About

Turquoise Arts (TA) is a Community Interest Company founded in December 2023 by local artists Fran Lynch-Watson, Mark Burgum and Katie Bates, who are all Directors. It is dedicated to promoting wellbeing through creativity and nature awareness. Ancient Underlands was the first project undertaken by TA. Katie Bates was the Creative Producer for the project. 

Executive Summary

The Ancient Underlands project sought to draw attention to Calderdale’s ancient grassland habitat and the fungi species that live in them. 

These fungi – waxcaps, corals and clubs, earthtongues and pinkgills – are indicator species for ancient grassland habitat, over 97% of which has been lost in the UK in the last century. These Calderdale grasslands have great botanical diversity despite initially looking unremarkable, and some of the fungi species they host are globally endangered. The grasslands are nevertheless under threat due to land pressures, including agricultural practices, inappropriate management, afforestation etc. 

The idea for Ancient Underlands was inspired by the National Trust’s Hardcastle Crags Ancient Grassland project, led by Steve Hindle. The proposal to do the original exhibition proved opportunely timed as it coincided with the end of the three year Ancient Grassland project. The Hardcastle Crags team were already planning an informational display at Gibson Mill, and it was felt that the proposed art exhibition could bring this to life further.

The aim of Ancient Underlands was to increase awareness amongst Calderdale residents of these fungi species and the irreplaceable habitat they depend upon. Having a key aim (increasing awareness) and a target audience (local residents) defined many of the decisions which followed, particularly the decision to have an open exhibition and to hold it in multiple venues to maximise the audience. The primary aim was to encourage as many people as possible to learn about the topic, so no one was denied the opportunity to exhibit their work, irrespective of professional artistic experience and ability. Perverse though it may sound, the primary aim was not to have a “good exhibition” – though the exhibitions were nonetheless successful on this score too, borne out by the 144 enthusiastic comments left in the comments book by visitors.

The public facing elements of the project were:

• Project launch and exhibition at Gibson Mill (end Oct 2024 – mid Nov 2024)
• 5 grassland fungi identification walks (held Oct – Nov 2024)
• Exhibition at Luddendenfoot Community Centre (late Nov 2024 – early Dec 2024)
• Creative workshops (Nov – Dec 2024)
• Exhibition at Hebden Bridge Town Hall (Feb 2025 – March 2025)
• Closing event and talk by Steve Hindle (March 2025)

Approximately 50 local artists, makers and writers showed work at the exhibitions. Thousands of people have visited the exhibition across the 3 venues. Just over 40 people attended grassland fungi identification walks, and 50 came to the creative workshops. The closing event and talk was completely sold out, with 120 tickets sold at a low price to maximise accessibility, 20 tickets given to participating artists, and 35 people on the waiting list. 

After a year, the project attracted funding from Culturedale and the Community Foundation for Calderdale. It also received in-kind support, as well as vast amounts of volunteer hours and (voluntarily) unpaid work. Some management work was underestimated and therefore effectively underpaid.  The project would have not been possible without the considerable voluntary work that went into it, especially prior to the project attracting funding. Adamant that the original exhibition should happen irrespective of funding, it was planned in such a way that it wasn’t dependent on funding (though was improved by spending a modest amount on materials and project management once funding was secured). Culturedale provided some additional funding to allow the exhibition and workshops to take place in Luddendenfoot (a condition of funding) and provided some funding for the exhibition to take place at Hebden Bridge Town Hall.

Timeline 

• Summer 2023 – project idea began. Katie (ended up being the Creative Producer) was planning to submit work to the Hebden Bridge Arts Open Space 70 festival on the theme of local fungi, but upon seeing the subject material (photos sent by Steve Hindle), decided that doing a group exhibition would do the topic more justice. 
• September 2023 – Steve Hindle gave a talk at Halifax Scientific Society, Katie used local networks to invite other artists to come to this talk. 
• Use of personal networks, established groups (Brier Hey Pottery, Halifax Square Route Weavers), social media and Hebden Bridge Open Studios whatsapp group to share idea. 
• October 2023 – Katie organised for a group of artists to go on a grassland fungi survey with Steve Hindle
• February 2024 – engagement with Hardcastle Crags team who were keen on doing an exhibition to promote the Ancient Grasslands project. 
• February 2024 – funding bid to British Mycological Society, not successful.
• May 2024 – group of artists attended a meeting at Gibson Mill to hear Steve Hindle talk about the subject and see the exhibition venue. 
• June/July 2024 – applications submitted to CFFC and Culturedale to support exhibition, hold fungi walks and creative workshops at Hardcastle Crags 
• August 2024 – project expanded to include Luddendenfoot Community Centre as an exhibition and workshop venue instead of HC (the funders felt the project was too focused on Hebden Bridge, so made it a condition of funding to hold activities elsewhere)
• September 2024 – Rebekah Fozard appointed as freelance project manager, with a particular focus on the walks and workshops aspect of the programme. 
• October 2024 – Gibson Mill exhibition opened 
• October-November 2024 – fungi identification walks 
• November 2024 – Hebden Bridge Town Hall confirmed as a third exhibition venue after lengthy discussions
• End of November 2024 – exhibition moved to Luddendenfoot Community Centre for two weekends 
• November – December 2024 – 4 creative workshops held at Luddendenfoot Community Centre 
• February 2025 – Exhibition setup at Hebden Bridge Town Hall 
• March 2025 – closing event and talk, exhibition takedown, project end. 

Exhibitions 

The work in the exhibitions featured work from visual artists, makers, writers, poets and a sound artist. The callout for the exhibition was public but not boosted by any paid-for digital marketing, so it relied on personal networks and word of mouth. It was posted on Katie’s instagram, shared on the Calderdale Artists facebook page and Hebden Bridge Open Studios’ instagram and their whatsapp group for Independents. Katie is a member of Brier Hey Pottery and Halifax Square Route Weavers, and secured the participation of some members from each group. This commitment was helpful in early discussions with venues to demonstrate that there was a viable group of artists. A term of teaching at Brier Hey [children’s] Pottery Club focused on fungi, and this work was also shown at the exhibition.

Participating artists were invited to events with Steve Hindle through the year prior to the first exhibition (talks, a survey), and a shared drive of articles and high quality fungi photos was shared with them. It’s hard to know how much artists engaged with the shared drive, but this light-touch engagement throughout the year probably helped the artists to understand more about the topic. Artist-participants were clearly enthused by in-person meetings/ field trips. Much of the work submitted to the exhibitions was very much on topic and well informed, so this provision of activities and information probably contributed to the quality of the exhibitions. 

Work included textile art including lots of tapestries, jewellery, ceramics, sculpture, painting, drawing, printing, collage, graphic design, sound art, photography, writing and poetry. There was a broad range of experience: new and emerging artists who had never or rarely exhibited before, to experienced professional artists. We also showed work from local children (from Brier Hey Pottery Club). 

In total, approximately fifty artists were involved (not including the pottery club). The displays were slightly different across the venues as some work was not redisplayed, whilst new work was submitted in later exhibitions as people learned about it and wanted to get involved. Work could not be sold at Gibson Mill or Luddendenfoot Community Centre, but much of it was for sale at the final Hebden Bridge Town Hall exhibition. There was no participating charge for artists, although they were encouraged to help with invigilation at Gibson Mill and Luddendenfoot Community Centre. 

We estimate that approximately 8600 people visited the three exhibitions.

Volunteering

The considerable amount of volunteered hours for the exhibitions deserve a special mention. 

The first two exhibition venues (Gibson Mill and Luddendenfoot Community Centre) required invigilation as they are not staffed in the rooms where the exhibition took place.

Two invigilators were required for each shift; there were twenty days of exhibition at these venues, and the shifts were 5 hours each. This adds up to 200 volunteer hours. The participating artists were encouraged to contribute a shift, and Hardcastle Crags volunteers also contributed their time. A special thanks goes to all these volunteers without whom the exhibitions would not have been possible. Many had spent time creating new work for the exhibition, and then spent their time volunteering. 

Also, a group of people volunteered their time with arranging and hanging the exhibitions, and taking them down, which adds up to approximately 100 hours. Special thanks goes to them for their time, impressive visual skills and ability to improvise with the limitations and difficulties of each venue. 

Gibson Mill 

The Gibson Mill exhibition was open for 16 days, and it is estimated that on average 100 people visited each day. The cafe recorded higher sales than usual. The exhibition was held on the first floor, with work by Sheila Tilmouth displayed in the cafe. Sheila had previously produced exemplary, high quality work at the start of the NT Ancient Grassland’s project. The exhibition was complemented by information displays, photographs and a 10 minute video about the NT Ancient Grassland project.

There are significant difficulties to displaying work at Gibson Mill as nothing can be attached to the walls. However, this was overcome by seeking a donation from Hanson Plywood, who generously donated several OSB boards. These were suspended between columns to create wall hanging space for 2D work. The OSB board has remained at Gibson Mill to make it easier to hang future exhibitions. In the end, it proved to be a wonderful venue with the atmospheric light and soft walls complementing the artwork extremely well. We worked very closely with the team at Hardcastle Crags, who provided marketing support and budget, wrote press releases, and co-arranged the launch event. 

Luddendenfoot Community Centre

The second exhibition was held at Luddendenfoot Community Centre. Due to the state of the building, it is currently very underused despite there being few community facilities in the surrounding area. A condition of the Culturedale funding was for the exhibition to be held outside of Hebden Bridge. LCC was chosen as it is a beautiful, though dilapidated, building that needs people to come inside to see its potential and (hopefully) get involved. The new Trustee team are working hard to restore the building to public use and were open to the idea of using it for the exhibition and workshops. 

The walls could be used but were not in sufficiently good condition to hang the work to good effect. Therefore, we approached Pennine Heritage to borrow their exhibition boards, which they kindly agreed to. Plinths were borrowed from a local resident who is involved in the arts, and furniture was creatively used from the LCC storeroom for the rest of the 3D work. The main hall at LCC could comfortably host the whole exhibition as well the tables used for the workshops. 

Luddendenfoot is not an obvious place to host an exhibition – there’s no centre to it and few other attractions that people would otherwise be coming to. Despite that, approximately 100 people visited over the 4 days of the exhibition (and there were very few visits on the first day as there were risk-to-life weather warnings). A secondary aim of the exhibition here was to raise awareness of the community centre and to demonstrate its capacity to be a good arts venue through encouraging visits and featuring it on social media. Culturedale retrospectively provided additional funding for having a second exhibition at this space as moving the exhibition incurred additional costs.

Hebden Bridge Town Hall

The final exhibition was held at Hebden Bridge Town Hall. Although there was not any budgeted funding for this (as the agreement to use the venue was made in late 2024), we decided to go ahead with this venue as it gets very high footfall and is fully accessible, unlike the other venues. The exhibition setup was later financially supported by Culturedale, and it featured work produced by people who attended the creative workshops funded by Culturedale. It also provided the opportunity for the artists to sell their work, but unfortunately there were no sales. 

HBTH is generally used only for 2D work as there are limited spaces to display 3D work. This presented a challenge as much of the work in the exhibition was 3D. We agreed with the exhibition team to use the “link bridge” space with a cluster of plinths for the majority of 3D work, and were delighted to see the mushroom chandelier hung and lit in a prominent space. 

The estimated footfall for HBTH exhibitions is 300 people/ day. The exhibition was open for 23 days, so probable attendance is 6900 people. 

Exhibition feedback 

A comments book was left in a prominent place at each exhibition, and some invigilation volunteers encouraged visitors to leave a comment. 109 comments were entered at Gibson Mill,  25 at Luddendenfoot Community Centre and 10 at Hebden Bridge Town Hall. The number of comments at LCC relative to the other venues is striking (approximately 25% of visitors) – perhaps the invigilators encouraged more, or perhaps visitors were pleased to see the exhibition in this beautiful but underused venue. 

The feedback was highly positive, apart from a comment about providing larger size interpretation panels for people with impaired vision, which was addressed by providing large print versions of the interpretation panels in a booklet. All the comments are available in the annexe of this document. The main themes were:

• The quality of the artwork 

“Fabulous exhibitions – demonstrates the vast variety of shapes, colours and size. The artwork is stunning. Thank you.”

“What a great exhibition! The quality of the work is impressive and the theme of fungi has been well represented from an artistic and educative point of view. It’s good that Gibson Mill is used as an exhibition space, providing another reason for visiting Hardcastle Crags.”

“What a beautiful energy in this exhibit. Amazing! Top quality 🙂 *****”

• The variety of the artwork 

“Great theme and lots of different styles and interpretations from the artists. You might have inspired me to find and draw some fungi.”

“Beautiful! Lovely connections made. I enjoyed the mix of word and image/ artefacts.”

• The large numbers of artists involved 

“Amazing to see so many artists and such a variety of work. Proliferating! Like the fungi”

“Really lovely exhibit – so many talented artists! Really appreciate the time, effort and accuracy!”

• That artists were local

“What a wonderful concept – love that local artists have contributed to this interesting exhibition. Beautiful work, great venue and spreading very important information, such a crucial message.”

“Absolutely lovely work – loved the wax head. What a lot of fantastic local skills on display!”

“Very enjoyable. Lovely to see local work – well done!”

• Good use of venue

“Some lovely work to see, and how much work has gone into the pieces?! Lovely space and environment for such an exhibition. Thanks.” (Gibson Mill)

“Looks great here – the space works really well” (LCC)

“Great exhibition – and the community centre is fabulous – such potential! Exciting. Thank you.” (LCC)

“Glad to see the Community Centre being used in such a productive and engaging way. Well done!” (LCC)

• The topic was inspirational 

“Great theme and lots of different styles and interpretations from the artists. You might have inspired me to find and draw some fungi”

“Wonderful exhibition. Went for a walk by the river afterwards looking for fungi!”

“Thank you for putting on an excellent exhibit, which was informative and inspirational”

• The inclusive nature of the exhibition 

“Inspiring, uplifting, that’s the art I want to see, of the community, inclusive. A highlight of my visit.”

• The combination of environmental science and art as a dynamic means of communication 

“A splendid symbiotic relationship – facts about the fungi with the art inspired by them. Well done to all involved.”

“What an amazing collection of varied artworks! We have been informed and inspired to look out for fungus in our environment. Our two boys have been fascinated by the work. Thank you.”

“A really interesting exhibition about hidden gems in our ecosystem”

“Fascinating. So good to be invited to take time to wonder and learn”

“I was enthralled by the subject, and more so by all the exhibits – such a wonderful mix of media, and thought provoking writings. Well done everyone!”

Artist feedback 

“It was a great project, and it introduced me to the waxcaps of which I had little knowledge of before. I learned a lot when researching the subject and how important they are to the environment and I liked to see all the creative responses to the subject.” Sue Cordingley, Artist.

“The project has been excellent. It pushed me to learn so much about fungi and soil structures. It led me to read Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, meet amazing people, and look very carefully at the area I live in. I’m also a teacher, so I’ve brought a lot of the ideas and learning into the classroom. I even took my 12-year-old son along to the talk by Steve Hindle, and now he too is fast becoming a mushroom expert.” Jimmy Dolan, Artist and Head of Art at a local secondary school.

Active participation data and evaluation: fungi identification walks & creative fungi workshops

The offer

Turquoise Arts (TA) offered five 3-hour grassland fungi identification walks in meadows in Stainland over two weekends in October and November 2024. In November and December attendees from these walks were offered places on one of four different 2.5-3-hour follow-on creative fungi workshops held at Luddendenfoot Community Centre. All sessions were free.

Local groups supporting good mental and physical health, supporting diversity and inclusion in society and a centre serving the local communities in Luddendenfoot took up the offer of free places on the walks, with the intention the groups should each have their own group walk coming together as a membership to strengthen relationships, have the benefit of a time in our local natural environment, and to learn about Calderdale’s distinctive, under-appreciated and often vulnerable species of grassland fungi. 

Walks were successfully organised with the following local groups:

• Queer Valley Hikers
• Crew Heart Support 
• Wild Women Walkers 

We also approached and / or had detailed discussions about running walks with and for the following local groups, which for various reasons did not come to fruition:

• Overgate Hospice
• The Lionesses of the Valley (women’s peer support group in Cornholme and Todmorden)
• Calder Valley Search and Rescue
• Healthy Minds Calderdale
• Grassroots CIC
• A local ADHD walking group
• CROWS (Calderdale Rights of Way Service)
• The Space at Field Lane community centre in Rastrick

It proved more difficult than expected to engage with certain groups or succeed in arranging a walk with them so that they could offer their members this unique opportunity. Sometimes this was due to their organisational capacity being at its limit, sometimes because they lacked internal resources to respond to the offer in a timely manner. Consequently spaces on two of the five walks were offered out to members of the community local to Luddendenfoot via the Luddendenfoot Community Centre’s Facebook page and the organisers’ local networks, to ensure this initiative could be enjoyed by as many individuals as possible. 

The take-up

Of the 50 spaces offered across the five walks 42 different people came on a fungi identification walk.   10 joined via Queer Valley Hikers, 8 via Crew Heart Support and 6 via Wild Women Walkers.  18  local people also joined one of the fungi walks as a result of a direct offer to participate. 

Of these, 30 of the 42 fungi walkers signed up to receive emails about the follow on activity of a free creative workshop. 13 of these then booked on one of four fungi themed workshops led by local artist facilitators, which were offered in:

• Needle felted mushrooms 
• Fungi portrait drawing and collaging, inspired by Arcimboldo’s portraits 
• Withy lantern making in the shape of fungi 
• Using nerikomi (ceramics) to create fungi inspired shapes and patterns 

The creative producer gave a short explanation of the project and the importance of preserving ancient grassland habitat for the survival of the fungi species. Participants were offered hot drinks and biscuits when they arrived and through the session. 3 out of 4 sessions were held when the exhibition was still up, so participants had the opportunity to view it (the 4th session had to be rearranged because of weather warnings, and had to happen after the exhibition had been taken down).

56 spaces on the four creative workshops were offered in all, first (exclusively) to the fungi walkers and then spaces were offered to people from the local area, and then the remaining spaces were opened out more generally to Calderdale residents. 55 of the 56 available spaces were booked, with waiting lists running for three of the four workshops. 

Last minute cancellations and no-shows meant that there were 50 attendances across the four workshops, which occurred at Luddendenfoot Community Centre over two weeks spanning the end of November and beginning of December. A mixture of daytime, evening and weekend sessions were scheduled, to ensure we made sessions accessible to those with caring and/or work responsibilities. Three people (who ignored our booking instructions!) booked on and came to two or three different workshops, meaning that 46 different individuals benefited from a free creative workshop session, 13 of whom had been a walk prior to the workshops.

Our project saw 75 individuals engage with a walk and / or a workshop. We asked everyone who came to a walk or workshop to complete a questionnaire afterwards. We had 30 responses. You can see from the spread of responses (30 people selecting from the five listed activities 40 times between them) that some of those who responded came on both a walk and a workshop, or came to more than one workshop

Who came along?

We asked some open, and hopefully unobtrusive, questions in our feedback request about gender identity, ethnicity, neuro-typicity and home location to try to establish whether our project participants reflected the wider Calderdale population demographics, and whether we had met our own equality, diversity on and inclusivity aims for the project. 

Gender wise, women made up the largest participant group, representing 73% of those surveyed, men represented 17% of the self-selecting survey sample and 10% of respondents identified as non-binary. Everyone answered this question. 

When asked about ethnicity of the 30 respondents 26 people (87%) reported that they considered themselves ‘White British’; 1 wrote simply ‘British’; 1 identified purely as ‘White’; 1 as having ‘Mixed white heritage’ and one as ‘Asian Burmese’. Everyone responded to this question, which was asked in open terms allowing people to self-describe. 

When asked about neurodiversity 4 of 30 people declined to answer the question, with 7 people of the remaining 26 identifying as neurodiverse and 19 people considering themselves to be neurotypical. 

The project did not formally ask the 8 freelancers working on Ancient Underlands, who delivered fungi identification training, ran the walks and workshops, and produced the project and managed it, for their EDI data. However, in relation to this question, 2 of the 8 freelancers have offered information that they are neurodivergent, with 1 of those benefiting from a family member acting in the role of access support worker to help them liaise, organise and successfully deliver their creative facilitation work under the project. 

Where did our project participants come from?

Everyone responded to this question in which we asked for the postcode of their current home address (minus the last two letters). 

From analysing the responses this we know 3 people (10%) came from outside of Calderdale (Queensbury and Huddersfield) and 90% were Calderdale residents. 

Of the 27 Calderdale residents 14 people came from the Luddendenfoot area and CMBC ward, which is where the creative workshops (and one of the two free, public, multidisciplinary fungi exhibitions TA ran) were physically located, and where some walk and workshop participants were drawn from. 

The other 13 people from within Calderdale came from Brighouse / Rastrick, Central Halifax, Mount Tabor, Copley, Mill Bank / Norland, Old Town and Todmorden (2), Hebden Bridge (2) and Mytholmroyd / Cragg Vale (3).

What did our participants think of our project?

We asked our participants if they felt

1. more knowledgeable about grassland fungi as a result of the activity 
2. more connected to nature and the area they live in as a result of the activity 
3. that they enjoyed the activity 
4. more connected to people as a result of the activity 

Overall the responses across all questions were very positive. 

• 80% felt more knowledgeable about grassland fungi 
• 87% felt more connected to nature 
• 100% enjoyed the activity
• 100% felt more connected to people

However, there were divergences of experience depending upon whether participants took part in the fungi identification walk.

100% of participants who had gone on a fungi identification walk felt more knowledgeable about grassland fungi, whereas 69% of participants who had only attended a workshop felt this way (and only 32% strongly agreed with the statement, compared to 91% of those who had gone on a walk).

The same figures appeared for feeling “more connected to nature and the area I live in”: 100% of participants who had gone on a fungi identification walk felt more connected, whereas 69% of participants who had only attended a workshop felt this way (and only 42% strongly agreed with the statement, compared to 91% of those who had gone on a walk).

Although it is an obvious point, it is worth noting that the aims of the project were better fulfilled by including a “field trip” in the activity, and this is worth considering for future similar projects.

We also asked workshop attendees what they found most enjoyable, and what they would improve.

What participants found most enjoyable (thematically clustered):

• Doing something creative 
• Something creative on a winter evening 
• Learning a new skill, increased confidence in crafts
• Interacting with others, the event was sociable, felt connected; chance to meet other people from the local area
• Calm, warm, supportive environment 
• Having something to take home 
• To have time to be ‘carefree’ 
• The fungi theme 

What participants felt could be improved:

• Many said nothing (or didn’t answer this question), they just wanted more events like this 
• Time was a bit tight, so having an earlier arrival time 
• More information and context about fungi 
• More individual equipment (e.g. there was 1 rolling pin between 2 people in the nerikomi workshop)

We also asked people if they had any other reflections on the activities. Participant(s) said:

• The hosts were personable and knowledgeable; the artist-facilitator was patient and supportive 
• It was well organised 
• They would like to see a more diverse mix of people, not just Upper Calder Valley residents 
• It improved their mood and/or relieved stress
• They appreciated there being no financial barriers to attend 

Although the vast majority of attendees were adults, two teenagers attended sessions. One parent commented that they had brought their teenage child and both enjoyed it, and as a result are now looking at classes they can do together. Many people also took the opportunity to say thank you. 

Closing event and talk 

On March 6th we held a closing event for the project at Hebden Bridge Town Hall. It was two days before the exhibition closed, so there was an opportunity for attendees to view the exhibition, meet some of the artists and hear directly from Steve Hindle, the National Trust Ancient Grassland Project Officer. Tickets were priced at £3 to cover hire costs, marketing and an organising fee. Steve did not ask for a speakers’ fee as it was covered by National Trust time, which meant the tickets could stay low priced and widely financially accessible. 

It was advertised on posters around Hebden Bridge, on social media and a local website (HebWeb). The tickets were sold out a few weeks before the event, with 120 bookings and approximately 20 additional free tickets allocated to participating artists. There were 34 people on the waiting list before the event and requests on social media for spare tickets. 

It was heartening to see the enthusiasm for the event. The aim of the project was to increase local knowledge of the topic, so the demand for tickets could be a reflection of its success in this aim. Moreover, close to 150 people spent 90 minutes listening to, and asking questions of, a leading expert in grassland fungi, which in itself has increased awareness. 

Financial information 

Income 

The project started with zero budget. 

In June 2024, Katie applied for the Community Foundation for Calderdale (CFFC) general grants under £1500 round and the Culturedale Activation Fund 2. Both applications were successful.

• CFFC gave £1445.70, which covered most of the costs of the fungi identification walks (training and facilitator time)
• Culturedale gave £2500 to cover workshops, some exhibition overheads, and project management 
• Culturedale then gave a further £1970 to cover costs relating to the second and third exhibitions and some additional access costs 

£360 was raised from ticket sales for the closing event/ talk. 

Therefore, the total budget was £6275.70

However, as mentioned above, there was considerable in-kind support:

• Hanson Plywood donated 6 OSB boards which were hung between beams in Gibson Mill to create space to attach work 
• Display equipment loaned by Brier Hey Pottery, Pennine Heritage and a local artist
• Workshop equipment loaned by Hebden Bridge Arts 
• Hardcastle Crags did not charge a fee for the exhibition venue, and provided marketing support, posters and interpretation labels, and covered the speaker’s time at the closing event 
• 200 volunteer hours to invigilate the exhibitions and approx 100 volunteer hours for hanging and taking down the three exhibitions. Katie did not take a fee for the creative production work for the original exhibition at Gibson Mill (she had already worked on the project for more than a year by then); Rebekah volunteered extra hours on project management

Expenditure breakdown 

	Cost (£)	Percentage of overall income
Paying people (project manager, creative producer, transporter, specialist consultant)	2900	47%
Paying people (walk and workshop facilitators)	1550	25%
Training	295.7	5%
Personal Access costs	191.6	3%
Workshop materials	364.99	6%
Exhibition materials	96.27	2%
Assets (paint, hot water bottles etc)	91.09	1%
Venue hire	555	9%
Marketing	55.52	1%
Overheads (PLI, ELI)	112	2%
TOTAL	6212.17

However, as noted above, the project manager and creative producer were underpaid. £2275 was spent on their wages; the truer figure for their work should be closer to £12,000. 

It’s also noted that there were around 300 volunteer hours for exhibition invigilation and hanging, which represents £3780 (if paid at the Real Living Wage of £12.60/hour). Therefore, an additional £13,500 would have covered all these people hours. Therefore, the truer cost of this project was approximately £19,700, rather than £6200. That is still conservative – it does not cover any additional costs like framing etc, artists paid for this themselves. 

On reflection, an Arts Council project grant may have been suitable for a project like this but the organic nature of the project, in addition to the group having no prior experience working in such a way, discouraged an application of this type. Therefore, it was felt that the project had to fit within the local funding available.

Conclusions 

The primary aim of this project was to increase local awareness and knowledge of grassland fungi. This meant that anybody who was interested in the topic and wanted to contribute work on it was welcomed. That said, personal networks were the main source of artists who got involved – there was not a widely advertised open call for the exhibition (i.e. in the way that Hebden Bridge Arts has previously done). So there were some people who had never exhibited before, but most had some experience. The eclectic mix of mediums and background risked the exhibition looking like “a jumble sale” but it ended up being a varied, interesting and much-appreciated community exhibition. It was conceptually appealing and accessible, and the addition of information banners at Gibson Mill contextualised the artwork very effectively. It introduced people to knowledge about grassland fungi via their interest in the art, likewise people’s interest in the topic compelled them to visit the exhibitions. 

A huge amount was delivered for the £6200 cost. This relied on many voluntary hours. This is an issue in the context of the median income for artists already being so low with wages falling, yet volunteering does offer its own benefits and many artists commented how pleased they were to be involved in a group project on this subject. Nonetheless it isn’t an ideal situation to have artists effectively subsidising the visitor economy with their time. In future we will try to bid for this cost in funding applications, where possible.

There were two other areas that we would try to improve if a similar project was undertaken. The first is that some of the venues were not fully accessible. Gibson Mill is at the end of a long walk. There is parking for blue badge users, but it’s difficult to reach for people who struggle to walk long distances. There is a manual lift to the first floor so it should be accessible to people using wheelchairs or other accessibility equipment. Luddendenfoot Community Centre does not have step free access (but was much easier to reach via road or public transport). The second area for improvement would be prolonged engagement with community groups for participative activities: it was harder than expected to recruit groups to the fungi identification walks and took additional hours of organisation. 

In addition to raising awareness of Calderdale’s special status as a place for these endangered fungi species, there were other positive impacts from this project: 

• Providing opportunities and experience for new and emerging artists to be involved in a hands-on exhibition 
• Creating a network of artists, some of whom will continue into the Peat Appreciation Society 
• The health and wellbeing benefits for participants of attending the walk and / or creative workshops. 
• Upskilling: the two walk leaders who have a much better understanding of grassland fungi and could repeat these walks in future. The project created the opportunity to develop experience in project and creative production roles. 
• Positive impact on the exhibition venues: Gibson Mill was left with display equipment for future exhibitions; Luddendenfoot Community Centre was publicised as a new exhibition venue with great potential and many local people visited for the first time as a result of workshops and the exhibition; we were able to display a lot of 3D work in HBTH, hopefully paving the way for more exhibitions like this in future.

Overall, this was a great pilot project for how art and creativity can be used in a very inclusive way to draw attention to a local environmental topic, and (hopefully) create a sense of pride and care for local habitats. The exhibitions were an excellent way of drawing in large numbers of people, while the talk, walks and (to a lesser extent) the creative workshops were an effective way to create a deeper impact on understanding of the topic. 

Finally, the only thing left to say is thank you, to the funders, to the team at Hardcastle Crags for believing in our exhibition proposal and supporting it, to the artists, the people who volunteered their time, and the magnificent efforts of both Rebekah Fozard and Katie Bates in creating, producing and managing this project, which has inspired and informed many local residents. 

Annex 

Press

https://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/whats-on/things-to-do/half-term-activities-in-west-yorkshire-new-festival-celebrating-calderdale-as-fungi-equivalent-of-the-amazon-rainforest-4829107

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/why-i-swapped-making-hula-hoops-to-try-to-save-yorkshires-rare-funghi-4876397

https://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/news/2024/125.html

Press release sent out when HBTH exhibition began (unfortunately, not published)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fifty artists celebrate rare fungi species in Ancient Underlands exhibition

Calderdale is home to some of the world’s rarest fungi, the “fungi equivalent of the Amazon rainforest”

• The National Trust site Hardcastle Crags have just concluded a 3 year project to identify grassland fungi species in Calderdale
• 119 CHEGD species were identified, with approximately a third of these species listed as vulnerable, and two as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list
• Three species are new to science, and even a new genera has been identified, which has been named “Calderus” after the Calder Valley
• A group of 50 Calderdale-based artists and writers created work to draw attention to the habitat and fungi species, this is currently on show at Hebden Bridge Town Hall until 8th March 
• The Ancient Underlands project was supported by “Culturedale”, the year of culture for Calderdale

A group of fifty Calderdale artists, makers and writers are staging an exhibition in Hebden Bridge to draw attention to the area’s fungi, many of which are globally rare and endangered. 

Over 97% of ancient grassland has been lost in the UK in the last century, mainly due to changing agricultural practices. This habitat is classed as irreplaceable because once disturbed it can take 1000 years for ecological balance to be restored, so once lost, it is effectively gone forever. Certain fungi are indicator species of this ancient grassland, e.g. waxcaps, clubs and corals, earthtongues and pinkgills. These are referred to as CHEGD species.

Hardcastle Crags, a National Trust site above Hebden Bridge, have just concluded three years of surveying for these fungi indicator species. 385 hectares were surveyed, with 119 CHEGD species identified. 

A third of these species are listed as vulnerable, and two as endangered, on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list. Some of these species rank alongside the snow leopard in terms of how endangered they are. 

Calderdale mycologist Steve Hindle, who headed up the Ancient Grasslands National Trust project, discovered three species which are new to science, and even discovered an entirely new genera. This has been named Calderus, after Calderdale. Calderdale is now recognised as a hotspot for these grassland fungi species. 

“If there was a snow leopard in a field outside Hebden Bridge, you would have people clamouring to see them,” says Steve. “But grassland fungi are still poorly understood, compared to other species, and there is very little statutory protection for them.”

“Calderdale is our fungi equivalent of the Amazon rainforest. We want to shine a light on how amazing these fungi are – if they go extinct we might never know what we’ve lost.”

The ancient grasslands in Calderdale are perfect for rare fungi, with its steep valley sides and frequent Pennine rainfall. Many have been farmed with traditional methods for years, using few modern fertilisers and with a focus on grazing and hay making, which has helped preserve this irreplaceable habitat.

Ancient grasslands are also important stores of carbon owing to the complex nutrient trading process that takes place between fungi and plants. Fungi are able to move nutrients through soil, improving the habitat’s resilience, while also locking carbon underground.

The fungi species themselves are charismatic, with their vibrant colours, unusual forms, smells and evocative names – deceptive earthtongue, brightsky pinkgill, ballerina waxcap to name a few.

They have provided perfect material for a community-led arts project, “Ancient Underlands”, which has been going on in Calderdale for the past year. The aim of the project is to raise local awareness of this little known aspect of the landscape. 

Katie Bates, creative producer for the Ancient Underlands project: “I met Steve soon after I moved to the area, collecting cow manure to use in my garden. He told me about his work and I was intrigued. Then I saw photos of the fungi and was captivated. They’re very beautiful, and some are pretty weird. I love that you find them in what can initially seem like boring fields – fields you might otherwise stride through – it invites you to stop and look closer. But as I talked to people about it, I got the sense that the subject wasn’t very well known in the area, which is such a shame. How can people protect these habitats and the species that depend on them if they don’t know what’s there? So that’s where the idea for a project came from – using art to raise awareness. People were just really up for getting involved in creating art to celebrate our local environment. It was like pushing at an open door.”

The project – initially planned as a small group exhibition – snowballed into three group exhibitions, with over 50 local artists, makers and writers getting involved. It also included grassland fungi identification walks aimed at local wellbeing groups, followed up by a series of creative workshops. The exhibition features work from established artists and writers such as Jack Wallington, as well as people who have never put work into an exhibition.

These activities were supported by small local grants, from the Community Foundation for Calderdale and Culturedale, which is the name for Calderdale’s 2024-5 Year of Culture. This celebrates 50 years of the formation of Calderdale, and is nestled between Leeds’ 2023 Year of Culture, Music in Kirklees (2023), Our Year in Wakefield (2024), all of which have led up to Bradford’s 2025 City of Culture. 

“The cultural grants available to local community groups were small, but that combined with a lot of people generously pitching in with their time enabled us to widen the impact beyond a small exhibition to something that thousands of people have visited. These pots of funding – however small – are vital in allowing local people to shape cultural activities to what’s relevant to them,” says Katie. 

The final exhibition is at Hebden Bridge Town Hall from now until 8th March, and there will be a talk from Steve Hindle on 6th March about Calderdale’s grassland fungi.

ENDS

For further information, please contact: Katie Bates katiebates@gmail.com 07936704609

Images here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1b7znqchR2ig1tawaguRc_iLHNSkUJNJ6?usp=drive_link

Photos 

Gibson Mill 

Luddendenfoot Community Centre 

Hebden Bridge Town Hall 

Comments left by visitors to the exhibitions

Gibson Mill
1	Wow! How marvellous
2	Wonderful selection of Art – exhibition looks great!
3	Perfect for Calderdale! Well done to all involved
4	An amazing range of work
5	A very impressive exhibition. Loved the variety of exhibits. Beautifully displayed.
6	Amazing to see so many artists and such a variety of work. Proliferating! Like the fungi
7	Wonderful variety of styles, mushrooms, wow! – who knew!
8	Beautiful exhibition but please make the print larger so people with poorer eyesight can read it.
9	An amazing exhibition! (13 Y.O.)
10	I really enjoyed the exhibition (7 Y.O.)
11	What a wonderful concept – love that local artists have contributed to this interesting exhibition. Beautiful work, great venue and spreading very important information, such a crucial message.
12	Wonderfully diversely curated exhibition. Particularly drawn to what is happening below the ground!
13	Loved the “saprophytic communion”. Very lovely exhibition
14	Great theme and lots of different styles and interpretations from the artists. You might have inspired me to find and draw some fungi.
15	A beautiful building for a beautiful exhibition! Amazing to learn more about the fungi varieties – I had no idea! A hidden gem of this county!
16	What a lovely visit, really loved the artwork.
17	Fabulous exhibitions – demonstrates the vast variety of shapes, colours and size. The artwork is stunning. Thank you.
18	Learned so much in 10 minutes!
19	Brilliant exhibition – so much variety and imagination. Thank you.
20	Wonderful exhibition. Went for a walk by the river afterwards looking for fungi!
21	I like Dani’s art it has lots of (?), I like Rachel’s as well (6 y.o.)
22	Heartwarming to see such beautiful work by so many artists celebrating grassland fungi.
23	Very inspirational – a great reflection on fungus. Thank you xx
24	Inspiring, uplifting, that’s the art I want to see, of the community, inclusive. A highlight of my visit.
25	I like this place very much because I like the colouring (7 y.o.)
26	Beautiful inspirational work
27	“Dead man’s fingers” made me smile
28	Some beautiful work – loved the “inkcap lifecycle”
29	Some lovely work to see, and how much work has gone into the pieces?! Lovely space and environment for such an exhibition. Thanks.
30	Excellent exhibition in a fabulous setting
31	I love the art especially the pottery club [children, referring to Brier Hey Pottery Club]
32	Inspiring!
33	A wonderful exhibition about fascinating life-forms, and so much artistic variety. This has made me so happy.
34	A brilliant exhibition, I feel enveloped in the mycelium now 🙂
35	Fantastic and inspiring – thank you 🙂
36	What an amazing collection of varied artworks! We have been informed and inspired to look out for fungus in our environment. Our two boys have been fascinated by the work. Thank you.
37	This exhibition was awesome! (I loved the drawing of the ballerina mushroom) (child)
38	I loved all of the exhibition (I really liked the necklace and mushroom light shades and the little mushroom picture with the dried mushroom frames) (child)
39	Pottery club = wow! Diverse, inspiring – can’t wait (but will have to!) to see what you do next!
40	Fascinating – such diverse talents!
41	Really beautiful work – lovely to see – thank you!
42	A very beautiful collection. Thank you.
43	A splendid symbiotic relationship – facts about the fungi with the art inspired by them. Well done to all involved.
44	Interesting and important information. Beauty of human make…+ not. Thanks 🙂
45	What wonderfully creative work from such an inspirational subject
46	Nice exhibition (child)
47	I like it (child)
48	Nice necklace it’s adorbs!
49	What a great exhibition! The quality of the work is impressive and the theme of fungi has been well represented from an artistic and educative point of view. It’s good that Gibson Mill is used as an exhibition space, providing another reason for visiting Hardcastle Crags.
50	We stumbled across this on a walk, lovely art and so pretty!
51	Great to be involved and contribute to this wonderful fungi exhibition.
52	The more I looked at the exhibition the more fascinated I became. Thank you
53	It was good.. I also thought it was fairly interesting (child)
54	I think that it is cool (child)
55	Beautiful! Lovely connections made. I enjoyed the mix of word and image/ artefacts.
56	Congratulations! Wonderful and inspired.
57	Thank you 🙂
58	Stunning work
59	Talented artists
60	Absolutely lovely work – loved the wax head. What a lot of fantastic local skills on display!
61	We’re very proud of you Katie – well done!
62	Fabulous exhibition – wonderful variety of interpretations. Inspiring – well done!
63	What a great show – i love the mix art and science, really brings it to life. Hands off our nature big business!!
64	A beautiful place and area. Lovely walking place and superb woodland. Autumn at its best.
65	Thank you to the staff and everyone involved for letting us have a look – even though we were late! It has been a pleasure volunteering for the project and lovely to see so many people get interested in fungi in our grasslands.
66	Well done Katie, a beautiful exhibition of pieces and music. A great way to learn about fungi. Thanks.
67	I loved this exhibition, and the music accompanying it – thank you. My walk back down the Crags will be different now.
68	An excellent exhibition – thought-provoking, eclectic, well presented. All exhibits are so beautifully executed.
69	Loved the exhibition – pieces so varied from delicate to bold. Pity it was a dull day and not good lighting inside.
70	Fascinating exhibition – thought provoking and enjoyable
71	What a fabulous diverse collection of art. So lovely.
72	Fantastic exhibition, lots of brilliant art and info to see.
73	Great selection of art. Particularly liked “Saprophytic Communion”
74	Absolutely lovely! All the different mediums and textures!
75	Lovely artwork! Thank you for this exhibition. As good as I’d hoped for!
76	Love this exhibition! Such a fantastic array of artwork and creativity through so many different mediums!
77	So great to see the mill full of life again. Such a beautiful exhibition that fits so well with this place.
78	We really enjoyed this exhibition, thank you. Loved the range of different media, so beautifully and thoughtfully presented.
79	Lovely exhibition, enjoyed the variety and love fungi
80	Amazing work! Thank you National Trust and all the volunteers and artists for your work to identify and celebrate Calderdale’s amazing biodiversity.
81	Thank you, loved it
82	Absolutely loved this exhibition, very important and beautiful!
83	Mushrooms are epic 🙂
84	Inspiring, informative, beautiful exhibition. Wish I had come another time – came with a group of young people. All enjoyed this, thank you.
85	Wonderful, fantastic exhibition & so inspiring.
86	Thanks. What a great exhibition 🙂
87	What a wonderful collaboration between science and arts. Thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking. Well done!
88	Fabulous exhibition.
89	Wow! So many treasures. Very textured! Thanks for inspiration to all.
90	Absolutely amazing, did me good seeing this. Thank you
91	So amazing and informative. It has inspired me to try to create my own work.
92	Fantastic display x
93	Brilliant exhibition, informative, great mix of info and art. Thank you! x
94	Mushlove
95	Wow! Who knew
96	Such an inspirational exhibition. Informative, thought provoking and beautifully visual!
97	An exhibition to flower the imagination. Well presented and many thoughts to take away.
98	A wonderful exhibition and lovely arts-craft work.
99	Really lovely exhibition everyone. Thank you x
100	Fantastic!! Thoroughly enjoyed – beautiful works!! Thank you!!
101	In the quiet, I think I heard whispers of the earthtongues 🙂
102	It is a lovely natural exhibit for all to enjoy 🙂 🙂
103	Great exhibition, very interesting and cool and fascinates me how people can make things that look so good
104	really beautiful informative and thought provoking
105	Well put together. Very informative and interesting.
106	Thank you for putting on an excellent exhibit, which was informative and inspirational
107	Wonderful interesting ex. for adults and kids alike
108	Such a stunning exhibit. What a beautiful find while we walk. Keep up the great work! Thank you
109	Lovely jubbly, cheers! x
110	An excellent exhibition – interesting theme!
Luddendenfoot Community Centre
111	A really interesting exhibition about hidden gems in our ecosystem
112	Wonderful inspiring objects. Thank you.
113	Absolutely wonderful, great array of different work! Thank you
114	Lovely and thoughtful displays
115	Looks great here – the space works really well
116	Lovely exhibition. Well done to all.
117	Fabulous, I loved all the work.
118	What a beautiful energy in this exhibit. Amazing! Top quality 🙂 *****
119	Brilliant and thought provoking
120	Fascinating. So good to be invited to take time to wonder and learn
121	Really lovely exhibit – so many talented artists! Really appreciate the time, effort and accuracy!
122	I was enthralled by the subject, and more so by all the exhibits – such a wonderful mix of media, and thought provoking writings. Well done everyone!
123	Wonderful experience. More fungi!
124	Lovely exhibition – thank you
125	Great exhibition – and the community centre is fabolous – such potential! Exciting. Thank you.
126	Beautiful & inspiring. Thanks so much.
127	Amazing – so many creative responses to the humble mushroom!
128	Beautiful and revealing. Top marks.
129	Glad to see the Community Centre being used in such a productive and engaging way. Well done!
130	How wonderful, really interesting.
131	Incredible exhibition! Beautiful to see so many people fascinated and looking out for fungi.
132	Stunning exhibition. Such varied styles – what talented artists!
133	Inspiring art and wonderful interpretation of interconnections. Poetry and music too… stories to be told! Lovely exhibition.
134	Very enjoyable. Lovely to see local work – well done!
Hebden Bridge Town Hall
135	Particularly like the artwork as you go down the stairs to the cafe due to their cheerful use of colour. That combination of craftwork, watercolours, prints etc makes for an attractive display, well done.
136	Exhibits full of colour and interest. Some lovely tapestry, paintings. Particularly the ceramics, very life like and intricate. A good introduction to what’s underfoot.
137	Wonderful!
138	Some good stuff here! Wonder if the textiles are a group? If so can I join in?
139	Wonderful artwork. Very fine prints of fungi in the entrance hall with the poems in between
140	Excellent! Varied media – embroidery – photography – poetry. A very creative approach to highlight hidden treasures.
141	Really enjoyed the exhibition and all the uses of felting (wet / dry). My favourite part was the 3 short stories by Jack Wallington.
142	Some very evocative images and words. Had to “forage” to find it all spread across the town hall.
143	Great! More fungi exhibitions please!!
144	Really enjoyed the fungi exhibition, all the different interpretations and varieties of ideas and materials used. Loved the table lamp.