Creative Tendring has officially launched, marking the start of a new Arts Council England funded initiative that will create more opportunities to experience and take part in creativity and culture across Tendring.
Over the coming three years, the team will work alongside communities throughout the district, but it won’t begin with a calendar of events. Instead, the first few months will be spent out in towns and villages, meeting community groups, schools, businesses and local organisations, listening to what’s already happening before deciding where the programme can make the biggest difference. What comes next will be shaped by those conversations.
Two new Creative Communities Managers will become a familiar sight in neighbourhoods, schools, libraries, community venues, festivals and events, rather than behind a desk. Their role is to build relationships, make new connections and ensure local voices are heard.
The first opportunities to get involved won’t be far away. This summer will see Creative Tendring out in towns and villages, giving communities the chance to meet the team, share ideas and get involved from day one.
First opportunities to get involved
The programme will get underway this summer, bringing people together and giving Creative Tendring its first chance to learn from the communities it hopes to work alongside.
The team is inviting you to be a part of Tendring Beasts, where communities will work closely with artists and the East Anglian Folklore Centre to build a series of giant straw costumes inspired by the district’s folklore, history and imagination. Creating the sculptures will make space to share stories, celebrate the places people care about and uncover the characters that make each community unique.
Running alongside it is Side Quest Summer, giving 16 to 25-year-olds the opportunity to explore Tendring on their own terms. Through a series of creative missions, they’ll discover new places, look differently at familiar ones and capture everyday moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. What they choose to share will offer a glimpse of the district through the eyes of the young people who live here.
New community roles
Applications are now open for two part-time Creative Communities Managers as the programme gets underway.
One position will focus on Clacton, West Clacton and Jaywick, with the second covering Harwich and the wider area. Rather than being office-based, they’ll spend their time getting to know the volunteers, organisers and local leaders at the heart of communities, whether that’s in schools, libraries, cafés, festivals or other spaces. They’ll be there to make new connections, bring people together and help residents have a say in where the programme goes from there.
These appointments are central to how Creative Tendring will work. By the time new ideas and projects begin to emerge, the people behind them won’t be strangers. They’ll already be familiar faces because they’ve spent time building relationships, earning trust and becoming part of community life.
Programme Director Kayleigh Boyle said:Â “People often ask what Creative Tendring is going to deliver over the next three years. The answer is that we’ll work that out together. We want to get out into communities, meet the people already doing brilliant things and take it from there.
“I’ve worked across Essex and every place is different. What works in Harwich won’t necessarily work in Jaywick, Brightlingsea or Manningtree, so it wouldn’t make sense to arrive with one plan and expect it to fit everywhere.
“I’d much rather spend time getting to know people than sitting in meetings talking about them. If, a year from now, people recognise Creative Tendring because they’ve met us in their community, I’ll feel like we’ve made a good start.”
Creative Tendring is delivered by Arts Trust Productions in partnership with Tendring District Council, Community Voluntary Services Tendring and Harwich Arts and Heritage Centre.
Funded through Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme, Creative Tendring has been created specifically to support creativity and culture. The funding can only be used to deliver the programme and cannot be redirected to council services or other local authority budgets.
Find out more about the two Creative Communities Manager roles, Tendring Beasts, Side Quest Summer and other ways to get involved at www.creativetendring.co.uk
