Harrogate residents and businesses are being asked to submit ideas to help give Cambridge Place a colourful makeover.

Harrogate Business Improvement District is working in partnership with Oxford Street-based charity, Artizan International, to install mosaics in the nine, blocked-out windows, on the side of the Boots building.

Each window space will spell out Harrogate — and the two organisations are looking for inspiration on what might go on the individual backgrounds.

Harrogate BID manager Matthew Chapman said:

“Cambridge Place is an extremely popular pedestrian cut-through between Cambridge Street and Oxford Street, yet one of the drabbest in the town.

“Now, in partnership with Artizan International, we want to give this street a real lift by installing nine colourful and eye-catching mosaics in these nine blocked out windows.

“Whilst each one will feature an individual letter to spell out Harrogate, we are asking for suggestions to create the individual backgrounds. The only proviso being it must be representative of the town itself.

“This could be its spa heritage, iconic buildings, or famous names and businesses associated with the town. We will leave it up to individuals, then choose nine different ideas.

“These will then be turned into mosaics by the Artizan International team, giving this much used thoroughfare a real splash of colour.”

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Ideas can either be emailed to Harrogate BID at info@harrogatebid.co.uk, or left with Artizan International, at their shop located at 39 Oxford Street, Harrogate.

The closing date is Friday, July 2.

A charity supporting people with disabilities is offering members of the deaf community the opportunity to work in its cafe next year.

Artizan International is a Harrogate-based charity offering art and crafts workshops for differently-abled people. It also sells crafts made by disabled artisans in Ecuador and Peru in its Oxford Street store.

In Spring 2021, the charity has plans to open a cafe offering supported internships to members of the deaf community. Those involved will be trained in barista work and general hospitality.

The hope is the training the interns receive will allow them to pursue a career in the catering industry. The long term visions is for the cafe to be completely deaf run.

Artizan International isn’t able to run its usual workshops during the pandemic.

“At Artizan as we look forward, we want to create valued opportunities for those living with disabilities in our community. The cafe would be an ideal opportunity for those in the deaf community to either train and volunteer or develop the experience further into potential careers in hospitality locally.”

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Susie Hart, the charity’s founder, opened a cafe run by the deaf community in Tanzania previously so has experience in running similar projects successfully.

The charity opened its shop three weeks before lockdown two hit but it says it has stayed “busy” with online orders and prepping new products for the shop when it is allowed to reopen next week.

Twenty voluntary organisations in the Harrogate district have shared £415,000 from the government’s Coronavirus Community Support Fund.

The fund enables small and medium sized not-for-profit organisations to help vulnerable groups during the pandemic.

A total of 8,250 organisations shared £200 million nationally.

The largest local beneficiaries were Community Catalysts, a social enterprise in Harrogate that helps people run community businesses, which received £69,000 and the Knaresborough community arts charity Orb, which was awarded £65,000.

Other major beneficiaries included Yorkshire Yoga & Therapy Centre in Knaresborough and Harrogate’s Wesley Centre, which received £48,990 and £37,500 respectively.

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In a statement on his website, Andrew Jones, the Conservative MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, said:

“Over the last decade since I became the MP for our area I have seen first-hand the valuable work many of the organisations do.

“I am delighted that they are benefiting from the support fund and continuing the fantastic work they do.”

The successful applicants were:

Community Catalysts £69,000
Orb £65,000
Yorkshire Yoga and Therapy Centre £48,990
Wesley Centre £37,500
Harrogate Mind £24,700
Open Country £24,212
Harrogate and District Community Action £23,346
Disability Action Yorkshire £21,893
Artizan International £19,465
Claro Enterprises £10,000
Resurrected Bites £10,000
Cliff House Community Support Services £10,000
Saint Michael’s Hospice £9,107
Boroughbridge and District Community Care £9,000
Autism Angels £8,500
Harrogate Samaritans £8,000
Vision Support Harrogate District £7,056
New Beginnings peer support group £4,332
Happy Wanderers Ambulance Association £3,200
Harrogate and Knaresborough Toy Library £1,307

Two charities, based in Harrogate, have combined efforts to bring plans back on track for a new shop to open on Oxford Street.

Artizan International was struggling to meet its planned opening date of October 13 after Covid impacted its funding.

The charity offers local craft sessions for disabled people but the pandemic put its mission on.

The organisation also works with groups in Peru and Ecuador to design and produce fabrics used to make crafts for the charity to sell. Funding from these crafts allows the charity to continue supporting those struggling with poverty abroad.

But the lockdown in South America halted the supply chain, leaving the charity without the merchandise to sell in order to support those relying on them.

This prompted Harrogate Scrubbers to step in.

During the height of the pandemic the volunteers provided over 3,000 sets of scrubs for local health facilities and were just as keen to step in to help Artizan International sew some of the crafts.

Susie Hart, chief executive and founder of Artizan International, said:

“Our goal has been to empower and support differently abled people to provide them with the same opportunities in life, and in developing countries an income and employment so they can support their own families.

“The recent amazing donation of the premises on Oxford Street was a dream come true as it provided us with premises to showcase their work and increase the revenue we can generate for them.

“We are so grateful to the people who have come forward to help.”

The charity was overwhelmed by the support it received following its social media plea for volunteers.

Claire Strachan, a member of Harrogate Scrubbers, said:

“We have a group of over 850 volunteers who were an unstoppable team, with many feeling lost when the appeal came to an end. Asking the group to support the charity has given some group members that sense of purpose back and it is so inspiring to see the enthusiasm return.”

Artizan International has long-term plans for the shop. It hopes to open a cafe and provide employment for people with hearing difficulties.

It plans to continue support those with different abilities here and abroad, providing them with skills and a way to earn an income.

Two Harrogate charities have received emergency funding from the Arts Council in an effort to recover from the impact of coronavirus.

The pandemic has left many charities unable to fundraise making grants essential in securing their futures. Harrogate International Festivals and Artizan International have both received grants from the Arts Council.

Grants such as these are being put towards programmes to continue to support their members over lockdown and also give the organisations the opportunity to plan for future events.

The amounts varied between organisation, Harrogate International Festival received £25,000. The chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals, Sharon Canavar said:

“We’re incredibly grateful that we have received this funding especially during such a challenging time for all. These funds will ensure we continue to deliver and communicate with our audiences during this pandemic. We have focused on our digital strategy producing and developing work for our newly launched HIF Player and bringing the arts into people’s homes. It has enabled us to pay our artists and to create a free podcast.”

Artizan International received a grant of £18,000 to help run online sessions in the upcoming months. Before lockdown the charity ran free craft workshops for adults and children with disabilities in Harrogate and worked with long-term patients at Harrogate District Hospital.

The UK programmes officer for the charity, Liz Cluderay said:

“Coronavirus has had a huge impact on us, we hold hundreds of craft workshops throughout the year but we haven’t been able to hold any over the past months. Our participants are already isolated under normal circumstances being vulnerable and disabled. This pandemic means that they are cut off from the few social opportunities they had available to them.

We had to look at the long-term problems we could face and we sent a plan to the Arts Council to hold our craft workshops over zoom. The funding is covering the costs for six months of weekly zoom meetings with craft packages sent to our members’ door. They are all very excited and looking forward to seeing their friends faces on zoom sessions.”

Harrogate International Festivals is relying on extra funding due to its loss of income during the pandemic.

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The Arts Council announced that a total of £64.8 million has been awarded to almost 9000 individuals organisations through their Covid-19 emergency response package.

Nina Baptiste, Senior Relationship Manager, North, Arts Council England said:

“I am really pleased that we have been able to support Harrogate International Festivals and Artizan International with our Emergency Response Funding.

“During this unprecedented time it is has been heart-breaking to see organisations being negatively impacted by the pandemic. I hope that our support will enable them to tackle the immediate challenges that they are facing.”