And here is our Youtube playlist – click the menu arrow on the top left to chose a film.
For the Love of Books
More images from the first year of For the Love of Books!
100% Wolf!
On 7th August we staged our world premiere of 100% Wolf, from the book by Jayne Lyons. The show opened to the public at the Geoffrey Allen Centre, Gamesley and then two days later at the 
Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton.
“It was hilarious, it was amazing – and the talent!”
This was the culmination of year 2 of the Tall Tales programme, which began at the end of April in workshops at the Gamesley Community Cafe and Fairfield Dreamscheme in Buxton. The two groups came together in this year’s summer school – and created the final show in just over a week.
“I know like, when you’re on stage, you might feel a bit worried and sick, but then when you get a bit closer to the end, you might feel a bit relieved that you’ve managed to get through it and not like had a breakdown!”
Watch the show here:
“and why is it you get more confidence?”
“Because it makes you much happier in yourself
Because it gives you better experiences…”
“I got stage fright – and I felt bit scared, like I couldn’t do it… but then I remember I felt alright, so then I could carry on…”
“and why is it you get more confidence?”
“Because it makes you much happier in yourself
Because it gives you better experiences…”
“Yeah – It’s like you look at how many chairs it roughly is, and you think there’s people are going to be sitting there later – and that scares you a bit”
Our Summer Programme 2015
This year included 3 days story telling in the yurt at Buxton Festival, and Whaley Water Weekend, with story-tellers Shonaleigh and Gordon MacLellan; our usual featured arts workshop for Chernobyl Childrens’ Project with artist Nicky Ward; a ‘silent disco’ in our yurt, for the One World Festival; and we opened our doors for another Open Day at High Lee Hall in New Mills, inviting people to join us for ‘iPaddling’ workshops for New Mills Festival. These events are an important part of our core programme, despite many being un-funded. We recognise the important part this work plays in the lives of our communities.
For the love of Books!
High Peak Community Arts are proud to present their first early years arts project, For the Love of Books.
The project aims to promote a joy of books with early years children and their families, who can sign up for sessions with professional artists. The artists have been asked to choose their favourite children’s book and develop fun, creative and open ended activities that animate the book further. 
Our first sessions will be running at Gamesley Early Excellence Centre in October, where artist Tony Hall will be making drawing robots with the families. Artist Katy McCall, who has a background in early years learning, will be bringing a range of unusual materials for children to play and experiment with. The session will be based on the book “Robots, Robots Everywhere” by Sue Fliess.
We are thrilled to be planning this early years work, supported by Awards for All from the Big Lottery and also the Clore Duffield Poetry and Literature Awards. All of the sessions will be designed to enable families and children to develop confidence in their creativity and nurture a love of books through playful and enjoyable activities.
This programme of workshops will be rolled out in New Mills, Fairfield and Gamesley between October 2015 and July 2016. For more information call Sophie on 01663 744 516, or email Katy McCall on katymccall@mac.com.
Blue John Felted Panels – Unveiling
Thank you for joining us! This was a lovely event and we look forward to seeing you again soon!
PAST EVENT:
Come and celebrate the completion and unveiling of our ‘Made in Derbyshire’ project on Wednesday 30th September in Buxton Library Children’s Area. Participants from our Arts and Wellbeing programme worked with artist Carol Wilson to create a series of beautiful panels depicting scenes from the children’s book by Berlie Doherty, illustrated by Tim Clarey. Some of the wool used is from whitefaced woodland sheep from Elton, nr Bakewell, a breed indigenous to this area. FREE,. All welcome. 11am. See the artwork and photos from the project. Enjoy refreshements, Meet the author, Berlie Doherty.
iPaddling for New Mills Festival!
We had a great time on Saturday 19th September as part of New Mills Festival. High Lee Hall was a-buzz with creative ideas and we made some beautiful little films and works of art!
High Peak Community Arts invited everyone to dip toes into some cool and funky iPad apps. People used one of our iPads or brought their own, trying video, imaging and music apps & here is our fusion of sound and vision from the day:
And delving underwater:
Finding things you didn’t expect:
Roaming the High Peaks:
And accidents will happen on the farm!
These are the apps we used, if you want to have a go at home! (some are free, some are cheap and some are a few pounds):
Art: Paper53, Photoshop Express, Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch
Music: Garageband (check you’ve downloaded all the features), Bloom, Beatwave, Morphwiz, Loopy HD, Propellerhead
Video: iMovie, Action Movie FX, StopMotion
Tall Tales 2015 – The Summer School
The summer school began when the two groups met on a trip to Manchester International Festival, to see the international premiere of Wonder.land by Damon Albarn. This inspirational trip was followed up with another trip into Manchester to the Art Gallery, where they worked in one of their studios using physical materials and digital methods to create themes and images for the show. Then they went to the open day at the Bridgewater Hall, tried out instruments, toured the building and had the chance to conduct part of the Halle Orchestra!
“When we went to Manchester Art Gallery we like got a word and we had to find pictures that summed that up – like the Prison Yard, and Like me and Leo found one, and it was like really foggy, like pirates on a ship.”
After the fun the rest of the summer school was at Hope Valley College music department, where the hard work began – with just a week to create their finished show!
“You had to writing bits with the instruments and people were singing it.”
“Yeah – we did the whole run through and it was actually great!”
Click here to see how it went!
Are you 100% Wolf?
Come down to one of the two shows completing our second year of Tall Tales. This year we have been working with the book ‘100% Wolf’ by Jayne Lyons and in four months we have worked with young people from Gamesley, Glossop and Fairfield, Buxton to create another outstanding show to captivate you – The Audience!
Don’t miss out on your chance to see and hear a show that combines humour, horror, music and visual treats to tell the story of Freddy the young werewolf, struggling to deal with some great expectations.
100% Wolf is the second show from High Peak Community Arts’ project Tall Tales, working in music and theatre with young people from Buxton & Glossop. The story comes from the book of the same name by Jayne Lyons, and takes us to the world of the werewolves who live among us. This first stage production tells the whirlwind tale of Freddy as he comes of age and transforms into a wolf for the first time. All does not go according to plan when it turns out Freddy is not like the rest of his family. Can he overcome his fears and redefine what makes him and his kind 100% Wolf?
The show takes to the stage at the Geoffrey Allen Centre, Gamesley at 5pm on 7th August and at the Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton at 7.30pm on 9th August. The project has been funded by the Foundation for Youth Music and Arts Council England and more than 50 local young people have worked with professional musicians, artists and theatre makers since April to create the music and material for the performance.
In weekly workshops in Gamesley, Glossop and Fairfield, Buxton they have worked with instrumentalist and composer, Andy Smith, theatre maker, Paul Hine, and a host of other musicians with skills in vocals, digital music, song writing and instrumental playing. They have also worked with visual artist, Katy McCall and digital artist, Andrea Pazos to develop visual ideas for the final staging. Now the two groups will meet in an 8 day summer school to put all their ideas together and form the young company who will perform on 7th and 9th August. Audiences can expect a live band, singing, dance and drama, with a distinctive set and live projections to conjure up the world of a werewolf dynasty!
More information about the project and video clips from the workshops are available at www.highpeakarts.org, or find High Peak Community Arts on Facebook and Twitter (@HighPeakComArts).
Performances will be:
5pm, 7th August, Geoffrey Allen Centre, Winster Mews, Gamesley, SK13 0LU; Tickets £3 (£1 concessions), available from Gamesley Community Café, or on the door.
7.30pm, 9th August, Pavilion Arts Centre, St John’s Road, Buxton, SK17 6XN; Tickets £4 (£3 concessions), available from Buxton Opera House box office 01298 72190