Articles
Catch-up on the latest news, articles and other creative stuff going on in Huntingdonshire.
A successful second year of St Neots Festival
More than 12,500 people flocked to the award-winning St Neots Festival 2024.
Drink and Draw
The introductory Drink and Draw event in April 2024 at The Barley Mow was a tremendous success
What are these Neotists all about?
What are these Neotists all about? I mean is it like a volunteer group? I mean I've heard of them and I'm aware of them through the stuff they do with the council, but what are they?
Dame Evelyn Glennie becomes patron of Neotists
It gives us great pleasure to announce that solo percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie has become a patron of Neotists.
Phil Baines, 1958–2024
It is with sadness that we are announcing the death of Neotist, friend and iconic graphic designer Phil Baines.
St Neots Festival wins EAFN Festivals of the Year Awards 2023
We are delighted to announce that the music festival we produced last year has been awarded Festival of the Year by the East Anglian Festival Network (EAFN).
Creative couple become our new patrons
We're delighted to say that Hilary and Michael Murfin, who are big advocates of what we have created with Neotists.
Two new patrons join Neotists
We are delighted to announce two new patrons who have joined our organisation.
Arts on the square
The Market Square in St Neots has been reclaimed as the social and cultural heart of St Neots, instead of a car park.
Interview: Calum Morrison
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Calum Morrison a photographer and film producer who takes photos and produces videos for the music industry. He gets a kick out of being on set and tells us about his best experiences.
Interview: Rueben Milne
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Rueben Milne who provides speaker support to people who speak at conferences, talk at public events or create videos. Performance is a big part of what he teaches people and he tells us more about it.
Interview: Steve Muzolf
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Steve Muzolf the principal of music and theatre academy in St Neots. He started playing the piano at the age of six and tells us about the rest of his amazing career.
Interview: Adele Gilpin
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Adele Gilpin a service designer for local governments. She started a career as a software developer but changed as she wanted to try and design the services.
Interview: Asha Tharoor
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Asha Tharoor a communications consultant who helps people tell their stories and get their message across with a focus on social and economic change sectors.
Interview: Steve Todd
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Steve Todd a graphic designer for the government and an illustrator in his spare time. His illustration is a mixture of traditional materials and digital and tells us all about it.
Interview: Emily Jolley
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Emily Jolley an abstract artist and founder of Huntingdon Art Gallery. She tells us about her own experience of being an artist as well as how to collaborate with others on projects.
Interview: Richard Slade
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Richard Slade, co-founder of the Neotists, graphic designer, front-end developer and artist who shares his views on starting out in the creative industry.
Interview: Simon Muzolf
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Simon Muzolf an academy manager, drum and guitar teacher and set builder. He has been involved in dance and drama from a young age and tells us all about his journey.
Interview: Irene De Jong
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Irene De Jong an illustrator who runs art classes and workshops online with her own creative community. She explains how anyone can make art and enjoy being creative.
Interview: Paul Berryman
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Paul Berryman is an artist who specialises in drawing and painting from the human face and figure. He tells about how he tip-toed into the creative industry.
Interview: Ingrid Fawcett
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with Ingrid Fawcett a communication manager, jewellery designer and singer in a community choir that sings to popular music. She tells us about her journey.
Interview: James Tortise-Crawford
As part of our Interview series 1, we spoke with James Tortise-Crawford who has worked in arts and culture for theatres, universities, councils and museums and shares with us what he has learnt along the way.
Five questions for creatives: Rich Gemmell
Rich Gemmell has been a full time designer and illustrator for over ten years and has worked for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Hodder publishing house and many others.
Five questions for creatives: Stephen Hughes
Stephen is an art and photography teacher living in St Neots and working in Stamford. He has explored all aspects of art as part of his 16-year KS3, 4 and 5 career,
Five questions for creatives: Murad Cumhur
Murad Cumhur is a Turkish-born marketing, customer relations and brand management specialist and photographer who has relocated to the UK with his family
Five questions for creatives: Chris Green
By day Chris Green is a design engineer in the agricultural and food processing industries, but his real love is building things from corrugated cardboard.
Five questions for creatives: Kim Rossiter
Kim Rossiter is an ambitious and experienced series producer and edit producer with a passion for documentary and factual entertainment series
Five questions for creatives: Mark Wingfield
Mark is a multi-award-winning musician and audio engineer. He has played concerts across the globe and his albums have received critical acclaim.
Who are the Neotists?
A short film commissioned by Cambridge-based arts charity Collusion as part of Future Takeover
Future Takeover
Collusion and the St Neots Smart Place initiative present Future Takeover, an event over three days exploring the long-term growth of St Neots and its creative sector through ambitious thinking.
Five questions for creatives: Jessie Stringer
Jessie recently graduated from studying architecture at Falmouth University and is also an artist in her own right.
Five questions for creatives: Alex Whiteley
Alex Whiteley is a creative ideas-led graphic designer based in Huntingdon and believes in high-quality, considered design, it’s a conceptual artistic approach shaped into a strong set of design principles.
Five questions for creatives: Jelena Jordanovic-Lewis
Jelena Jordanovic-Lewis is an illustrator, born in Yugoslavia who grew up in Germany.
Five questions for creatives: Sam Darlow
Sam Darlow is a freelance illustrator and designer based in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
Five questions for creatives: Luke Butcher
Luke Butcher studied architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, University of Cambridge and University of Pennsylvania, where he held a prestigious Thouron Scholarship.
Five questions for creatives: Anna Piecha
Anna Piecha is a graphic designer based in St Neots who graduated from the Fine Art Academy in Poland in 2011.
A Day For DiL — saying goodbye David Ian Law
In June 2018 I was up early and on the train for a journey that would both physically and mentally allow me to properly say goodbye to my friend David Ian Law.
Mental Health Awareness Week: Top tips for lone workers
It is easy to think of Mental Health as being something that somebody suffers from
Five questions for creatives: Anna Kreeger
Anna Kreeger is a designer based in St Neots who designs leather bags and accessories for M.Hulot which she founded in 2011.
Five questions for creatives: Rebecca Douglas
Rebecca runs a PR and content marketing agency near St Neots called AIM which was set up to create a unique partnership with clients.
Five questions for creatives: Adam Jenkins
Adam Jenkins is a passionate, fresh and creative designer who has been working as a graphic designer at an international company since 2007.
Five questions for creatives: Simon Devlin
Simon Devlin is a RIBA chartered professional architect with almost 20 years of experience in the construction industry.
Five questions for creatives: Sian Deciantis
Sian Deciantis currently trains and assesses digital marketing and creative media apprentices, freelances in photography and video work, as well as running her own style blog.
Five questions for creatives: Adrian Storey
Adrian Storey is a freelance video producer, cameraman, editor, photographer and a recovering ex-pat who recently returned to the UK after a 20-year absence
Five questions for creatives: Nick Allen
This month's five questions is a guest post from London-based Nick Allen who after 25 years working for multi-national financial institutions left the security of his career to setup the design firm
Five questions for creatives: Claire Montgomerie
Claire Montgomerie is a textiles designer specialising in knitting and crochet, constructing fabrics, garments, creatures and accessories
Five questions for creatives: Grace Bristo
London-born Grace Bristo has fallen in love with film photography and now works mainly on film.
Five questions for creatives: Dave Fleet
Dave Fleet is a field recordist, electronic musician and photographer.
Five questions for creatives: Nicola Westgarth-Flynn
Nicola Westgarth-Flynn is a product designer and part of the St Neots based duo that formed Koti Studio in 2014
Five questions for creatives: Becks Simpson
Becks Simpson is a freelance hair stylist who specialises in vintage, bride and events.
Five questions for creatives: Robert Barker
Robert Barker is a multi-award winning garden and landscape designer.
Five questions for creatives: Oliver Winconek
Oliver Winconek was born in Bedford and didn't choose the formal Art education route.
Five questions for creatives: Kat Harris
Kat Harris is an industrial designer and part of the St Neots based designer firm.
Five questions for creatives: Massimo Imbastari
Massimo Imbastari is an accomplished, dedicated and highly respected graphic designer with a career spanning more than twenty years
Five question for creatives: Emma Scott
Emma Scott has 25 years radio presenting experience and has worked all over the country
Five questions for creatives: Sammi Sparke
Sammi Sparke is a portrait photographer specialising in creative portraits, lifestyle and environmental baby and children photography.
A wildlife photographer journeys along the Ouse Valley Way
Inspired by Paul Muir’s article on painting the Great Ouse, I recently took the opportunity to walk part of the Ouse Valley Way
Five questions for creatives: Andrew Kelly
Andrew Kelly is a freelance calligrapher and hand lettering artist.
Five questions for creatives: Maciek Platek
Maciek Platek is a self-taught photographer who graduated in 2009 as a Chef.
Five questions for creatives: Stephen Molyneaux
Stephen Molyneaux started his career in the games industry before moving into cinema.
The personal perspective a PechaKucha talk
I was asked to talk about my work at PechaKucha around four months before the event.
Five questions for creatives: Christian Payne
Christian Payne specialises in creative technology and communications.
Five questions for creatives: Max McMurdo
Furniture hacker Max McMurdo is a passionate eco-designer who restores everyday waste objects.
Neotists — raising the profile of creatives in St Neots
Since we launched the Neotists website a month ago we've had over 2,600 page views.
Why should you do a PechaKucha talk?
I’ve given lots of presentations over the years, so when I was invited to do a PechaKucha talk at St Neots I thought, “no problem”.
The therapy of drawing with chubby wax crayons
After I had finished my training as a drama therapist I decided to embark on a psychoanalysis to help me both personally and professionally.
Neotists – creating a creative community for St Neots
Neotists started about a year ago when my partner, Clair and I realised that St Neots didn't have a visible creative community.
