supportive group of people with very different art styles and life experiences making it a fantastic atmosphere of enjoyment and creativity.After my relatively short time in the art world only through PaintAble not only do I look forward to Mondays, painting is now part of my life,a very important part.Thank you to Joseph and the group." "I've been attending Paintable sessions on and off for around two years. Following my initial interest to establish if I could still paint (or simply 'do art') after a gap of about 50 years. The sessions are run in a semi formal manner, we are encouraged to paint what we want, with whatever materials or medium we chose. 'Semi formal', in that the class of individuals is treated as individuals, requesting help, ideas and opinions mainly from Joseph, (but others are encouraged to air their views). This makes for a positive group dynamic, where people are encouraged to expand their own ideas. Nothing is 'wrong', and the emphasis is on enjoyment. Hard to say what I would change. There's much to praise."

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration