Mid Pennine Arts launches Project Pride

NEWS RELEASE: 01/02/2011


Mid Pennine Arts launches Project Pride!


North West Arts Charity playing pivotal role in renewal of Pennine Lancs heritage sites!

MID Pennine Arts has announced the launch of a ground-breaking major new scheme that will focus on the heritage of Burnley, Accrington and Nelson.

The focus of “Project Pride” will be to look at how trade and industry has shaped the towns over the last 200 years. The project will research and interpret the industrial heritage of three key places within the towns – each of which is facing major change in coming months and years, and each of which has played a pivotal role in shaping the identity of the towns.

Project Pride locations include Burnley’s Weavers’ Triangle, which is set to be the focal point of a major regeneration programme; the recently refurbished Victorian Market Hall in Accrington; and the junction of Leeds Road and Manchester Road in Nelson, which is currently in the process of being re-developed. The Nelson site includes the ‘Lord Nelson’ public house, from which the town took its name.


Mid Pennine Arts has been working with local Councils to help reignite local pride of place relating to town centres, particularly amongst younger people. Through Project Pride the arts charity will be working with groups of people aged 13-15 from local schools to develop ideas for the project to uncover and celebrate their heritage. The project will work alongside libraries, museums, North West Sound Archive and Lancashire Record Office.

Organisers hope that the project will enable young people to learn about their heritage and understand how trade and industry enabled the towns to grow into the places we know today. The project came about after Mid Pennine Arts successfully applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Young Roots’ programme to fund the project that will continue until summer 2011.

Lucy Green, Mid Pennine Arts’ project coordinator for Project Pride, said: ”We did some initial work last summer – a consultation with young people from the area, from which grew the idea for the project. That has seen us win £25,000 worth of funding, which is a real coup for the area in this tough economic climate. We are now looking for the right artists to work with, who can help to bring the young people’s ideas to life!”


“We want the project to bring about the re-telling of stories that have defined our identities and shaped our communities. Our ultimate objective is to inspire everyone involved in the project to think differently and in a more positive way about the place in which they live. We want Project Pride to inspire people and to demonstrate some of the many good reasons to be proud of where we live!”

More details about the project and the opportunities for artists to get involved are on the Mid Pennine Arts website: www.midpenninearts.org.uk/opportunities

Mid Pennine Arts Relocates to Burnley’s Weavers’ Triangle

1 Neptune Street is the white building

MID PENNINE Arts, the regional arts charity has this week completed a move to new offices in the heart of Burnley’s historic Weavers’ Triangle. The organisation’s arrival coincides with fresh moves to kickstart the long-awaited rebirth of the unique heritage area.


Mid Pennine Arts has built a reputation for innovative art projects that have attracted international attention to Pennine Lancashire – most notably the Panopticons including Burnley’s Singing Ringing Tree, Pendle’s Atom, Rossendale’s Halo and Blackburn’s Colourfields. The organisation is especially committed to celebrating the unique heritage of the area, and sees the canalside Weaver’s Triangle as a prime location for doing this.

Mid Pennine Arts aims to break out of the traditional gallery setting, and to take creative projects directly to a wider audience. The new office base is shared with green energy providers the Low Carbon Energy Company in a new partnership for both parties. The base will also provide a platform for creative work with partner organisations, schools and community groups, to start to breathe life back into a townscape that has long lain dormant.

Nick Hunt, Creative Director for Mid Pennine Arts, said: “The Weavers’ Triangle is hugely important for the future of Burnley and Pennine Lancashire. It celebrates our industrial past, and points to a brighter future. This move reinforces our commitment to highlighting our heritage with bold, contemporary art. Already this autumn we have launched the Contemporary Heritage programme in partnership with Towneley Hall, and this new series of big, cutting edge art commissions will soon provide a fresh view of other key heritage venues across Pennine Lancashire. Alongside those projects, moving into the Weavers’ Triangle makes perfect sense for Mid Pennine Arts and we are very excited about the future, as we reach out to new audiences and aim to put art at the heart of Burnley’s renaissance.”

“Mid Pennine Arts has been based at Burnley Mechanics since the opening of the building. This has been a long and happy association and we are very grateful to our partners at Burnley Borough Council for all their support. Now we want to work with the Council in breathing new life into the Weavers’ Triangle. We also look forward to a ground-breaking new partnership with the Low Carbon Energy Company.”

Mike Cook, Burnley Council’s Director of Regeneration and Housing, said: ‘This is good news for Mid Pennine Arts, for the Weavers’ Triangle, and for Burnley. It’s an important statement of confidence in the area’s future and in the aspirations we and our partners have for genuine transformation of the town’s historic industrial heart. On behalf of the Council, I’d like to wish them the very best in their new home.’

The arrival of Mid Pennine Arts coincides with moves by Burnley Borough Council to attract private sector developers to take on key sites clustered around the Sandygate development area. The canalside open space opposite Slater Terrace has been agreed as a future new public space, with an exciting new design selected through the recent Pennine Lancashire Squared design competition. This month the Council is ‘greening’ the area that will become Sandygate Square with an attractive temporary treatment to provide a glimpse of this brighter future.

In spite of economic gloom, these initiatives show the future starting to take shape for the Weavers’ Triangle. Mid Pennine Arts, working alongside partners like the Borough Council and the Prince’s Charities, is aiming to lead the way.