A community-made ceramic artwork has been installed at the Agricultural Business Centre in Bakewell to mark the end of the ‘Gateway Through the Arts’ project.

The Gateway project worked with women and young people to develop participatory arts activities, encouraging them to explore their own creative potential in whichever medium they chose.

Inspired by the creativity unleashed by the project, an idea to commemorate the end of the project was formed by Penny Kill, the Gateway project coordinator. A community made installation to be sited in a public space was seen as a fitting celebration of the conclusion of the project at the end of 2007. Local artist Sue Mulroy, a ceramics expert, was engaged to work with local community groups to make the piece a reality.

The four panels of the wall installation were each made by different local community groups, two youth groups, Warslow Youth Club, and Waterhouses Youth Project, and craft groups from Earl Sterndale and The Farming Life Centre at Blackwell.

"Gateway Through the Arts was hosted by Derbyshire Dales District Council" said Councillor Andrew Lewer, Chairman of the District Council's Community and Environment Committee, "We are therefore delighted to welcome such an interesting installation into our Agricultural Business Centre in Bakewell.”

The Gateway project area was almost enclosed by the Peak District National Park boundaries, and so inspired by the surrounding landscape, the pieces took on a very natural form. Techniques used by the groups included impressing the clay with found materials from each area. Using very physical techniques to manipulate and stretch the clay, the groups made panels reminiscent of the rock formations so abundant in the Peak District. The pieces were finished off at a community-glazing day in Blackwell, and then fired in Sue's large wood kiln at Blackwell to continue the natural theme, the flame path within the kiln giving them a warm, rich surface.

Mark Riva, a local craftsman, has installed the commemorative piece in the main concourse at the Agricultural Business Centre.

‘Gateway Through The Arts’ was one of the Leader+ projects that successfully operated in the rural areas of the High Peak, Derbyshire Dales, East Staffordshire and Staffordshire Moorlands in recent years.