News/Blog

Arts Council England to invest £1,000,000 in arts & culture in Crawley

We are excited to announce that Crawley’s Creative Playground has been invited to become an Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places National Portfolio Organisation.

The Creative Playground programme is an ambitious project that will support local people to engage in high quality arts and culture in Crawley as audiences, participants, makers, producers and curators. Local people will work with a team of experts to develop their skills, engage in a wide range of different types of creativity and make decisions about what art and culture takes place in their town in homes, work places, community venues, outdoor areas and public spaces.

A consortium of six Crawley organisations has been successful in securing up to £1 million investment in a three year programme of creativity in the town. Manor Royal Business Improvement District, Crawley LGBTU+, Crawley Town Community Foundation, Diverse Crawley Creative Crawley and The Hawth will form the core consortium to govern the project. Creative Crawley will line manage the Project Director.

The project will employ artists, production managers, marketing, PR and audience development specialists, evaluation specialists, producers, community specialists and more and will involve a range of voluntary opportunities too. Creative workshops, shows, gigs, exhibitions, digital projects, outdoor art and festivals covering a range of art forms from local, national and international artists and arts organisations will be at the heart of the project.

Alongside the £1 million investment from Arts Council England the project will lever another nearly £600,000 and 40% of that income is already confirmed from partners including Crawley Borough Council, Crawley Town Centre Business Improvement District and Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival.

The project will begin in April 2022 with a year long  development period and run to the end of March 2025.

NB this news item has been updated since it originally appeared in Dec 2021.

Read the press release here: Crawley’s Creative Playground PRESS RELEASE 2nd December 2021

Images by Jacob Punter. Featuring Graphic Rewilding: Crawley Town Centre by Baker & Borowski. Co-commissioned by Creative Crawley and Crawley Town Centre BID.

Left to Right: Vincent Martin, Darren Ford, Louise Blackwell, Marilyn Le Feuvre and Dave Watmore, Crawley’s Creative Playground consortium members and lead delivery partner.