Sponsor profile: Longley Farm
We spoke to Longley Farm's owner and managing partner, Jim Dickinson, about Longley Farm's support of the Festival and its new role as Community Engagement sponsor.
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"Longley Farm has been involved Holmfirth Arts Festival since it started out several years ago, with a group of local enthusiasts. We have seen the Festival grow from small beginnings into a much more sophisticated event which has become an important feature in the local calendar. What is really impressive about the Festival is that it manages to bring some amazingly good things to Holmfirth and makes them easy to access. There are a wide range of free events alongside some big names who, without the work of the Arts Festival, may never have come to Holmfirth.
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As a business based just outside Holmfirth, the local community is really important to us, and we are very interested in creating a sense of community within the Holme Valley. The Arts Festival gives people from Holmfirth and further afield the chance to come together and explore local art, culture and heritage. The Festival’s intergenerational work in particular is a fantastic way of bringing people together and preventing details of Holmfirth’s fascinating heritage from being lost over time. "
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Jim Dickinson went on to explain how Longley Farm's support of the Festival fits into the company's broader ethos of community support and engagement:
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"A strong interest in community is something that drives a lot of Longley Farm’s charitable giving. We give out grants every year through our One Community Fund, and these are aimed at helping to support artistic, cultural and voluntary activities within the Graveship of Holme. Over the past few years we have not only supported many of the festivals that help make Holmfirth so special, but also groups such as Meals on Wheels, Growing Works and the Huddersfield and District Woodturners. These sorts of groups all play an important role in bringing people together, whether it be through creating a beautiful piece of woodcraft, digging your hands into soil to make something grow or simply sharing a meal and a conversation with someone. "
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Longley Farm’s support of the Festival in 2016 was slightly different, as they became the Festival’s Community Engagement Sponsor. We found out what that means to Longley Farm:
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"This year our involvement in the festival is slightly different, in that instead of sponsoring a specific artist we will be the Festival’s Community Engagement Sponsor. This means we will be sponsoring a string of events that aim to get different people from the local community involved in the Arts Festival, with a particular focus on everything local. This includes giving a platform to local artists, and encouraging different generations to be inspired by local history, myths and legends such as the Holmfirth Boggard."
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For more information about Longley Farm, visit www.longleyfarm.com - more details on One Community can be found here: www.one-community.org.uk