A brief history of Keighley Creative, from its origins to today, and all the achievements in between.

August 2026 - Update for Keighley Creative's new hub!

The Epic Poem spoken by Homer between 750AD - 700AD has been adapted and re-imagined thousands of times by artists. The long lasting story has influenced art and culture for nearly 3000 years; here is a collection of that work to tell the story.

Naseem Darbey explores Keighley Creative's 'forever home'.

David Hockney painted gay life brightly and without apology. He was an artist who showed the world the joy of homosexuality in a time when it was illegal in England, and helped to bring about change.

Recently we looked at the painting 'The Liffey Swim' (1923) by Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957). Our brains are amazing. The more we stimulate our brains, the more nerve connections we make and the better our brains work. At our Monday group we work with an amazing group of people living with Dementia, where we often look at art and review what we see. Making art is fun but it’s also a workout for our brains!

Photocopy art began in the 1960s as the technological advancement of machines like Xerox made it possible to create artworks by overlaying and assembling collage on printers. From this came a unique set of art pieces that are worth exploring.

Recently we looked at the painting 'Queen of the Pansies' (2016) by Rose Wylie (1934 - Present). Our brains are amazing. The more we stimulate our brains, the more nerve connections we make and the better our brains work. At our Monday group we work with an amazing group of people living with Dementia, where we often look at art and review what we see. Making art is fun but it’s also a workout for our brains!

How to craft marbled easter eggs? - A 'How to' craft guide featuring step by step instructions and materials needed.

Last week we looked at the painting 'The Circus' (1964) by Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Our brains are amazing. The more we stimulate our brains, the more nerve connections we make and the better our brains work. At our Monday group we work with an amazing group of people living with Dementia, where we often look at art and review what we see. Making art is fun but it’s also a workout for our brains!

A collection of media all about studio holder and artist Jane Fielder over the years.

Following its success in 2023, Keighley Creative and Naseem Darbey took The MEGA Drawing Box on its first tour in the summer of 2025 to The Beacon in Cliffe Castle Park as part of Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture. During one epic day of activity, we welcomed nearly 600 visitors to go green and make their mark inspired by nature connectedness at The MEGA Drawing Box in the Park. 

Our brains are amazing. The more we stimulate our brains, the more nerve connections we make and the better our brains work. At our Monday group we work with an amazing group of people living with Dementia, where we often look at art and review what we see. Making art is fun but it’s also a workout for our brains! Last week we looked at the painting 'After the Meeting' (1914) by Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942).

Keighley Creative wouldn't be what it is without our amazing staff, so here is a chance to learn a little more about what they do, why they do it, and how much work they put in to make Keighley a fantastic place for artists and creatives.

The development of our multi-million pound, revitalised cultural hub for Keighley is well underway. If you missed our exhibition late last year showing our plans, here is a chance to learn a little more about our new home from a recent BBC news article.

100 years ago, 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)', the oldest surviving feature animation was made by the wonderful Lotte Reiniger in her unique style, but how did she do it?

This ‘how to’ guide will show you how to use potato printing, an easy and fun method for creating simple and repeatable designs, to create wrapping paper for your presents!

In 2025 our Arts and Heritage Officer has worked in five local communities to complete their final artistic responses, celebrating their individual heritage stories, and we want to share with you all the amazing work that the community and artists have made this year!

An interview with artist Sarah Boon about her work recreating natural textures using textile techniques.

In order to facilitate the Rombald’s Rocks themed art workshops, we needed a strong team of practitioners that could inspire and guide attendees to get creative and engage with the project.

Rombald’s Rocks: Keighley Sculpture Trail is a project created and implemented by artist, Leonie Briggs, and ourselves, Keighley Creative. It is the brainchild of Leonie who thought Keighley deserved it’s own sculpture trail and she wanted to create a community art project that involved local people and would bring something positive to town.

Find out more about the 5 local artists who were chosen by a community panel to design some of the Rombald’s Rocks sculptures that form the Keighley Sculpture Trail.

The Keighley Sculpture Trail features Rombald’s Rocks artworks designed by local community groups.

On Saturday 24th May, a new art project was launched in Keighley. “Rombald’s Rocks” were unveiled at locations across the town centre and 100s people came along to celebrate the launch event enjoying lots of different activities and performances.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe joined members of our Monday Creative group for the premiere of our new short film Keighley Creative were thrilled to have a visit from Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe to watch the premiere of our new Arts For Brain Health film, showcasing our Monday Creative group. Monday Creative is our weekly creative group for […]

The Arts and Heritage Community project is a two-year partnership programme run by Kala Sangam.

Just before Christmas Keighley Creative’s Pledges to the Landscape film, shared the bill with the Muppet Christmas Carol at the Keighley Picturehouse. A full-house enjoyed seeing the short film about our art and nature restoration project in which lead artist Naseem Darbey worked with Keighley primary school children to design and build a dam that […]

Well what a year! The last 12 months at Keighley Creative have been amazing and our team is proud that they have been able to bring so many arts and culture projects to town in 2024. We started the year carrying on our I Am Brill project celebrating our hometown and the talents of Keighley […]

Keighley children’s learning and creativity was celebrated this week as a major project comes to a close. On Monday we hosted a special event to showcase the Pledges to the Landscape project, a collaboration between Keighley Creative and Yorkshire Peat Partnership. The event welcomed lots of people who wanted to find out more about this […]

King Charles’ Seeing is Believing programme is one of the most well-established and widely respected leadership projects in the UK. Recently the programme included a visit to Keighley Creative to encourage local business leaders to better understand the challenges facing the community. The project invited locally-based people to come along to visit our premises and […]

Keighley Creative are pleased to announce the latest member to join their team. Tracy Uren has been taken on to fill the vacancy of Events Producer and is here to help Keighley Creative organise and run its popular and engaging events and projects. The team are relishing Tracy’s experience as a Keighley lass having worked […]

This September, some new pieces of art popped up in and around Keighley. These were all part of the Keighley Flowerpot Trail organised by the Sue Belcher Centre at Bracken Bank, in partnership with the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Timothy Taylor’s Community Action, Keighley Town Council, Keighley Lions Club, Bradford Council and the One in a […]

This was the aim of a recent community walk organised by Keighley Town Council and Keighley Creative. The walk was organised as a part of Keighley Walking Festival and the theme was “Light Up The Night”. The walk welcomed anyone who would like to come along and together we walked 2 miles round town. The […]

On Saturday 17th August 2024, our studio artists were thrilled to welcome more people than ever before to their open studio event. Nearly 100 people came to visit, had a tour, met the artists and viewed their huge range of artwork and creativity. The artists that hosted included Jane Fielder, Dripsy, Naseem Darbey, Jonathan Britten, […]

On Saturday 17th August 2024, 100s of Keighley people came along to Cliffe Castle park and joined in some fun, creative sessions run by Keighley Creative that focused on learning about the environment. Families who attended were given the opportunity to join in with all sorts of activities and everyone was welcomed to get stuck […]

Art charity Keighley Creative has appointed a woman with more than 25 years’ experience working with communities throughout the North to lead its creative team. Paula Clark said she is very excited to step into the post of creative director at a crucial time for the expanding organisation. She will lead the team in ensuring delivery […]

Recently one of our Arts for Brain Health groups took a field trip! 10 people from the Monday Creative group visited Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford with facilitators, Ailsa Lewer and Carine Brosse. The Monday group welcomes participants who are affected by dementia and their carers. We hired a minibus from Keighley Community Transport […]

Local primary schools have recently taken part in a project educating children about the importance of our peatlands and the latest school to take part was Riddlesden St. Mary’s. The children were invited to take part in the Pledges to the Landscape project, a classroom programme using art and mark making to engage children, which […]

Last Saturday 29th June 2024, a group of local people set off as part of Otley Walking Festival to draw the bog and associated wildlife of Denton Estate moorland near Ilkley. Led by local artist, Naseem Darbey, and Yorkshire Peatland Partnership (YPP) expert, Lucy Lee, the group of 10 spent the day on the moor […]

This weekend a big community event was held on Church Green in Keighley. The Eid on the Green event featured a host of activities including an arts and crafts stall hosted by our fab team as well as soft archery, rodeo football and face painting. There were also stalls by Keighley Lions and Pawperfection Rehoming […]

A community publication designed by Keighley Creative with input from numerous local organisations opens door to help during cost-of-living crisis. Keighley community organisations have come together to help people struggling in the cost-of-living crisis. Arts charity Keighley Creative has produced a newspaper-style guide with pointers to where to get support, in an easy-to-read format. Open […]

Following a competitive recruitment process, Riaz Meer, one of the founders of Keighley Arts and Film Festival, will take up a post leading creative arts in the town over the next two years. The experienced film and television editor will oversee Keighley Creative’s organisational development and transition to a permanent base. His brief will include […]

St. George’s Day celebrations came to Keighley on Sunday 21st April 2024 with a parade followed by lots of activities and goings-on inside the Airedale Shopping Centre. As well as lots of performers and entertainment put on by the shopping centre and Keighley Town Council, Keighley Creative were invited to run a themed craft workshop […]

Eid celebrations were a great success at Keighley Market this year. Local artist and experienced facilitator, Emily Parkin, designed and led a fun Eid themed craft activity on Saturday 13th April. The families who attended made Eid cards to pass on to loved ones. Lots of Keighley people got involved and it was a real […]

This April, Keighley Creative and The Unit welcomed some new movie-goers to its teeny Stockroom Cinema. Leeds Film contacted us about using our pop-up cinema to offer Keighley families a unique cinema experience over the Easter holidays. Screenings put on were part of the Leeds Young Film Festival (LYFF) and included 80s’ fantasy classic Labyrinth, […]

A major charity has appointed a worker to help Keighley people celebrate their heritage through the arts. Lauren Kelly will work with community groups in a two-year project run by Kala Sangam. The Bradford-based organisation has appointed four arts and heritage officers, one of whom, Lauren, will be based in Keighley. She will work with […]

Last Sunday, Keighley people were wowed by an event inspired by the work of an international women’s organisation. The Women of the World (WOW) Foundation wanted to bring their WOW Girls Festival bus to town; this has been designed to celebrate and motivate young women, girls and non-binary people with a range of interactive activities. […]

And that’s a wrap!!! Last week we were privileged to have the play, KAILEY, performed in the Stockroom at Keighley Creative. This live performance was written by Kerry Wright and directed by Tess Seddon and is part of Kala Sangam’s On Tour series taking performances to alternative venues around the district whilst their Arts Centre […]

Tuesday night was the Bradford Visual Arts Social run by Bradford Producing Hub. This time it was held at Keighley Creative and what an honour it was! The event was a great success with lots of positive feedback. Attendees came from across the district to meet other artists, social, network and hear more about opportunities […]

Last Friday was the I Am Brill disco, a free family event organised by us and held at Victoria Hall in Keighley. The event welcomed 100s of local families and the aim was to encourage Keighley kids to come together and celebrate their brilliance. The I Am Brill disco was the culmination of numerous creative […]

Visual Arts Social this January includes an activity led by studio holder, Carole Griffiths, with her workshop ‘Rip and Tear – Smudge and Draw’.

This Christmas, Keighley Creative hosted another successful Maker Faire and Open Artist Studios event. Saturday 16th December was the date chosen to welcome local artists and makers to come and sell their handmade wares from our premises on Cooke Lane in the centre of Keighley. We also opened the upstairs art studios to allow members […]

Our team are pleased to offer two free, family-friendly festive craft workshops this December. Hosted by Keighley Market, the workshops welcome anyone, whatever your age or ability, to pop in and join in with some creative activities. On Saturday 9th December, 11-3, we are making festive framed pictures and on Saturday 16th December, 11-3, we […]

Last week, the Leeds International Film Festival came to Keighley. Our specially built Stockroom Cinema opened it’s doors on Wednesday 15th November 2023 for the first time for the screening of the documentary, From Where We Stand. This was followed by numerous films on Saturday 18th November, namely a showing of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a […]

Wow, what a weekend! The Mega Drawing Box welcomed 100s of people into a disused department store to get creative and what a success it was. Lots of smiling faces and fabulous feedback. Thank you Keighley people for embracing it and attending in such numbers and a huge thank you to all of our artists, […]

Keighley Creative won an award and what a wonderful evening we had! The Keighley & Airedale Business Awards was held at Victoria Hall and the team put on a fabulous do and Keighley Creative’s team were chuffed to win the Creative Services Business of the Year prize. Thank you to Aireworth Vets for sponsoring it. […]

You may have noticed something illuminating in Keighley today. A quote has appeared on the front of Keighley Library that is taken from a document from the original Mechanics Institute that was on North Street. The idea of the Mechanics Institute was to educate Keighley folk, to let their brilliant talents shine forth, and bring […]

Jane Fielder, Naseem Darbey, Jon Britten, Anji Timlin, Leonie Briggs and Sean Jukes will host open studio sessions, during which visitors can chat with the artists and see what they are creating from their base at Keighley Creative. Local creative businesses taking part in the Makers Faire include Miss Hue Designs, selling polymer clay jewellery. […]

We’ve just added the K-Town Shopper Video to our Youtube channel! Many thanks to filmmaker Danny Hardaker for this fantastic piece of work, it’s a great memory of a fantastic weekend.

Javed has joined our team as Keighley Creative’s new Cultural Heritage and Diversity Lead. He has a rich and varied career to date working to support community cohesion; building inter-faith partnerships; doing lots of work helping up-skill organisations about their Safeguarding practices; as well as helping Supplementary Schools to make sure they have all the […]

Bradford won City of Culture 2025, known as BD25 you will hear lots more about it and how it can benefit the city, and our towns within it. We are very proud to be supporting this work, with a BIG focus on Keighley. For more information visit https://bradford2025.co.uk

We are very excited to introduce you to our new Festival and Events Director, Madeleine O’Reilly and coordinator, Cathryn Murray! For the next two years, Madeleine and Cathryn will plan and develop our annual Keighley Arts & Film Festival, along with a full programme of other events. Having co-founded Hull’s Assemble Fest in 2013 and […]