Behind The Scenery

Lark Rise to Candleford is the new production at Theatre bythe Lake in Keswick. It’s a portrait of rural England which brings Flora Thompson ’sclassic to the stage, woven together with original live folk music performed by an ensemble cast. And it’s about how the gentle rhythm of the changing seasons brings a yearning for something else, something more. It’s been written and directed by Hammerpuzz...

A brand new set of enormous pieces of public art are aboutto be added to the Cumbrian landscape. Five metres high and distinctive by their style of strips of metal, a huge bull and a mare with a foal have been commissioned by Cumberland Council to mark the completion of the new Carlisle southern link road. Not without some differences of opinion about them, the new work will dominate two roundabou...

Barrow Music Weekender returns this month with four days of live music right across town. Now in its fifth year, the festival sees people of all ages come together for fantastic – and mostly free – music experiences. There’s a musical trail map, a mini conference looking at thehealth of live music and performance in the town, workshops, dancing and live performance in venues right across the music...

If you need to sort your leg up buttock from your insidehipe, then a new exhibition celebrating Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling at Florence Arts Centre in Egremont is the place for you. Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is a traditional formof “backhold” wrestling with origins going back to Viking times. It has strong cultural connections with farming and heavy industry; men would wrestle...

Tullie , in Carlisle, describes itself as a museum, artgallery, community hub and generally a great place – as well as being a home for the eternally curious. It’s 130 years old now. And it’s just undergone a £4.5 million transformation , fully reopening in April. Funding came from the government's Town Fund and Future High Streets Fund, Arts Council England and Cumberland Council. So how’s it...

For a few days every summer Andy Smith is in charge of thethird biggest town in Cumbria. Kendal Calling , which he set up when still a teenager, has grown to the point where its size has eclipsed the actual Kendal. It's a stat that Andy looked back on with pride during aninterview with Tom Speight celebrating the festival's 20th anniversary at a networking event held by LA23NET  at Eden Ar...

When was the last time you shared some love for a saltmarsh ? Salt marshes are the weird intertidal landscape of mud andgrass, occupying huge swathes of coastline around the world, continually exchanging their existence above and below water as tides rise and fall about them. Deluge is a new exhibition of different media curatedby Art Gene in Barrow, celebrating salt marshes through three artists’...

What’s bright blue, lives on the harbourside in Maryport andonce was a pub called the Queens Head ? The answer is Shipping Brow Gallery , now just over a yearold and very much now a local landmark. The building had been home to Maryport Maritime Museum since 1975 but a new lease of life dreamt up by Dolly and Brian Money has seen it turned into an art gallery with both permanent and temporary exhi...

The Catalyst project is an ongoing collaboration between the University of Cumbria , Art Gene , the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership and the Cumbria Arts and Culture Network . Its aim was to find three artists with Cumbrian connections– to fund them to the tune of £25,000 each, to give them an opportunity to make a substantial piece of new art connected to the county over a year. Over 220 peop...

Rosehill is a beautiful arts centre based just outside Whitehaven high up overlooking the Irish Sea. It’s a hub for all kinds of performance and brings both local and national talent on stage. But it’s also increasingly engaging with its local community too. CACN’s Tom Speight went along to talk to the people who are now running Rosehill to see how their plans are coming together for 2025. And we...

Lorna Singleton is one of Britain’s last remaining swillers, a specialist in weaving baskets using coppiced oak and hazel. Using simple hand tools and ancient techniques, she creates baskets based on traditional patterns from South Cumbria as well as patterns found on her travels. She’s based in Grizedale Forest – and as well as running her own one woman basket making business, she’s spent the las...

Eden Project Morecambe is something that’s been talked about for some years now – the development of a brownfield sight in the Lancashire town into something like the massively successful Eden Project in Cornwall. And it’s recently been handed another £2.5m by the government, bringing the total funding to £5m, to allow design teams to get going. But why should it matter to Cumbria ? Specifically,...

Alison Critchlow is a contemporary British painter based in Bowness on Solway – right on the northern edge of Cumbria. She paints mainly in oils. She’s recently been shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2024 , an annual event which promotes the best of contemporary painting produced in the UK. Alison is also one of the organisers of the annual Around the Island open studio art t...

Exhibitions showing off world class art in Cumbria come and go. But none quite like the artwork of Jackie Morris . Jackie rocketed to prominence with the phenomenal success and acclaim associated with The Lost Words , a big, sumptuous book full of her wildlife illustrations accompanied by writer Robert Macfarlane ’s words. But Jackie has been drawing and painting all of her life. And a brand new e...

How can we be smarter about funding our work at a time of real challenge for the cultural sector in Cumbria ? That was the question being discussed at the most recent Cumbria Arts and Culture Network Big Meet in May. Star of the show was Edinburgh based Bernard Ross, Director of =mc consulting , a leading training and consultancy organization working to transform the performance of value-driven or...

Final rehearsals for two brand new Cumbrian one person shows about isolation and the environment – and the involvement of real people in recognising the issues raised - are just about complete. The Butterfly Collector by Peter MacQueen and Nancy’s Orange by Grace Kirkby are both being directed by the other person, so to speak. The two Cumbrian writers and actors have come together to create two pi...

This month, Behind the Scenery talks to two very special Cumbrians who have committed a lifetime to the British arts scene. Sue Gill and John Fox founded Welfare State International in 1968. It was a loose association of freelance artists bought together by shared values and philosophy. A way of life. A way to approach art differently. John and Sue have just published a new book called "Eight...

This month, Behind the Scenery has a very special guest. Darren Henley is the boss of Arts Council England . A pretty influential sort of chap. He’s been visiting Cumbria recently. And Tom Speight got the chance to sit down with him to find out what he thought about the arts landscape in the county today. And to chat about where and how his organisation is looking to influence and support.

This month, Behind the Scenery has a fresh sound and a fresh, ambitious sounding musician for you to enjoy. Season two begins with a look at and listen to the brilliant young Cumbrian singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist, Maebh Brayne . Now in London but still very much with a base near Cockermouth, Maebh is slowly developing a name and a brand. Tom Salmon has been to meet her at her family...

For December, Behind the Scenery puts a big smile on its – and hopefully your - face. Artists Chris and Jennie Dennett from Ulverston, aka Artfly , were commissioned by Barrow’s Signal Film and Media to dream up the future. What might life actually be like in a few decades time ? Relax into 2050 is their answer. A fun, colourful, interactive exhibition in Signal’s great space on Abbey Road. Involv...

For this episode, Behind the Scenery visits Grange Over Sands and Ambleside to examine how a countywide project to get more and different types of volunteers into the Cumbrian arts sector is getting on. Helping Hands - as it’s called - was set up 18 months ago with Arts Council England funding. It’s being run by the Cumbrian Museums Consortium . We’ll visit the Victoria Hall in Grange to find out...

This month, Behind the Scenery looks at green energy for performance, publishing your first collection of poetry at 94, and music inspired by Ullswater. Tom Speight explores how powering performance in Cumbria can be done sustainably with Tom Salmon from Oh My Days . We discover why it’s not too late to publish your first collection of poetry well into your 90s with Michael Baron . And we hear a b...

For this episode, Behind the Scenery visits a pottery with a difference in Workington. It's frankly, a bit of a hidden Cumbrian gem. West House Pottery is a not-for-profit social enterprise. It supports local artists and ceramicists whilst helping young people and adults with learning disabilities gain creative skills and knowledge. The quality of the work is beautiful. Everything they produce...

Behind the Scenery explores a brand new Cumbrian theatrical production about depression and hope, confusion and joy, heartbreak and anger, relationships and solitude, guilt and forgiveness for this edition. ⁠Every Brilliant Thing at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick⁠ is a one man play about mental health and suicide bereavement – and so much more. The production coincides with ⁠World Suicide Preventi...

Behind the Scenery is off to Barrow for this edition – and to India ! Back in April, we headed to Barrow Town Hall to catch up with rapper JD and producer Swerve, from Horizon Studios . They were fresh off the stage after presenting a musical showcase as part of Barrow's Festival of Colours . We met them in the Town Hall's drawing room, where Swerve was taking in his surroundings.....