After a fantastic response to the second round of our CultureDale Connect Fund grants, we are delighted to announce the recipient organisations and their projects. Keep an eye on our events page for any additional opportunities to get involved! For more information on each project, contact the organisational email listed.

Adventure Arts

Adventure Arts will deliver Forest Fables, a year-long intergenerational arts project connecting 25 Year 5 pupils from Ferney Lee Primary School with 12 residents from Waterside Lodge Care Home in Todmorden. The project will be grounded in Calderdale’s heritage and woodland landscapes, using nature as a catalyst for creativity and shared experience. CultureDale will directly support the engagement sessions through funding artist time, materials and planning; enabling meaningful creative and social engagement between generations.

Area: Todmorden

Contact: Instagram @adventure.arts.info

Calderdale Food Network

The Calderdale Food Network, in partnership with Visit Calderdale and other local organisations, is launching the first-ever Calderdale Festival of Food — a vibrant, two-week celebration of local people, local produce, and Calderdale’s rich diverse food heritage and culture. Running from 7–20 September, the Festival will bring the whole borough to life with farm-to-fork experiences, tasting tours, hands-on workshops, special menus, and community activities delivered by partners across Calderdale. This fund will support a strong programme of free community events, removing barriers to participation and enabling people to learn, share, and celebrate together.

Area: Halifax and Todmorden

Contact: https://www.calderdalefoodnetwork.org/

Curious Motion CIC

Shaw Light is an inclusive dance project delivered in partnership between Curious Motion and Friends of Shaw Park, Holywell Green. The project will support underserved communities — including disabled people, older adults and people living with long-term conditions — to access the park and take part in creative movement together. The project will include 10 outdoor inclusive dance and movement sessions supporting existing and new members of Curious Motion's inclusive adult performance group. Sessions will also weave in photography and writing, responding to themes of light, water, and each other.

Area: Holywell Green

Contact: https://curiousmotion.org.uk/

Eve Emsley

Building on the success of Dance of Welcome, this project will create shared outdoor experiences exploring belonging through landscape and storytelling, enabling sanctuary seeking residents, people with learning disabilities, long-term health conditions and Calderdale communities to meet, move, and create together. This project will use the funding to deliver a series of outdoor walks that combine gentle movement, grounding practices and creative connection.

Area: Todmorden

Contact: Instagram @eveemsleymoves

Heptonstall Festival CIC

This year’s Heptonstall Festival will capitalise on 2025’s momentum and use Connect Funding to create an even bigger, better, and more diverse experience. More artists and facilitators will be commissioned, local painters and designers will be supported with exhibition space, a parade will be created and performed by the local school, and more interactive activities like a puppetry workshop led by the all-female Eye of Newt Puppetry Troupe will make this year’s festival a high-quality, entertaining treat.

Area: Heptonstall

Contact: https://www.hepfest.org/

Josie Ludford

After residents have shared their desire for more community wellbeing opportunities, Connect Funding will be used to pilot a community choir in Mixenden – the only one of its kind in the area. The choir will be open to all genders and ages and will be aimed specifically at improving mental and physical health, reducing social isolation and strengthening the local community. Participants will include people who are recovering from or living with cancer and other long term illnesses, recruited from a group called Gentle Exercise at MAC.

Area: Mixenden

Contact: Instagram @josieludford

Leeds GATE

This funding will deliver GRTHM 2026: Roots, Routes & Gathering — a coordinated, borough-wide cultural programme during June 2026,engaging an estimated 400–500 residents across Calderdale. The programme activates outdoor civic spaces, libraries, and schools, positioning Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) culture as a valued and visible part of Calderdale's shared identity. Key activities include: a community picnic at Shibden Park, a Cultural Celebration and sensory garden at Mixenden Activity Centre, drop-in crafts and music sessions, a Cultural Celebration Day led by GRT artists, and an extensive library programme of workshops and storytelling sessions.

Area: Halifax, Mixenden and Hebden Bridge

Contact: https://leedsgate.co.uk/

Light Up Black and African Heritage Calderdale

A 6-month programme of adult art and craft sessions providing a safe and welcoming space for adults to learn creative skills such as painting, textile art, African-inspired crafts, and heritage-themed projects ,to encourage self-expression, confidence building, and peer support, particularly for individuals who may experience loneliness, unemployment, or social exclusion. Alongside this, a partnership with Holy Trinity Primary School will deliver culturally enriching cookery workshops educating students about African and Caribbean dishes. A portion of the funding will supporting activities linked to Black History Month, celebrating Black and African heritage through shared cultural experiences.

Area: Halifax

Contact: https://www.lightupbahc.com/

Mixenden Community Partnership

Three seasonal events make up this Mixenden community project: a Summer Cultural Festival at Mixenden Urban Park with a focus on bringing cultures together through food, arts and crafts, music, dance, and sport; a Halloween disco party during October half term at Mixenden Activity Centre – featuring a sensory SEND room alongside refreshments, activities, and a prize for best costume; and a Christmas party at Ash Green School in December.

Area: Mixenden

Contact: Mixenden Community Partnership | Facebook

Ryan Wood – Wood By Nature

This funding will pilot an idea to run a walking and wood whittling workshop.  The workshop will target those who are vulnerable - socially, economically and mentally - whether someone is lonely, struggling with addiction, is neurodivergent, queer, or in a low-income household. The workshop will involve other woodcarvers, forest teachers and educators in the community, such as the wonderful staff with Nature Queers and Dodnaze Community Centre.

Area: Hebden Bridge

Contact: Instagram @woodbynaturecarving

The Station Building, Mytholmroyd

We will use this funding to co-create a mosaic mural for Mytholmroyd with local residents and a dementia group across three sessions, themed around Mytholmroyd’s local natural environment. We will work with a local dementia group and residents of a local housing complex for this project. We were donated a set of mosaic tiles by the family of a mosaic artist who recently died and loved the area, and we intend to use these for our first community arts project. Participants will also be encouraged to bring old crockery and “mudlarking” finds from local rivers to contribute to the overall mural.

Area: Mytholmroyd

Contact: communityhub.myt@btinternet.com

Halifax Opportunities Trust – The Outback

Outback Seasons: Growing Together – an outdoor community programme delivered at the Outback Community Garden and Kitchen in Halifax. The project will bring together ESOL learners from Halifax Opportunities Trust and local families (parents, carers and children) through shared gardening, creative workshops and seasonal community events. Across the year we will deliver a series of outdoor sessions and events that respond to nature and the changing seasons. Activities will include community planting and growing sessions, nature-inspired creative workshops (such as nature-based arts and crafts and storytelling) and informal language-rich activities that allow ESOL learners to practice English in a relaxed, social environment.

Area: Halifax

Contact: https://www.halifaxopportunitiestrust.org.uk/places/the-outback-community-kitchen-and-garden/

Turquoise Arts CIC

This funding will create a free, publicly accessible soundwalk which explores the ecology and intangible heritage of Calderdale's moorlands. This project builds on the success of the PeatZine project, which was funded by CultureDale Heritage. We'll record interviews with residents about their lives and experiences on the local moors, and weave in ambient field recordings, and material relating to the ecology of the moors and the role that healthy moorlands play in mitigating climate change. We will prioritise interviews with less visible and/or contested "roles" on the moors, e.g. sheep farmers and other land managers.

Area: Calderdale

Contact: https://turquoisearts.org/

Happy Days Ministries UK

There are 40 independent tenants living at Happy Days' Clare Road flats with very low incomes. This funding will create a gardening group at Clare Road to positively impact mental health and motivation through joint outdoor activity, breaking down barriers between neighbours and building a trusting community to alleviate some of the emotional strain that comes with isolation. Vegetables will be harvested from new raised beds and a paved area in the centre of the garden will be used for social events, bringing a sense of satisfaction from skill development, tangible results, and community-building.

Area: Halifax

Contact: https://happydaysuk.org/

Live Wild

This project will deliver 8 themed LGBTQ+ sessions and 1 final open-to-all cultural woodland celebration at Hardcastle Crags showcasing the stories and art of LGBTQ+ people from a diverse range of backgrounds and ages. Ninety-four funded places from priority LGBTQ+ groups will be provided with transport to Hardcastle Crags: ages 18-24 or 66+, refugees and asylum seekers, low-income residents, and referrals from mental health and community support services. Two local artists will co-create stories, poetry, nature art, and performances with these groups to showcase at a 'Wonder in the Woodland' event contributing to Calderdale's cultural programme.

Area: Halifax and Hebden Bridge

Contact: https://www.livewild.org.uk/

Cloverleaf Advocacy 2000 Ltd

Creative Connections Calderdale will be a series of nature-based, creative activities for people with learning disabilities. Four three-part seasonal workshops will be delivered in varying locations: Nature Day – a creative session in an outdoor seasonal setting; Culture Day – a visit to a local cultural venue or event to understand different creative styles and Calderdale’s creative community; and Making Day – an indoor session where participants create artwork inspired by what they’ve seen during the other two days. The artwork will then be used for a public exhibition showing the beauty of Calderdale through the seasons.

Area: Elland, Halifax, Todmorden and Mixenden

Contact: https://cloverleaf-advocacy.co.uk/

verd de gris arts

The Women Walking project centres on multicultural walking groups. Women living across the borough with different backgrounds will visit one another's neighbourhoods in safe, supported walks, exploring urban and rural settings they might not normally experience. Each walk will include conversation and reflection, introducing the buildings, landscapes, cultural centres, and places of significance in each community. The participants’ images and reflections from a professionally supported creative mindful photography session will form the basis of follow-up creative sessions with larger groups of women - foundations for conversation, helping more women see their own and others' worlds with fresh eyes.

Area: Elland, Brighouse, Halifax, North Halifax andTodmorden.

Contact: https://www.verddegris.org/

Cover image from 2026 Calderdale Food Gathering.

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