Alison Critchlow is a contemporary British painter based in Bowness on Solway – right on the northern edge of Cumbria.

She paints mainly in oils. She’s recently been shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2024, an annual event which promotes the best of contemporary painting produced in the UK.

Alison is also one of the organisers of the annual Around the Island open studio art trail which takes place in September in north west Cumbria.

Tom Speight went to meet her in her studio – but began on the crunching shores of the Solway…

Exhibitions showing off world class art in Cumbria come and go. But none quite like the artwork of Jackie Morris.

Jackie rocketed to prominence with the phenomenal success and acclaim associated with The Lost Words, a big, sumptuous book full of her wildlife illustrations accompanied by writer Robert Macfarlane’s words.

But Jackie has been drawing and painting all of her life. And a brand new exhibition at Rheged takes you through that lifetime’s journey, from childhood drawings through to The Lost Words and its successor, The Lost Spells. Over 250 pieces of work in all.

Tom Speight went to meet Jackie Morris as the exhibition prepared to throw open its doors.

How can we be smarter about funding our work at a time of real challenge for the cultural sector in Cumbria ?

That was the question being discussed at the most recent Cumbria Arts and Culture Network Big Meet in May.

Star of the show was Edinburgh based Bernard Ross, Director of =mc consulting, a leading training and consultancy organization working to transform the performance of value-driven organizations worldwide. He knows a thing or two about fundraising too.

So for this special edition of Behind the Scenery, Tom Speight asked delegates to help him pull together the main themes emerging at the conference, to see how they might go about answering that thorny question about fundraising.