culturE catalySt micrO-commissiOns

PHIL WEBB | WIMBORNE PRIDE

Pride • Community • Identity

Wimborne Pride is creating opportunities for the town's LGBTQ+ community to come together, be visible and celebrate. The project began with colourful participation in the Wimborne Folk Festival parade, bringing LGBTQ+ representation into one of the town's biggest cultural celebrations and helping build connections for further Pride activity in Wimborne.

CAROLINE PARROTT | WALFORD MILL CRAFTS

Visual art • Printmaking • Global cultures

As part of DEED's Global Fair at Walford Mill Crafts, artist Caroline Parrott invited visitors to explore art and symbols from cultures around the world through printmaking.

Participants created vibrant prints on anodised aluminium, with individual pieces designed to come together as a collaborative artwork and lasting record of the day's celebration of global creativity.

ROSEMARY MCDONALD | WIMBORNE ART CLUB

Visual art • Community • Nature

Wimborne Art Club and Wimborne Community Garden came together for a colourful afternoon of creativity in the garden. Adults and children were invited to paint, draw and contribute to a collaborative garden banner, bringing together two local organisations and encouraging people of all ages and abilities to simply have a go at making art.

DYLAN REES-COSHAN

Music • Live Performance

The Centaur Stage is a mobile live music venue housed in a renovated vintage Richardson trailer. Created by performer and promoter Dylan Rees-Coshan, the project brings a fully equipped stage into the heart of the community, creating more opportunities for emerging and original local musicians to perform and celebrating Wimborne's rich musical culture.

JASMINE MATTHEWS & JULIE HAND

Wellbeing • Nature • Movement

Wimborne Wellness Walks combine gentle movement, breathwork, mindfulness and time outdoors with opportunities for conversation and connection. Taking place across Wimborne and its surrounding countryside, the free walks are open to everyone, with a particular focus on over-65s and people with mobility challenges who may benefit from an accessible approach to movement and wellbeing.

JASMINE MATTHEWS

Creative wellbeing • Sound

Sounds by the River is a series of free, inclusive sound bath experiences designed to take wellbeing out of traditional wellness settings and into everyday community spaces. Led by dance artist and facilitator Jasmine Matthews, the sessions invite people of all ages to slow down, listen and experience sound together in an informal and accessible way.

EMMA KERR

Visual art • Objects • Community

Everyday Treasures explores the connections between objects preserved in the Museum of East Dorset and the treasures we discover today in Wimborne's charity shops. Artist Emma Jayne Kerr is combining museum research, second-hand treasure hunting and community workshops to use everyday objects as starting points for stories, imagination and creativity across generations.

ADRIAN NEWTON | WIMBORNE CONTEMPORARY ARTS

Visual Art • Music • Nature

Greenspace is the Place invites people to celebrate Wimborne's natural environment through creativity. Pop-up workshops across the town's newer communities explore collaborative poetry, wildlife listening and recording, nature printing and eco-music, with work created by participants contributing to a larger multimedia celebration featuring a specially commissioned choral work inspired by Wimborne's rivers.

WIMBORNE FOOD BANK

Visual art • Community • Families

Wimborne Food Bank is creating more opportunities for families and people experiencing financial hardship to take part in creative activity. Alongside arts and crafts at its annual Family Fun Event, the project includes a four-week watercolour course, giving participants the chance to explore their creativity and continue making art with their own materials afterwards.

CHARLOTTE SMITH

Literature • Community

A new neighbourhood Little Library is bringing books directly into the community at St John's Hill. Created by local resident and book lover Charlotte Smith, the simple 'take a book, leave a book' library creates another opportunity for children and adults to discover, exchange and enjoy books – celebrating Wimborne's strong connection with reading and literature.

TOR BYRNES | WE BROKE FREE

Music • Performance • LGBTQ+ culture

Baesic brings music, performance and self-expression into the community through inclusive, high-energy events featuring female DJs, drag performance and go-go dancers. Created particularly for women, non-binary and young LGBTQ+ people, the project is about creating welcoming spaces where people can feel visible, connected and free to express themselves.

SOPHIE FRETWELL

Puppetry • Performance • Nature

The Bee Circus brings larger-than-life animatronic bees and their vintage circus handlers into Wimborne for a playful walkabout adventure. Created by Sophie Fretwell, the roaming performance combines puppetry, environmental storytelling and audience interaction, using humour and spectacle to reveal the surprising abilities of bees and why these tiny but vital pollinators matter.

SHARON JACKSTIES | SPOKEN WORLD

Storytelling • Puppetry • Nature

Nature's Tales combines storytelling, environmental themes and spectacular puppetry, led by Sovereign Nature – a four-metre giant puppet depicting West Country wildlife, the seasons and our river systems. Interactive appearances and storytelling invite audiences to discover the wildlife supported by the River Allen and think about their own relationship with Wimborne's natural environment.

MILLSTREAM THEATRE

Theatre • Poetry • Literature

Millstream Theatre, a community theatre group for learning disabled and neurodiverse performers, is exploring what 'Home' means through performance, poetry and personal objects. Alongside live performance, members are creating a poetry booklet and accessible audio version, sharing their words, experiences and creativity with audiences across Wimborne as part of the wider HOME programme.

ROBERT RODWAY | HISTORIC WIMBORNE

Heritage • Archaeology • Living history

Uncovering Roman Wimborne brings the town's hidden Roman past to life, centred on the nationally significant but little-known Roman fortress at Lake Gates. Combining archaeology with accessible public events, living history and family activity, the project will explore what lies beneath modern Wimborne and reveal more about the town's story nearly 2,000 years ago.

ANTHONY REID

Visual art • Place • Architecture

How do you remember Wimborne? Anthony Reid's Mental Mapping project invites artists and non-artists to make a short journey through or around the town and then create an artwork from memory.

Through drawing, painting, photography, collage, sculpture or words, the project explores our relationships with place, memory, cultural identity and change as Wimborne continues to grow.

JOANNE COLLINGBOURNE

Dance • Sensory arts • Inclusive practice

Inspired by the River Stour, And The River Always Flows is an inclusive sensory dance experience designed particularly for people with learning disabilities and profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). Joanne Collingbourne uses gentle lighting, sound, texture, soft materials and supported movement to create an environment where participants can experience dance and take part in their own way.