New book features artwork and words from High Peak babies and adults

The new A, B, C book, funded by Arts Council England, is a mixture of poems about the place people call home complemented by art work done from young babies through to teens and beyond.

The book is a High Peak Community Arts (HPCA) project and Karl Harris, who is the early years and families project manager for the group said: “We strongly believe that the arts can be a tool for change in people’s lives.”In the last year community workshops were set up in Buxton, New Mills and Gamesley to provide arts and baby sensory sessions for new families to attend.

Karl said: “Due to the pandemic many of the younger parents had not attended a baby session before and this was an opportunity for them to meet and mingle with other new parents in their neighbourhood.

“As part of these highly popular and successful workshops the babies explored paint to decorate and create collage papers that were carefully saved for future use by popular High Peak artist Andrea Joseph.”

Further collage papers were made with teenagers attending some of the HPCA youth arts programme.

Creative writing workshops were offered as part of the rolling programme to the HPCA health and wellbeing project earth group made up of adults experiencing mental distress.

Karl said: “Participants wrote acrostic poems for each letter of the alphabet to form a unique lexicon of the High Peak.

“Andrea worked on a suite of collages to bring the two elements of the project together.”

As part of the original project HPCA have been gifting copies of the finished book to various organisations across the High Peak district including public and school libraries.

Karl says the launch event on Saturday April, 1 was a lively celebration of the project, with poet and HPCA ambassador, Helen Mort reading some of her own work.

There was also a singalong of the High Peak ABC song with Lucy Jackson and deputy mayor, Councillor Graham Oakley cut the ribbon to launch the project.

Copies are on sale and available to buy from the Rock Mills Centre in New Mills, or from www.highpeakarts.org

"In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together." – Phil Bramley, editor.