BARRA Culture now has a full cohort of local staff who are putting together an exciting activity plan for the next four years.

The current plans, funded by Arts Council England, will run from now until 2025 and hope to extend far beyond this date to embed wide-ranging, cross-sector and intergenerational creative partnerships and projects across the borough for many years to come.

Four artists-in-residents have already been commissioned by community groups to run land art, digital and visual arts projects with local partners, with another six starting later in the year.

On top of all of this, Barra Culture will produce large-scale arts and cultural events each year, steered by local people, celebrating and showcasing the vast amount of creativity and themes important to residents in the area which will now take place in and around The Forum on April 2, 2022.

In order to achieve all of this, Barra culture director Daniel Tyler-McTighe has been joined by a creative and ambitious set of individuals to help him steer the programme in Barrow.

There are three creative community connectors in the team: Kieran McDonnell – founder of Barrer Cvlt – has a huge amount of experience in working with local young people.

Marisa Crane joins the team as a mixed-media artist and co-producer of the online zine ‘Folded’, which celebrates young Cumbrian creatives.

In addition to them is Molly Field, a recent theatre graduate and qualified teacher from Walney who, inspired by her own experiences, has a particular interest in promoting and creating art with Barrow’s disabled residents.

Cumbrian artist and project manager Jenna Coulthard brings years of relevant experience to the team, all of whom are supported by Becky Hearfield, the programme’s administrator, who said: “As we come out of lockdown and restrictions ease, I hope Barra Culture can offer some relief to the isolation and loneliness people have been feeling.”

Barra Culture is also pleased to be working with marketing manager Helen Bartosinski.

Barrovian Abbi Knight is also working as an assistant to the team. She said: “I have always enjoyed the pretty things in life and working with Barra Culture is an incredible opportunity.”