The Creative Playground is a new arts project in Crawley set up to engage more local people in arts & culture led by Manor Royal Business Improvement District and a consortium of local organisations: Creative Crawley, Crawley LGBT+, The Hawth, Diverse Crawley and Crawley Town Community Foundation. It is funded as part of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places Programme.
In 10 years’ time, Crawley will be a creative playground. It will be a place that inspires playfulness, invention, risk taking, care and fun. Every building, bus, bridge, street, park and person in Crawley will engage positively with creativity. Each new economic development will have creativity at its heart, each person in the town will have access to and agency in deciding what creative activities and world class artists will live work and play in Crawley making it a place that is celebrated around the world as a tolerant, vibrant and creative place to live, study and work.
This ambitious project will enable local people to lead a programme of arts and culture and 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.
Creative People and Places is a national action learning programme funded by Arts Council England. It’s about more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in brilliant art experiences in the places where they live. It focuses on parts of the country where involvement in arts and culture is significantly below the national average.
The 39 Creative People and Places programmes cover 56 local authority areas, including 11 entirely new areas announced in December 2021.
Crawley is one of ten Arts Council Priority Places in the southeast of England.
The Creative Playground is the Creative People and Places programme for Crawley. A consortium of organisations led by Manor Royal BID has secured £1 million from Arts Council England to launch the programme. The investment covers the first three years of a 10-year vision to develop Crawley as a Creative Playground for everyone.
Image credit: Crawley Pride August 2021
