Make/Shift

We think that when people have the opportunity to create, make, do and share what they love with their neighbours, connections grow (with self, others & place) and change becomes more possible.

We’re part of a national action research programme called Creative People and Places funded by Arts Council England. The programme is about more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in creative and cultural experiences in the places where they live.

We’re at the beginning of shaping a 10-year strategy with communities in Amber Valley, and we have funding secured until April 2025 for our first phase of development. Testing ideas, learning through doing and building the foundations for a thriving network of makers, doers and connectors to grow. Rooted in Amber Valley and reaching out beyond. 

We start from a belief that we are all creative, that everyone is a maker, and that making together is an elemental part of who we are and how we contribute to shaping, and being shaped by the places we live.

Rekindling the maker in everyone 

We are a small team collaborating with communities to make, do, create, repair, grow, share, care for and connect with what matters to them in the places that they live. Through our work we want to unleash the maker in everyone and let the creativity of Amber Valley loose.
 

Letting creativity loose to shift the direction of where we’re heading 

We believe that as makers, doers, creators, producers we can activate our personal and collective agency and begin to craft our own stories and futures. If we want to shift towards healthier futures, we have to shift away from the delusion of exceptionalism and the idea that there are only a few extraordinary people, organisations, places who have the ideas, answers, solutions & creativity needed, and start telling the story of ordinary people, everywhere, who are capable of extraordinary things together.