Turquoise Arts

Projects

Autumn 2026: PeatZine // Soundwalk

We are producing a geolocated soundwalk that brings many elements of PeatZine to your ears, as you go for a walk through our moorland landscape.*

PeatZine combined ecology, natural history, heritage and oral history to tell the story of a patch of Calderdale’s moorland. Our artist-led team ran community workshops in visual arts, creative writing, sound design and mapmaking to explore what reactions the moors provoke. The material from these workshops was published as PeatZine.

During the PeatZine project, we spoke to residents whose lives are entangled with the moorlands, perhaps through familial ties, studying, living in or working on the landscape. These accounts were compelling, fascinating and important. We now want to bring these accounts, along with other non-human voices, to you in the form of a sound walk on the moors. 

The moors are a contested space, used for sheep farming, grouse hunting, leisure, energy generation and more recently for rewetting projects. Each use brings complexities which interact with the legacies of how people used and impacted the moors in the past. We hope that sharing people’s stories and ideas, using their own words and voices, is a way to build common understanding in this contested landscape.

The project aims to broaden understanding of the cultural, environmental and ecological importance of blanket bogs and moorlands, and how different communities interact with these spaces.

It will be an audio feast and a great excuse to get outdoors for a walk through Calderdale’s beautiful landscape.

The project includes a field recording workshop for women, held in Luddendenfoot. Women are underrepresented in the audio tech space; this provides a learning opportunity for more women to tell their stories. Thanks to Yorkshire Sound Women’s Network (YSWN) for supporting our field recording workshop.

The team for this project are:

*It will be possible to listen to the material without going on the walk.

With grateful thanks to the Culturedale Connect Fund for funding this project.

Autumn 2025: PeatZine // Moorland stories along The Calderdale Way

This project focuses on the history and significance of Calderdale’s moors and peatlands, using a route along The Calderdale Way to tell some very local stories and consider how we’ve shaped the moors.

Artists, writers and naturalists from the Peat Appreciation Society collaborated with local heritage groups, students and youth groups to co-create material which culminated in a pop-up exhibition and zine, taking readers and walkers through a journey using sound, art and creative writing. 

During Autumn 2025, we ran a series of workshops:

  • story gathering sessions with local heritage groups and people interested in local history, with landscape writer Paul Knights, sound artist Jo Kennedy and one of Culturedale’s heritage trainees, Rowanne Smith.
  • creative writing workshops inspired by guided walks in the local area with poet Sally Baker
  • a naturalist-art activity programme with a local youth group with Melissa Davie from Hey Nature!
  • sphagnum moss study days at Ogden Water for local students with Sheila Tilmouth, artist-in-residence for Calderdale’s Sphagnum Propagation Unit
  • map making workshops with cartographer Christopher Goddard
  • a zine making workshop with illustrator Louise Crosby from LDComics

During 29th & 30th November 2025, there was a weekend of activities at The Local Motive, the newly re-opened old Station Building in Mytholmroyd.

  • pop-up exhibition featuring work created in our public workshops
  • zine making workshop with Louise Crosby
  • map making workshop and walk with Christopher Goddard

PeatZine is created from the work created in these workshops and events.

You can see where PeatZine is stocked here.

The zine is also available digitally.

We worked in partnership with the Culturedale Heritage team, the Calderdale Way team, and the Calderdale Sphagnum Project.

This project was funded by Culturedale Heritage through the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

You can read our evaluation of the project here.

Autumn 2024: Ancient Underlands // Calderdale’s Grassland Fungi

With funding from Community Foundation for Calderdale and Culturedale, we ran an arts programme highlighting the rare and amazing grassland fungi species in the Calder Valley.

We gathered 50 artists, makers and writers to contribute work to three exhibitions at Gibson Mill in Hardcastle Crags, a National Trust site above Hebden Bridge, Luddendenfoot Community Centre and Hebden Bridge Town Hall. These free exhibitions ran from October 2024 to March 2025.

In addition to the exhibitions, we ran 5 grassland fungi identification walks for local wellbeing groups, 4 creative workshops and a talk by local mycologist Steve Hindle.

You can read the project overview and evaluation here.

#ancientunderlands