Celebrating Creative Kirklees One Year On

A year ago Creative Kirklees was launched with musical fanfare at Huddersfield Train station. Rail commuters were greeted by a poet, a rapper, ukulele players, musicians and dancers who brightened up their morning with live performance.

We are now celebrating our first year with nearly 350 artists, arts organisations and creative businesses using the site to promote what they do, and thousands of people check out the site regularly to find local events – making it the place to go for ‘what’s on’ in Kirklees.

Every day the site has new events added to the What’s On section and each week we send out a newsletter to hundreds of people in Kirklees and beyond to highlight some of the creative activities and events going on in the area.

So, thanks to all of you who use the site to add your events, news, opportunities and images - it's you who keep it lively, interesting and up-to-date. And to those of you who look for events or opportunities, keep using the site to find out what's going on. Let's shout about what goes on creatively in Kirklees!

These are just a few of the many people using the site and what they've said about it:

Simon Frewin from The Coffeekabin in Huddersfield has used the site to get in touch with and showcase local artists at his cafe. He said: “Having used Creative Kirklees for almost a year now it has helped us collaborate with local artists, poets and musicians.

“Every creative person needs a great space to exhibit their talents and along with Creative Kirklees we have been able to offer these people that space.

“With a rapidly growing university and growing town we are excited to work with Creative Kirklees more and more and to help artists of all forms find and use our space.”

Marcus Henfrey who runs the Marsh Blues & Folk Club uses the site on a regular basis to promote the club in Huddersfield and reach new audiences. Marcus said: “Creative Kirklees has helped me promote the club in many ways.

“The service is linked to all social media networks so details of my live music projects reach a wide audience.

“Creative Kirklees is very easy to use and has many useful features such as event listings, images, audio and video uploading and news updates. I believe that CK is a very powerful promotional tool and what's more, it is free!”

Supriya Nagarajan, Artistic Director at Dewsbury based Manasamitra is currently touring Kirklees with two shows, 'Lullaby, The Singing Bowl' and 'Shivoham' and says “We have used Creative Kirklees to promote our recent shows and have found it really helpful in building an audience both online and as paying customers coming to our events.

"The 'news' section has been extremely useful because it has allowed us to talk more about the company and what we do as well as share information about the themes we are exploring and the artists we are working with which again, helps us build a wider audience network. Creative Kirklees is a great place to promote work and to find out what else is happening in Kirklees, it's always a busy site with plenty of events!”

Photo: Simon from Coffeekabin who showcases local artists work in his cafe