Barnsley Treasures Workshops

What’s your piece of treasure?

Barnsley Council, Collective Sense, and seven amazing local artists and creative facilitators are on a mission to find out what culture means to the people of Barnsley. 

What activities inspire, engage and support the wellbeing of local residents?

To do this, in Spring 2024, we ran seven creative workshops with local residents, across the borough. 

Each workshop was facilitated by Chris Rolls from Collective Sense, as well as one of seven passionate local artists and community connectors:

  • Sam Batley  (local artist)
  • Victoria Agnew  (Jolly Good Communities)
  • Rachel Massey  (Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance)
  • David Sinclair  (New Art Exchange)
  • Ian McMillan  (poet & journalist)
  • Helen Boutle  (Creative Recovery - *closed workshop* for Arts Cafe attendees)
  • Gary Clarke  (Gary Clarke Company)

 

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A treasure can be anything: an object, a photo, or a memory. As long as it’s precious to you, it’s welcome.

In the workshop attendees were invited to share any stories connected to your piece of treasure, as well as take part in simple, fun creative challenges related to them. 

 

What’s the purpose of these workshops?

Barnsley Treasures is a piece of action research informing the first phase of the development of a cultural strategy for the borough being developed by Barnsley Council and local cultural partners. 

In this early stage we want to hear from diverse Barnsley residents about what matters most to them, what's going on in their local areas, and what they would like to have a go at or do more of. 

We expect these initial workshops to inform how we further engage with a range of communities.

Barnsley Treasures also coincides with an exhibition at Experience Barnsley in the town centre showcasing the "treasures" of Barnsley: Chamber of Treasures - cultural artefacts which tell the story of the borough's rich past, present and hopeful future. 

Barnsley Treasures - funded by Arts Council England and Barnsley Council's Cultural Development Fund programme, 'Storying Barnsley'.