Cultural Ecologies In Practice

Join IOU Creation Centre & IOU Active Hub  for a series of experiential workshops based at IOU Hostel and surrounding landscape, working with a range of creative facilitators, makers, artists and exploring the connection between creative practice and nature.

This is your chance to explore a range of creative disciplines including movement, visual art and music, but also have the opportunity to deepen your own  personal practice. 

The 1 day event includes 3 sessions plus lunch at the Hostel

Tickets are priced at £30 for the day for those individuals or organisations able to cover the participant cost 

A number of free places are also available, please select this option if you are freelance, self employed or on low income 

Session 1 Movement & Connection lead by Kayte Coe

This first session will be spent outside, and will include gently guided  invitations through walking, sitting quietly and in simple but specific movement, that can help to regulate and calm the body in support of easier connection with other sentient beings and toward meeting our selves more deeply in relation to the world around us.

Please wear clothes that are easy to move in and bring waterproof layers and shoes so that you can work comfortably outside whatever the weather. Sun screen, insect repellent, water and a hat are all recommended too.  

Session 2 Nature Notebooking led by Steve Hindle and Melissa Davie

Calderdale is home to one of the UK's most precious habitats, the ancient grassland. Join local ecologist and fungi expert, Steve Hindle (aka. Peachy Steve), and illustrator and natural science communicator, Melissa Davie (Hey Nature), to experience them for yourselves! Steve will lead a walk to guide us through the ecology and significance of Calderdale's species-rich grasslands, and Mel will invite you to slow down, look closely and record your observations as field notes in your Nature Notebooks.

We will visit High Hurst Wood Meadow, a local site where volunteers are reviving traditional land-management practices to restore and conserve the ancient grasslands, and explore Calderdale's landscape through the eyes of a naturalist. 

Session 3 Sound in/Sound Out Workshop led by Simon Partridge

A short welcome and introduction prefaces a directed sound walk, visiting audio environments in the Hostel's surrounding woods and landscape. You will be are encouraged to consider environments acoustically,- the sounds they contain, how those sounds work together, acoustic energy and particular audio characters, both natural and manmade, of those spaces and how those sounds make them feel. 

On returning to the Hostel you can immediately share your experiences of the walk in a way that feels appropriate to you e.g sound/music-making, text/spoken word, movement, mark-making or photography. - all to become a shared creative response to the external audio environments.

Day Schedule 16/07/2026

The IOU Hostel is accessible with dedicated parking, step free access, accessible ground floor toilet and all activites taking place in the Hostel will be in ground foor spaces and the terrace.  Please do contact us with any access needs and we will do our best working with the workshop facilitators to accommodate and help you get the most out of the workshops.