Culture & Creativity

Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking has a growing national & international significance as a place offering high-quality, innovative creative opportunities for those in the arts & cultural sector, connecting them with global thinkers in sustainability & wellbeing. Artists, creatives & changemakers come to nurture their thinking & creative endeavours. We provide a public cultural education programme, covering new models of creative leadership, performing & visual arts, create health, artistic & changemaker residencies, festivals & talks.

Here at Hawkwood, we place culture and creativity at the heart of our work. We work with artists and creatives by providing:

An innovative residency programme

Supporting over 100 artists and companies a year with research and development time.
Supported by The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust.

A diverse programme of creative courses

Providing over 200 courses a year on-site and on-line – and offering financial support to attend for those in need.

Rehearsal space for artists to develop new work

Our studios and rehearsal rooms are hired by some of the leading creative companies in the UK.

Access to high-quality work for the local community

Our local community is invited to free in “development” performances by extraordinary nationally recognised artists.

An annual cultural events programme

We create a year-round cultural events programme including film nights, talks, and concerts.

A nationally recognised arts and environmental festival

Seed Festivals welcomes around 1,500 people and we also host an annual community festival with local performers.

A place of reflection for artists and creatives

Artists and creatives can consider, discuss and evolve thoughts critical to human endeavour and the future of the planet.

“We are proud to generate income through our wider activities that are channelled directly back into the creative and cultural economy. Over the last 4 years, we have invested over £350,000 into supporting artists and creative practitioners and £450,000 into educational tutors.”
Supported by The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust.

Our innovative, curated artist residency programme (which brings unique partnerships together) offers opportunities to create, develop new collaborations and test work before distributing content and touring to national venues.

Our programme offers support, to individual artists and national creative organisations including The Royal Court, Julie’s Bicycle, Roundhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Lyric Hammersmith to develop a talent pipeline and content.

In the last few years, we have supported over 400 artists to stay at Hawkwood to create – we have supported theatre practitioners, musicians, dancers, puppeteers, rappers, poets, grime artists, visual artists – it is this diversity that makes such interesting collaborations. None of this work would be possible without the support of The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust.

Hawkwood is not just about providing space, it is about giving inspiration and building of creative ideas together and nurturing artists to enable them to create the very best work possible.

We provide a strong diverse network of support from leading cultural organisations to individual artist’s young creative catalysts and we work locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Our open, accessible space offers national artists opportunities to work alongside local emerging artists, breaking down barriers, building connections, developing understanding and raising aspirations. We have cultivated a centre for future thinking providing artists with a wider context to stimulate ideas and we have seen much of the work developed here to go onto the national stage.

Hawkwood offers a connected programme of sustainability and climate change work which inspires and supports different perspectives.

We also provide a space to allow cultural organisations to develop their ideas and forward strategies – we’ve worked with Music Works, Wise Children, The London Theatre Consortium, Youth Music, Cheltenham Festivals, The Royal Court Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and Julie’s Bicycle.

Hawkwood’s cultural offer, combined with its unique setting, means we are relevant to organisations and artists across the country.

More locally, we are developing a create health programme with Kingshill House and New Brewery Arts to provide a wellbeing initiative through creativity. We work with local partners to tackle inequality & access to our programme. This countywide, Creative Health Centre programme, has been developed in partnership with Create Gloucestershire, Stroud District Council & the NHS to support the psycho-social recovery of our communities through a joined-up county-wide programme which will work with high-quality creative practitioners. The programme will support well-being through culture & creativity. You can find more about this project here.

“Hawkwood is a beautiful place, stewarded by an extraordinary team who make everyone’s wellbeing the top priority. I have always found the team to be collaborative, flexible, and supportive but during 2020 they were simply outstanding. Within government guidelines, extreme weather, and a reduced workforce, Alicia and the team somehow enabled us to deliver some important NHS health & wellbeing cultural events to local people, in a safe, nurturing,  restorative environment that was completely free from fear, and which helped people relax and breathe again. I can’t commend the Hawkwood team  and venue highly enough” 
– Jules Ford, Cultural Commissioning Group NHS

We offer a year-round programme of events for our local community ranging from sharing of work in development by exceptional artists to talks, films, concerts, and festivals including Seed Festival, the UK’s biggest arts and environmental festival.

We are proud to generate income through our wider activities that are channelled directly back into the creative and cultural economy and over the last 4 years we have invested over £350,000 into supporting artists and creative practitioners and £450,000 into educational tutors.

Artists say they can create differently here, think differently here, and are supported by our deep care for their work.

We will soon be organising an artist take over of our Hawkwood Instagram artist alumni who have created at Hawkwood to share their work and we’re building our online creative.

“Hawkwood is a vital cultural organisation. It is rooted in the local community, but has a regional and national reach, playing a crucial part in our tourism economy. Hawkwood’s programme brings people from across the world to Stroud. Many new creative works have started at Hawkwood and gone on to have national significance. It is a place that plays an important role in supporting a collaborative approach to the cultural ecology working with local partners such as Strike a Light, Stroud Valley Arts, Gloucester Culture Trust & Create Gloucestershire.”
– Siobhan Baillie, MP

Our Artist Residencies

Artists have said that Hawkwood’s setting, place, and atmosphere allow creativity and new ideas to develop like nowhere else. Our residencies offer a week-long period of creative incubation, in which artists can focus entirely on the creative process, away from the demands of everyday life, and provide a welcome opportunity for reflection, research, and collaboration. The residencies also allow for the possibility of sharing and discussing work in progress with fellow artists or other interested parties.

Find Out More

Our Partners

The Music Works
Schaubühne Berlin
Midlands Arts Centre
The Lyric Hammersmith
Art Shape
The Roundhouse
Arts Council
Complicité
Royal Court Theatre
The London Theatre Consortium
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Cheltenham Music Festival
Strike A Light
The Francis W Reckitt Arts Trust
English Touring Opera
Create Gloucestershire

Not just a place people come to learn, but a source of ideas, challenging dialogue, art and artistry, new understandings, personal growth, and human development.”

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