Past Celebrate Sherwood Projects

We are a proud partner of the Miner2Major Landscape Partnership Scheme and have been delivering a number of events and projects on their behalf. Take a look below at past projects, and click here to find out about current projects that are still taking place.

We worked with Nottinghamshire Police, Newark and Sherwood District Council and Creative Lives for Inspire's 2023 Charity Knitting Challenge supporting Nottinghamshire crafters to make Brave Bears for charities working with children in times of need. 

Textile designer Megan Crook designed the Brave Bear knitting and crochet patterns, decorated with a special Sherwood Forest acorn motif as a nod to the local area. Hundreds of Nottinghamshire crafters embraced this years’ challenge, collectively handcrafting 881 Brave Bears that went on public display over the summer at Mansfield Library before they went on to join the ranks Nottinghamshire Police with a very special mission. 

No teddy bear's picnic is complete without its own mini knitted feast, a delightful addition to the exhibition which was kindly donated by Cotgrave Library Crafters. 

Steve Little, Scheme Manager at Miner2Major, said: “What an amazing response by Nottinghamshire crafters to this year’s Inspire Charity Knitting Challenge. Hundreds of Brave Bears of different sizes and colours looking fabulous in their acorn jumpers and ready to bring comfort”. 

Click here to view the exhibition highlights.

We teamed up with a merry band of Nottinghamshire crafters to knit and crochet mini Robin Hood hats for our 2021 Inspire Charity Knitting Challenge as part of The Innocent Big Knit to raise money for Age UK. 

Over 2,200 hats were created and then turned into an exhibition which could be seen from 20 July to 25 September 2021 in Edwinstowe Library and at Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, both venues are on Robin's home turf. 

The hats were then sent to The Innocent Big Knit to adorn bottles of Innocent smoothie drinks in shops across the country in 2022, with 25p from every hat-wearing bottle going to Age UK.

There is also an online gallery of the exhibition highlights, including links to the knitting/crochet pattern for the hats and future knitting challenges. Click here to view the exhibition highlights.

Groups across the Miner2Major area joined in with The Big Draw 2020: A Climate of Change by working with local artist Jess Kemp to collectively create metres of silk painted festival bunting. Every flag we received was a hand-painted artwork from the community exploring the 8 themes of the Miner2Major scheme.

The finished bunting display toured four Inspire library galleries from 17 October 2020 to 7 July 2021, and will be used at Miner2Major festivals and events from summer 2022 onwards.

Take a virtual visit to Beeston library and have a whistle-stop tour of the exhibition in the video below;