April Networking - Minutes and September Celebration

The Old Grammar School in Market Harborough

NETWORK MEETING MINUTES

09 April 2026 / 7.00 pm / Louisa's Place

Thanks to Claire for taking notes.

ATTENDEES AND APOLOGIES

Many thanks to everyone who attended or sent apologies.  The CH project could not happen without you.

A list of attendees and apologies is available on request; the lists are too long to include here! 

AGENDA

1. Plans for developing the website

2. Simon Bentley from Churches Together - a guest attendee to talk about plans for improving the facilities and spaces at St Dionysius Church

3. The first UK Town of Culture Competition

4. Creative Harborough's charitable status

5. Promotional activities

6. September Celebration

7. AOB

1. WEBSITE

IMPORtANT: 

There is a slight glitch with the autofill function when entering multiple events, which we are working on. In the meantime, please refresh the page after each entry to ensure the autofill information carries over.

Features:

• If you would like to be featured as ‘Creative of the Month’, please email Karin, who will schedule an article, send you some questions, and write the article based on your answers. All you have to do is get in touch!

• If you have any big news of awards you have won, a new development or project to shout about, or anything you specifically want the public to know about, please contact Karin, who will be happy to write a feature for the Creative Harborough blog for you.

• All features will be promoted across the Creative Harborough social media platform and our newsletters.

Design:

• There are changes happening to the website! The design will gradually be simplified to make it easier to navigate, and the stock images will be swapped with images from our members.

• If you have any good-quality images of your events or your creativity that you would like to contribute, please forward them to Karin (email above) with a title and description, plus a name to credit the image to.

• A reminder that if you are struggling to find a suitable image or logo for your Directory entry, Penny is happy to help by creating a simple but neat image/logo for you.

Karin's email: karinblak@creativeharborough.org

Penny’s email: penny@creativeharborough.org

2. ST DIONYSIUS CHURCH

Simon updated us on the church renovation/reordering project. Extensive plans have been agreed to create a flexible and versatile space for the church and the community.

• Pews will be removed to make space for more seating, which will be comfortable chairs.

• The floor will be levelled.

• Additional toilet facilities will be created.

• Entrances will be improved to make access easier for wheelchair users.

• Bulbs will be changed to improve lighting.

• Alcohol licence to be checked.

• Changes are planned to be ready approx. 6 months from when the work begins, after which the church will be available for events, exhibitions, concerts, festivals, etc., if dates fit with the ecclesiastical diary of events.

• Simon reminded the group that The Cube on Symington Rec is also available to hire, but it does not have an alcohol license.

3. TOWN OF CULTURE

As you may know, Market Harborough District Council has entered the first UK Town of Culture 2028 competition with a proposal entitled ‘The Grand Union’ reflecting Market Harborough’s trading history, blend of town and country, tradition and forward-looking outlook. The winner is set to be announced in early 2027.

Following the March 31^st deadline for expressions of interest, a shortlist of towns will be announced in Spring 2026, with the finalists receiving funding to submit full applications by Autumn 2026.

Regardless of the outcome, the process has highlighted the extraordinary range of opportunities for local people to get involved in creative and cultural activities.

We'll keep you updated.

4. CHARITABLE STATUS

CH currently operates as an Unincorporated Association and is not registered with the Charities Commission.

We have been exploring the best means of registering with the commission, but each route requires us to explain how we guarantee the quality of the events we promote, and how we ensure that there is educational value as well as entertainment value.  This is obviously impractical and, for our objectives, unnecessary.

We handle very little money and should never have to do so – our role is simply to promote the work of the network and make it easier for local people to enjoy what you all do.

However, a more formal structure would help us to access discounts for things like our website hosting and, in some cases, entitle us to apply for more grants.  (Note that the current structure has not caused any problems in applying for grants from Harborough District Council or Market Harborough and the Bowdens Charity.)

Several useful suggestions were made, and Andrew Cartwright agreed to explore further.  Please do let us know if you have skills or experience in this area and could help Andrew.

5. PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITY

Newsletters

We are developing two newsletters: a members' newsletter sent once per month, and a public newsletter sent to subscribers.

Unless messages are urgent, we will include them in the newsletter to avoid clogging your inbox.

Please encourage your customers to sign up for the public newsletter via the website (you can copy and paste the link below into emails or your own newsletter):

https://www.creativeharborough.org/signup 

YouTube channel and podcasts

We are planning to produce a YouTube/podcast channel with Dan Thomas from Infinitra Films (congratulations on your numerous recent award wins!).

If you’d like to be involved in the films or interviews, contact Penny.

Instagram:

After experiencing problems in accessing our old account, we now have a new Instagram account, @creative.harborough. Do give us a follow if you haven’t already, and please tag us in your posts so that we can share and celebrate your work with a wider audience.

Quarterly leaflets

Penny asked for feedback about the value of the quarterly leaflets and it was agreed that they are an important tool in raising awareness of the network and reaching new audiences.

They are, however, time-consuming to produce and require sponsorship.  (Thanks to Wingates Gallery for sponsoring the Spring one and the next three.)

Important note: all network members are reminded to upload their events to the website to guarantee inclusion in future leaflets – the CH team won’t always have time to research social media and websites for future events as they did this time.

6. SEPTEMBER CELEBRATION

   
   

There’s already an extensive programme of events in the planning stages, and we’d love to see more.  Penny ran through the benefits of involvement:

• be part of a shared, town-wide programme that builds momentum around Market Harborough’s creative activity;

• help new audiences discover your work, alongside other local events;

• benefit from a coordinated marketing campaign (online and printed), increasing reach and visibility;

• take part with minimal effort - existing events can simply be included with Celebration branding and new events need not be complicated;

• and it’s more fun to join in than to be left out!

The following events are confirmed or in the planning stages.

Art

• Art Windows – throughout September

• Artists Cluster Annual Exhibition

• Public Art trail

• Wingates Gallery Artists Event

• Prizegiving for Nature Photographic Prize

• Mini art vending machine 

Craft

• Paint Pottle 

Dance

• Tango

Events

• Arts Fresco – September 6th

• HWU3A skills share

• Theatre Open Day

• Harborough Culture Café

Film

• MHMB dementia-friendly film screening

• Films from Film Producers

• Special film season at the cinema

Heritage

• Open Buildings

• James Carpenter Walk

Literature

• Literary Festival (11 events) – September 26th / 27th 

• A story journey:  a walk around town with parts of a story to be told / discovered at different points – September 27th

• Creative Writing Workshop – September 19th

Music

• Charlie Wood concert (organised by Joe Liptrot) – September 19th 

• BabyGigs event

• Acoustic night at Red Cow

• Singing for Wellbeing

• For the Sake of Music

• Market Harborough Ukelele Group

• Blues and / or Jazz Event

• Busking at The Undercroft

Notes:

We are working on a way to capture participation in the Celebration events for future funding applications - please let us know if you currently use a free and easy model to do this that we could share/adapt for the purpose.

If you’re planning an event that isn’t listed, or if you have an event listed without a date, please email Penny with the date and details asap. 

We would particularly like to see cross-generational events and some which encourage people to try something new.

If you’d like to take part and need some easy, minimal effort ideas, email Penny for a chat.

In brief, let us know if you have any thoughts or ideas at all about how to maximise the success of the event!

7. AOB

• The Busk! initiative continues to be popular, with lots of acts already signed up for Spring and Summer.  Part of our grant allows us to buy banners, so Claire and Andrew will be ordering those imminently.  The necessary licences are funded by Market Harborough and The Bowdens Charity, but they have asked us to find alternative funding for next year, as they prefer not to fund ongoing projects.  Please contact Joe with any ideas.

• Leicester Comedy Festival – the Big Weekend: Paul from Harborough Singers suggested liaising with some of the Big Weekend organisers to arrange CH activities during the Big Weekend.  It was agreed that this could be a good promotional activity and should be explored further.  Penny will discuss with Paul separately.

• Shared Reading: Eliza Gilbert from Culture Leicestershire had asked Penny to remind everyone about their Shared Reading project, details of which are on the CH website. (Eliza.Gilbert@leics.gov.uk)

• Youth Enterprise: Alison Rocket from Youth Enterprise is looking for a partner to help her continue the valuable work she does with young people, teaching them to make small craft items and sell them, so that they learn both crafting and entrepreneurial skills.  You could help by simply baking cakes and thereby raising money for your own group too!  (alisonrockett@yahoo.com)

NEXT MEETING

Monday, 6th July 2026

Focus on the final details for September’s Celebration events and promotional activity.

CONTACTS FOR EASY REFERENCE

Karin: karinblak@creativeharborough.org

Penny: penny@creativeharborough.org

Joe (re Busk!): joe@creativeharborough.org