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History

Pioneer Projects was established in Bentham as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee in 1996 by a group of artists formerly trading as Celebratory Arts for Primary Healthcare. Following an arts-led health needs assessment in the local community it began to rent its first workspace in 1997. In 2005, following a successful period of fundraising, Pioneer was able to purchase and refurbish its current premises, Looking Well Studios. This converted warehouse in the centre of Bentham has been Pioneer’s base ever since.

Over its 29-year history, the organisation has developed and delivered services focused on creative arts and mental health and wellbeing across the whole of Craven district and beyond, whilst retaining an important additional community function within Bentham itself. This latter role has grown to include hosting Bentham Community Library alongside delivering its regular offer.

Successive governments have acknowledged the importance of creative arts to health and wellbeing, not least in Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, the 2017 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health, and Wellbeing. This recommended embedding arts for health and wellbeing in health policy, including increasing partnership work with arts and cultural organisations in the delivery of services, and the development of new approaches such as arts on prescription. In this sense, Pioneer Projects has always been ahead of its time, and remains at the forefront of developing creative approaches to better mental health at a time where this is starting to achieve more mainstream acceptance.

Despite this ongoing relevance, Pioneer has nevertheless had its ups and downs. The previous Strategy and Business Plan from 2017 was written after seven years of political austerity had severely impacted on the scope and scale of Pioneer’s work, reducing its funding, shrinking its workforce, and seeing a contraction of its services. The 2017 Plan was therefore focused on re-establishing Pioneer as an impactful but sustainable organisation at a time of shrinking resource. It led to Pioneer establishing a relationship with Orb Community Arts in Knaresborough, a like-minded ‘Creative Health’ organisation facing similar challenges, and The Boards of both organisations taking the decision to employ a shared Strategic Director.

Governed by an annually reviewed Memorandum of Understanding this arrangement continues successfully to this day. Though both organisations remain independent, the role has provided important capacity rarely available in smaller organisations, to develop a wider range of services, a more diverse and sustainable set of funding streams, and the relationships with health and the local authority that ensure continued strategic relevance. Indeed, Pioneer’s resulting success over the succeeding years has been apparent, with the organisation able to not just manage a successful path through ongoing austerity, but also navigate the more recent challenges of the Covid pandemic, Brexit, and the Cost-of-living Crisis whilst delivering effective and growing services.

As of January 2026, Pioneer Projects employs 11 permanent staff (more than double the team of 2017), alongside a growing pool of sessional artists. These are delivering a range of creative and mental health wellbeing support at mulitple locations across Craven, in partnership with a range of community, cultural, and statutory partners. These include the new unitary North Yorkshire Council, the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Partnership, Bradford District Care Trust, and the three district Primary Care Networks. Annual statistics from 2023 showed us supporting 687 unique individuals, across 6,843 episodes of support, with an average of 10 interventions per person. What is more, 80% of those assessed are recording maintained or increased mental health and wellbeing, with 98% stating that their wellbeing was stronger than it would be as a result of engagement.
Pioneer is once again on the front foot.

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Company registered in England No. 3241874. Registered Charity No. 1067976