CPP Projects: South East

Creative People and Places funds 9 projects across the South East of England. Find out more about each project.

Basildon | BasildON

Project partners: Things Made Public CIC (lead). FutureCity, Basildon Borough Council, Eastgate Shopping Centre,  Essex Library Service, Basildon Street Science,  Therapy In Music Expression. 

BasildON will redefine what culture means to the people of Basildon, celebrating and valuing all Basildon people and cultures in all their glory. Together, they will create a place that champions people to embrace and value their creativity individually and collectively. A place that believes that there is no “right” way to get creative. Simply put, the BasildON CPP isn’t there to ‘give residents a voice,’ or ‘help them write their score’, it’s merely there to plug in the sound equipment and run the soundcheck, empowering residents to make a stronger, louder and braver sound than ever before.

Crawley | Creative Playground

Project partners: Manor Royal Business Improvement District (Lead), Diverse Crawley, The Hawth Theatre, Crawley Town FC, Community Foundation and Crawley LGBT+ CIC. 

The Creative Playground is a transformational action research programme offering exceptional creative experiences with and for the people of Crawley. It will create an iterative framework for cultural change connecting with people living and working in each neighbourhood and key employment zone in the town. It will support local people to engage as audiences, participants, creatives, producers and commissioners, bringing arts and culture into their everyday lives, transforming the public realm and offering creative opportunities in homes, workplaces, outdoor spaces and public buildings. 

Fenland and Forest Heath | Market Place

Project partners: Babylon ARTS (Lead), RSPB, Anglia Ruskin University, the Association of Suffolk Museums, Cambridgeshire ACRE, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.  

MarketPlace will build on previous CPP phases, whilst embracing ACE’s Let’s Create Strategy, to empower communities to sow their ideas; grow their skills, networks and knowledge and showcase relevant and exciting arts and culture, which inspires people to engage further. This investment provide arts and cultural opportunities, to reach new people, creating community agency and celebrating creativity in a unique area that has so much to commend it. 

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Luton | Revoluton 

Project partners: Luton Culture, Luton Borough Council, UK Centre for Carnival Arts, University of Bedfordshire.

Revoluton’s artistic vision, ‘Revolutonary Adventures’, will enable more local people to shape, lead and take part in local arts provision and showcase Luton as a place of creative talent and new opportunities. The programme will create new opportunities for communities to enjoy world class creative opportunities online and offline. They will develop new audiences, with a focus on young people and under-served, diverse communities.  They will also develop sustainability through a leadership model, building ambitious partnerships with local and national creative organisations. 

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Great Yarmouth | Freshly Greated  

Project partners: Voluntary Norfolk (Lead), Out There Arts, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Creative Collisions, Jays UK Ltd, Norwich Arts Centre. 

Freshly Greated is a community-led programme, increasing engagement with arts and culture particularly in Great Yarmouth’s urban areas of lowest engagement. This investment builds on their current programme, based on extensive knowledge of their local audience needs, proposing activity that builds on the existing programme’s networks, strengths and opportunities, creating dynamic experiments in new directions. 

Peterborough | Peterborough Presents 

Project partners: Nene Park Trust (Lead),  Peterborough County Council,  Eastern Angles Theatre Company, Metal, Creative Lives, Peterborough Council for Voluntary Services. 

Peterborough Presents is a programme of community-led commissioning; empowering local residents to be the decision makers, producers and creators of high-quality creative activities in their community. Peterborough Presents works with communities and artists across the city of Peterborough to create great art - art that is fun, diverse and, most importantly relevant to local residents. This extension includes growth into 2 new hyper-local areas, a focus on working with people with disabilities and a high-profile programme marking 10-years of CPP in Peterborough.

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Swale and Medway | Ideas Test 

Project partners: Ideas Test (Lead), Medway Voluntary Action, Swale CVS, Arches Local Luton, Medway Arts Forum, Medway Community Healthcare, Mid Kent College

Ideas Test aims to drive up an appetite for the arts so that in 10 years’ time Swale & Medway is known as a vibrant and creative place. This investment will enable a new ambitious, seven strand programme for the people of Swale and Medway and extending Ideas Test’s current CPP programme until March 2025. 

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Thurrock | START: Thurrock 

Project partners: Tilbury on Thames Trust (Lead), Thurrock CVS, Royal Opera House, Thurrock Lifestyle Solutions and Thurrock Council. 

START: Thurrock will energise 84,887 residents in the forging of a confident new arts-led narrative post pandemic. With control held locally by their Kickstarters and inspired by their motto ‘By Thames to all peoples of the world’, they will form, write, tell and review their story over the next decade. Backed by the Port sector, devolved decisions will come from the intersecting of two amazing journeys – seven years of Asset Based Community Development and a decade of cultural development seeded in Purfleet.