Veterans' Growth

Veterans’ Growth is a charity based on five acres of peaceful farmland in East Sussex. It supports veterans struggling with mental health challenges. Their programme combines rehabilitation with skill-building activities such as horticulture and woodworking. One of their most successful initiatives is the “Small Acorns” woodworking project, partly funded by The Radcliffe Trust.

Veterans’ Growth’s experienced in-house green woodworker gives workshops on the disappearing art of traditional rake-making, using traditional tools and materials. This is a heritage craft listed on the Endangered Crafts Register.

The Radcliffe Trust’s grant enabled participants to work with locally harvested green wood to create a variety of items, including rakes, fencing, benches, and decorations. These products were sold at community fundraising events, raising over £3,000 for Veterans’ Growth and supporting the project’s self-sustainability. The woodworking activities proved to be highly inclusive, particularly for veterans with limited mobility, as they could craft items using soft green wood and hand tools. Furthermore, the project was active year-round, offering a viable alternative during winter months when other site activities were limited by weather.

The rake-making project delivered profound impacts for veterans and also the broader community. By engaging in the endangered craft of rake-making, veterans developed practical skills, gained a sense of purpose, and experienced therapeutic benefits. The hands-on nature of woodworking helped reduce anxiety, improve focus, and foster mental well-being. This structured activity boosted confidence and supported veterans reintegration into civilian life, offering opportunities to build new hobbies, careers, or volunteer roles. This activity was so successful it will be continued.

Sound Waves - Mull Music Makers

Mull Music Makers offers young people on the island of Mull the opportunity to learn the violin and develop general musicianship. Mull Music Makers creates musical opportunities for youngsters living in a severely under-serviced and remote island community. They have an innovative, blended model of delivery focusing on developing core musicianship skills, classical technique, ensemble coaching and performance through free and regular access to online and in-person violin workshops.

The Radcliffe Trust grant was able to support eight weekend workshops and a 5-day summer school delivered in the 2023-24 season for over 50 young people from all corners of the island. Lead tutor, Patsy Reid created a number of bespoke multi-part arrangements especially for Mull Music Makers and parts were taught using a well-balanced mix of learning music by ear and note reading. In-person and online sessions for a new intake of beginners in their Early Years were also delivered.

Music skills from in-person workshops were further developed and supported by a course of online videos and tutorials. These were designed to support practise at home and keep motivation levels up in the gaps between workshops.

Thanks to Patsy Reid’s pool of contacts, the youngsters worked and performed with some of Scotland’s finest musicians and educators, experiencing music from a diverse range of teaching styles and genres along the way. This year’s guest tutors included Duncan Chisholm, Hamish Napier, Richard Michael, Seonaid Aitken, Signy Jakobsdottir, Anna Massie, Sam Sweeney, Jack Smedley, Roo Geddes and Alasdair Savage. Many guest tutor weekends resulted in additional community concerts and ceilidhs which the wider community were also able to enjoy.

Textile Conservation Foundation

The Radcliffe Trust’s most recent grant was used to provide bursaries to three students on the two-year MPhil Textile Conservation programme at the Kelvin Centre for Conservation and Cultural Heritage Research.

One student graduated this year and successfully secured employment at The People’s History Museum, and the other two students are progressing to the second and final year of the MPhil.

None of these three students, would have been able to study textile conservation without The Radcliffe Trust’s generous support. The longer term impact of the Trust’s support can be seen from 15 individuals who have benefitted from the Radcliffe Trust’s support since 1994. The contribution they are making to the profession internationally is continuing today.
The key lesson learned over many years is that, if we are to continue to have highly skilled textile conservators preserving our textile heritage for future generations, securing funding for bursaries will continue to be absolutely vital.

The Carousel Project

Carousel is an award winning organisation that nurtures the talents of adults, young people and children with learning disabilities, through a range of projects in music, radio, performance, tv, film and digital art. Projects include workshops to explore the arts right through to high profile events that showcase people’s artwork in professional settings. Carousel seeks to find routes of access and development for learning disabled children and adults supporting them to reach their artistic goals.
Over half of Carousel’s Board of Trustees have learning disabilities, and each of their programmes are planned and evaluated by a team of learning disabled (LD) artists. Many of the people worked with have additional health needs, sensory impairment or physical disability.

The Radcliffe Trust’s funding allowed The Chorus to deliver 5 workshops for LD young people aged 16-18 in 2 locations. The total number of attendees was 61.
The workshops were run with East Lewes College at their base in Lewes and with Team Domenica in Brighton. Both rooms were familiar to participants to ensure the settings felt safe and comfortable.
In addition to introducing and promoting the many benefits of group singing, other opportunities for young LD people were promoted, including Carousel’s accessible and safe social events for LD people in the region. This has helped reach and engage the next generation of LD creative talent across the projects.
Following the open workshop, one young person subsequently joined the Chorus as a full-time member and attended rehearsals, learning the Chorus’ repertoire and getting to know members.
Over the Radcliffe Trust’s grant period, there have been a total of 6 workshops and 10 rehearsals for the Chorus.