Rosehill is a beautiful arts centre based just outside Whitehaven high up overlooking the Irish Sea.

It’s a hub for all kinds of performance and brings both local and national talent on stage. But it’s also increasingly engaging with its local community too.

CACN’s Tom Speight went along to talk to the people who are now running Rosehill to see how their plans are coming together for 2025. And we also get a chance to hear a Rosehill performance too – by Glaswegian singer-songwriter Alice Faye, on her Cumbria debut! She spoke with Tom Salmon and played him one or two of her tunes too....

Lorna Singleton is one of Britain’s last remaining swillers, a specialist in weaving baskets using coppiced oak and hazel. Using simple hand tools and ancient techniques, she creates baskets based on traditional patterns from South Cumbria as well as patterns found on her travels.

She’s based in Grizedale Forest – and as well as running her own one woman basket making business, she’s spent the last year teaching seven basketmakers the unique skills of spelk basketry on a course called Wood Water Weave.

This autumn, a beautiful exhibition by the same name has opened at Grizedale Forest Gallery, showing off the wonderful products they’ve all made.

For this episode of Behind the Scenery, Tom Speight went to talk to some of the basket makers. But he began by visiting Lorna in her workshop – to find out how she works…

Eden Project Morecambe is something that’s been talked about for some years now – the development of a brownfield sight in the Lancashire town into something like the massively successful Eden Project in Cornwall. And it’s recently been handed another £2.5m by the government, bringing the total funding to £5m, to allow design teams to get going.

But why should it matter to Cumbria ? Specifically, to the Cumbrian arts and culture sector ?

For Episode 27 of Behind the Scenery, Tom Speight went along to The Midland Hotel, itself a beautiful art deco jewel on the Morecambe coastline, where there was a gathering of businesses and organisations with an interest in Eden Project Morecambe. All organised by Carlisle based PR group Intro.

He caught up with a number of people with an interest in the project’s success and began by chatting to Si Bellamy, one of those in charge of the project, to find out about the current state of play – and why it might matter to Cumbrians....