The Cultural Pioneer panel for the Pennine Township has been lovingly named the Northern Lands Collective. We recognise the vibrant yet understated culture and creativity within the areas that make up this township which is evidently inspired by the vast and impressive landscape of which we are imbedded.

The members of this panel have immediately created a great working bond together and we meet about once every 1 or 2 months to discuss our Pennine based projects and what we would like to see in the area. We usually meet at Ebor Studio in Littleborough which is home to around 17 artists and has wonderful gallery space fit for our activities.

The members are from the areas: Milnrow, Smallbridge, Littleborough, Wardle, and Hollingworth Lake Side. As a group we care about inclusion, accessibility, and bringing creativity directly into the spaces of the local communities. Each member brings their own personal experiences and knowledge of creativity and community to the group, and this in itself has been a joy to bring together to every meeting. We have a WhatsApp group where we also share other activities and opportunities that we are involved in and ideas that we’ve had in-between meetings.

“Obviously we're on the borders of places like Hebden Bridge. We've got Greater Manchester, which is a really creative place, especially for the arts, music industry and everything like that. I did expect there to be fellow creatives out there. I just haven't come across them before.” Pennines panel member