Art is for everyone.
Cheadle Arts Festival is a collaborative arts initiative in Cheadle, led by local residents. The Cheadle Arts Festival, set for October 2025, aims to encourage residents of Cheadle and surrounding villages to engage with the arts. As a town that lacks formal cultural opportunities, the Festival brings a diverse range of creative experiences directly to people’s doorsteps. Equally important, it highlights and connects individuals to local groups and activities offering creative opportunities. The Festival serves as both a focus and a showcase for local arts, reaching into the heart of the community and bringing together schools, local groups and residents. Our goal is to unite: creating impactful experiences that bring together all the people of the area, celebrating the town’s distinct identity and sense of community. By embracing culture, we seek to delve into the heart of local life, using art as a spotlight to amplify our communities’ stories.
Funding arrangements:
This project is part-funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
We are also enormously grateful to OUTSIDE for financial support and their contributions to the programme of events.
There are a lot of costs involved in putting on a festival, so we are also running fundraising events and are hugely grateful for sponsorship and donations.
Voluntary Organisers:
Our 2025 organising team has freely given up loads of time:
- Grace Brown
- Anita Cowley
- Catherine Doel (Chair)
- Stephen Haines
- Rick Hermolle
- Ian Plant (Treasurer)
- Mike Plant
- Roy Scott
- Kirsty Spittles
- James Walker
- Louie Young
If you would like to get involved in running the arts festival please come along to one of our meetings.
We are also grateful to all of the many community organisations for their support in creating and managing the new look Cheadle Arts Festival. We would particularly like to mention Support Staffordshire, Cheadle Library, Creative Cheadle, our ‘ticket office’ at Kenral, and Gelato & Cakes for organising the art competition again.
Preparing the 2026 Arts Festival
Feb – Steering group meeting and reaching out to local groups to participate
Mar – Identify funding – grants
June – Finalise the main programme and Workshop schedule
August – Call to Artists for High Street Gallery and Showcase Day.
August – see us at Party in the Park
September – sharing and publicising events and ticket arrangements
October – it all takes place
November – collate feedback and submit grant claims and reports
We would welcome more local people that would like to join the steering group or smaller organising team. Please get in touch.
Supporting Retailers and Premises
One of the aims of the Cheadle Arts Festival is to showcase Cheadle as a creative town, and an enjoyable town to shop and visit. We are grateful to local businesses for their support and hope that the arts festival benefits them.
Policies
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Safeguarding – currently hard copy format, will be uploaded soon.