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.
17 July 2024/by Richard Slade

Drink and Draw

The introductory Drink and Draw event in April 2024 at The Barley Mow was a tremendous success
20 May 2024/by Richard Slade

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?
22 March 2024/by Richard Slade

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.
26 February 2024/by Richard Slade

Phil Baines, 1958–2024

It is with sadness that we are announcing the death of Neotist, friend and iconic graphic designer Phil Baines.
29 January 2024/by Richard Slade

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).
20 January 2024/by Richard Slade

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.
24 October 2023/by Richard Slade

Two new patrons join Neotists

We are delighted to announce two new patrons who have joined our organisation.
20 October 2023/by Richard Slade

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.
18 October 2023/by Richard Slade

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.
7 August 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
31 July 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
24 July 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
17 July 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
10 July 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
3 July 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
26 June 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
19 June 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
12 June 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
5 June 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
29 May 2023/by Adrian Storey

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.
22 May 2023/by Adrian Storey
James Tortise-Crawford

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.
15 May 2023/by Richard Slade
rich Gemmell

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.
26 February 2020/by Richard Slade

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,
18 December 2019/by Richard Slade

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
11 October 2019/by Richard Slade

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.
6 October 2019/by Richard Slade

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
10 July 2019/by Richard Slade

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.
12 March 2019/by Richard Slade

Who are the Neotists?

A short film commissioned by Cambridge-based arts charity Collusion as part of Future Takeover
27 January 2019/by Richard Slade

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.
10 January 2019/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Jessie Stringer

Jessie recently graduated from studying architecture at Falmouth University and is also an artist in her own right.
2 January 2019/by Richard Slade

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.
3 December 2018/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Jelena Jordanovic-Lewis

Jelena Jordanovic-Lewis is an illustrator, born in Yugoslavia who grew up in Germany.
27 November 2018/by Richard Slade
sam darlow

Five questions for creatives: Sam Darlow

Sam Darlow is a freelance illustrator and designer based in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
15 November 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
16 September 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
3 August 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
9 July 2018/by Richard Slade

Mental Health Awareness Week: Top tips for lone workers

It is easy to think of Mental Health as being something that somebody suffers from
29 May 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
15 April 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
21 March 2018/by Richard Slade

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.
14 February 2018/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Simon Devlin

Simon Devlin is a RIBA chartered professional architect with almost 20 years of experience in the construction industry.
24 July 2017/by Richard Slade

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.
28 April 2017/by Richard Slade
Adrian Storey

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
24 January 2017/by Richard Slade

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
13 January 2017/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Claire Montgomerie

Claire Montgomerie is a textiles designer specialising in knitting and crochet, constructing fabrics, garments, creatures and accessories
1 December 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Grace Bristo

London-born Grace Bristo has fallen in love with film photography and now works mainly on film.
15 November 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Dave Fleet

Dave Fleet is a field recordist, electronic musician and photographer.
1 November 2016/by Richard Slade
Nicola Westgarth-Flynn

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
1 October 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Becks Simpson

Becks Simpson is a freelance hair stylist who specialises in vintage, bride and events.
1 September 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Robert Barker

Robert Barker is a multi-award winning garden and landscape designer.
16 August 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Oliver Winconek

Oliver Winconek was born in Bedford and didn't choose the formal Art education route.
1 August 2016/by Richard Slade
Kathryn Harris

Five questions for creatives: Kat Harris

Kat Harris is an industrial designer and part of the St Neots based designer firm.
4 July 2016/by Richard Slade

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
15 June 2016/by Richard Slade

Five question for creatives: Emma Scott

Emma Scott has 25 years radio presenting experience and has worked all over the country
1 June 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Sammi Sparke

Sammi Sparke is a portrait photographer specialising in creative portraits, lifestyle and environmental baby and children photography.
3 May 2016/by Richard Slade

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
22 April 2016/by Richard Slade
PechaKucha St Neots

Five questions for creatives: Andrew Kelly

Andrew Kelly is a freelance calligrapher and hand lettering artist.
1 April 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Maciek Platek

Maciek Platek is a self-taught photographer who graduated in 2009 as a Chef.
1 March 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Stephen Molyneaux

Stephen Molyneaux started his career in the games industry before moving into cinema.
11 February 2016/by Richard Slade

The personal perspective a PechaKucha talk

I was asked to talk about my work at PechaKucha around four months before the event.
4 February 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Christian Payne

Christian Payne specialises in creative technology and communications.
1 February 2016/by Richard Slade

Five questions for creatives: Max McMurdo

Furniture hacker Max McMurdo is a passionate eco-designer who restores everyday waste objects.
26 January 2016/by Richard Slade

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.
21 December 2015/by Richard Slade
Ann Hawkins PechaKucha

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”.
27 November 2015/by Ann Hawkins

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.
18 November 2015/by Richard Slade

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.
16 November 2015/by Richard Slade