About Made With Many

Made With Many is a community-led arts programme which produces events and activities designed to surprise, delight and inspire. The programme aims to encourage more people than ever before to take the lead in experiencing, creating and taking part in high-quality arts and cultural activities. Through conversations with local people and community decision-making panels, Made With Many puts the community at the heart of commissioning artists and producing new and exciting events.

Our Values

  • Inspiring – We hold a clear, ambitious vision for our places, which are developed through authentic conversations with the local community.
  • Curious – We see opportunity everywhere and are natural risk-takers who approach our work with an open-mind, originality and a willingness to learn.
  • Creative – We co-create cultural activities that are playful, bold and accessible to all.
  • Collaborative – We develop working relationships that are built upon mutual trust, inclusivity and enable local people to take the lead.
  • Joyful – We are passionate about the importance of fun, freedom and approaching all situations with integritykindness and empathy.

Our work

We are the Creative People and Places programme for the boroughs of Corby and Wellingborough in North Northamptonshire. From our beginnings in 2014, we have held over 2,500 activities and events, including workshops, performances, festivals and exhibitions. These have enabled over 210,000 engagements with the arts. We are creating new audiences for art across North Northamptonshire, according to postcode analysis from The Audience Agency, 82% of our people that engaged with the Corby programme in 2020/21 were from the places of lowest engagement with the arts.

Our approach is quite simply about ‘doing with people rather than creating for them’. Our community-led programme delivers events and projects that; surprise, delight and inspire local people, bring our communities together and support local people to take the lead. You can read more about our approach at www.madewithmany.org/our-approach

We are hosted by Groundwork Northamptonshire, with strategic leadership from our consortium of cultural and community organisations including; Corby Community Arts, Greatwell Homes, KHL Big Local, Support Northamptonshire, Teamwork Trust, The Core at Corby Cube and independent chair, Rob Purdie.

Our Programmes

Between now and March 2025, we will be delivering the following:

  • Flagship Projects Led by consultation and overseen by a community panel, these are large activities that are developed with multiple partners, including lead community & artistic partners, with workshop activity to drive engagement & co-create new work.
  • Community Forums In January 2021 we established a Black Community Forum for our Wellingborough programme as part of our race equality plan, who commission activity with their dedicated budget and scrutinise our wider delivery plans. We are developing a similar forum in Corby, as well as new Disability Forums & Youth Forums in each town.
  • Workshop Programme Regular sessions delivered by professional artists, offering an accessible, regular opportunity to participate alongside accessible taster sessions. These will be particularly targeted at families (especially those with pre-school children) & older people.
  • Inspiration Events Allowing us to take advantage of opportunities to bring exciting new work to our places, we programme cultural activities into local community events & venues, alongside ‘Go See’
    trips to inspire people with great art that is happening elsewhere.
  • Cultivate Our programme of support, advice and small-scale commissioning for anyone (community groups and artists) planning to deliver arts activities that engage the local community.

Groundwork Northamptonshire

Groundwork Northamptonshire are the accountable body for Made With Many. Groundwork Northamptonshire work with, and for communities in Northamptonshire, and all sectors to create better places to live and work. They work to improve the quality of life for people and the places where they live, having a focus on the most disadvantaged areas and communities in greatest need. Their flagship projects include the Green Patch in Kettering and JAM, an award-winning youth work programme.

Creative People & Places

Made With Many is part of a national Creative People & Places (CPP) network, funded by Arts Council England to increase engagement in the arts in areas where people have fewer opportunities to get involved. Made With Many (formerly Made In Corby) was established by a consortium of local arts and community organisation in 2013 to respond to the launch of the CPP programme by initiated and funded by Arts Council England through the National Lottery. CPP is about more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in art experiences in the places where they live. There are 39 independent projects, each located in an area where people have traditionally had fewer opportunities to get involved with the arts.

Find out more about Arts Council England’s 10 year Let’s Create strategy.

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