Crosshatch Art Workshops & Makerspace in Winsford wins a visual arts award

In a shopping centre more used to errands than easels, Crosshatch Art Workshops & Makerspace has spent the past decade giving Winsford people a place to get creative. This year that work was recognised with the Visual Arts Award at the Community and Voluntary Arts Awards for Cheshire West.

The ninth edition of the awards was held at Theatre Porto in Ellesmere Port on Monday 16 March, celebrating the projects, organisations, leaders and volunteers who bring creativity to life in communities across the borough. The awards themselves were made by Frodsham glass artist Jennifer Barker and presented by the High Sheriff of Cheshire, Joëlle Warren.

In giving Crosshatch the Visual Arts Award, the judges praised the group's decade of commitment to enriching the lives of local residents through creativity for wellbeing. They were also impressed by its partnerships and inclusive approach, which they said support shared ownership of Winsford's creative life.

That spirit of working together is easy to see. Crosshatch is based in Winsford Cross Shopping Centre, where the community art facility Cine Window Winsford moved into a shared space with the artists of Crosshatch Studios. Cine Window shows film, moving image and photography by artists, makers, students and community groups from Winsford and beyond, so the two make natural neighbours.

The makerspace has also become a venue for wider projects. In April it hosted a pair of free zine-making workshops run as part of Cheshire Archives' 20,000 Women Zine Project, which aims to collect and preserve the stories of women and girls living in Cheshire today. Participants were invited to handmake their own small self-published book, bringing together thoughts, drawings, stitches, photos and notes with help from workshop facilitators.

Crucially, those sessions were aimed at adults with no need to be an artist to join in, which sums up the welcoming approach the judges singled out. The project forms part of a creative engagement programme linked to the two new archive centres being developed in Chester and Crewe.

Crosshatch was in good company on the night. Other winners included AmaSing for music, Kingsley Players Youth Theatre in the children and youth category and Neston Theatre Festival for performing arts, a reminder of how much grassroots creativity there is across west Cheshire.

For Winsford, having a creative space under the same roof as everyday shopping is something to cherish, and the award is a well-earned thank you to everyone who has kept it going. Anyone keen to try a workshop or find out what is coming up next can call in at Crosshatch in Winsford Cross Shopping Centre and ask.