Ashbourne Arts

The small market town of Ashbourne is situated at the southern end of the beautiful Derbyshire Dales and is locally known as the gateway to Dovedale. Its population, slightly more than 7000, serves the outlying areas of the southern Dales and parts of the Staffordshire Moorlands and East Staffordshire. Its rural situation is attractive to tourists, but potentially isolating for local communities.

The Ashbourne Arts steering group came together as a result of the enthusiasm of members of the Ashbourne Youth and Adult Community Centre Management Committee, local artists, craftspeople and people from the communities surrounding Ashbourne. Its original directors and members, largely unchanged today still perform their roles in a voluntary capacity, a unique situation for a festival of this size within the East Midlands.

The members of the steering group of Ashbourne Arts represent a remarkably diverse range of talents, but all possess a desire to see art and culture in the area flourish, primarily through the medium of an annual festival, which aims to encourage community focus and generate interest from both the local population and visitors alike.

Ashbourne Arts and Ashbourne Festival celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2009. The company was granted Charitable status in July 2007 and its primary function is to organise a two-week long Festival during June and July each year. The Festival continues to grow in stature, now attracting support from major funders and internationally known performers to this charming rural area. But not forgetting its community origins, it continues to provide for the cultural needs of the town and surrounding area.