Jones Bros sponsorship helps craft community fun for Denbighshire 3rd Aug 2023
Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK is supporting a series of workshops to boost creative opportunities for its local community during the school holidays.
Located just a stone’s throw away from its headquarters, the firm is sponsoring Ruthin Craft Centre ’s summer programme, which will be free of charge to families with children between 8-18 living in rural Denbighshire.
The package of events, titled ‘A Sense of Place’, will combine craft, conservation, and archaeology, to encourage innovative thinking and exploration, across 11 workshops in August.
Jones Bros will support the programme through an Arts & Business Cymru sponsorship, which aims to establish mutually beneficial relationships between companies and creative organisations in Wales.
The sessions will encourage participants to produce art through engaging with and understanding environmental practices.
Workshop themes will include:
- Learning how to sun-print with natural resources
- Casting materials after time on site with artists, rangers, and archaeologists
- Archaeologist and ranger talks on exploring heritage
- Crafting ‘nest’ structures out of recycled and upcycled items
- Archaeologist and artist talks on history, mythology, and drawing
- Tree Identification and developing bushcraft skills
- Processing earth pigments to create watercolours
- Plant Identification and natural seed-bomb making
- Exploring the elements of earth, air, fire, and water using natural pigments, materials, and movement
To showcase what was made during the project, a final session will be held at Dinas Bran to exhibit the work, in addition to hosting talks from artists, rangers, and archaeologists to draw the programme to a close.
Jones Bros marketing manager Lynne Williams said: “It’s vital for businesses to actively encourage creative skills, especially in engineering-related industries where curiosity is essential.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to support community life right on our doorstep, particularly as the programme focuses on understanding the history of the area where we live and work and developing eco-friendly skills.”
The sponsorship builds on Jones Bros’ ongoing partnership with Ruthin Craft Centre, as the company donated money for the refurbishment of a century-old railway crane and installation information panels located at the site.
Lynne added: “We have a long-standing relationship with the centre, and through sponsorship, we hope to ensure its innovative work reaches more of the community.
“We look forward to seeing people in the area make the most of the activities on offer.”
Established in the 1950s, Jones Bros owns one of the largest plant fleets in the UK and employs approximately 500 people.
The company is currently working on contracts in various sectors including highways , flood and marine defence , waste managemen t and renewable energy around the UK.
The company runs an award-winning apprenticeship scheme, which has produced nearly 40 per cent of its current workforce, with many of its senior managers having started out as apprentices or in a trainee role. It has recruited more than 100 apprentices during the past three years.
For more information about the sponsorship programme, contact seren.gwanwyn@denbighshireleisure.co.uk