On a beautiful Summer’s evening community writers and their family and friends from across Fenland and Suffolk met for the first time at the Fenland Orchard’s Project, Wisbech to hear local actors bring a new verse drama to life.
These first-time and returning writers joined facilitator Belona Greenwood’s Voices of Forest & Fen online workshops to research and create historical and modern stories from the Fens which were then woven into a verse drama – Fen Voices – which took inspiration from Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood,
An audience member described the event as ‘…moving, unexpected…’ whilst the writers enjoyed seeing and hearing the fruits of their labour, meeting with the other people who shaped it, making new friends and meeting new people with shared values. “It’s all about people and place, and this was brought together well. Feels like the start of something, not the end.”
£250,000 of funding for the next year means our ambitious plans with our Fenland & West Suffolk communities are ready to get underway
£250,000 of funding for the next year means our ambitious plans with our Fenland & West Suffolk communities are ready to get underway.
Arts Council England have today confirmed their funding for MarketPlace for 2025-2026 for our work in Fenland & West Suffolk.
‘The experience was transformative, fostering a new sense of adventure in our family. It boosted the children’s confidence in public settings and reinforced my efforts to expose them to diverse activities.’
– MarketPlace Participant, 2024
MarketPlace is part of the Creative People and Places programme, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. Thanks to National Lottery players, Creative People and Places is about more people taking the lead in choosing, creating and taking part in creative and cultural experiences in the places where they live.
Every National Lottery ticket purchase contributes to more villages, towns, and cities up and down the country being able to thrive through a collaborative approach to culture – from Wigan to Walsall, from Rochdale to the New Forest, and from Boston to Basildon.
This is a ground-breaking programme where programmes test new approaches and share that learning with others, meaning more creative individuals and cultural organisations will be able to develop work with, and that’s relevant to, more communities across the country.
Stay tuned as we reveal more exciting projects coming to Fenland and West Suffolk!
Get in touch if you want to hear more about our plans or share ideas for creative projects where you live.
The trail featured 50 works of art, created by Mildenhall residents during Art Road Trip; a MarketPlace project in partnership with The National Gallery and Mildenhall Museum celebrating the 90th anniversary of The Great Air Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne in 1934.
There were artworks created by the local community in five different locations around Mildenhall such as collage, painting and Van Gogh inspired pieces.
Community launch – the community launch event was held where goodies were handed out to walkers who completed the trail. MarketPlace met with members of the Mildenhall community and local residents to share ideas about future creative projects.
Visitors were able to take a closer look at the buildings and locations, immerse themselves in art, and uncover fascinating facts about The Great Air Race along the way.
“We’ve really enjoyed the trail and the kids have really enjoyed it as well. It’s been nice to have the map to see where we need to go. The artwork has been lovely to look at and the historical pieces of information along the way have been really good to learn about.”
MarketPlace expressed gratitude to Mildenhall Museum, the National Gallery, and all of the brilliant artists who created the artwork that was discovered during the trail.
“I was excited to find that it was happening on our doorstep”
We returned to Rose Fair, with lots of creativity and fun for everyone to get involved with in and around the town centre.
We reunited with the brilliant Mandinga Arts who took part in the parade and performed their brand new show ‘Pansy Postal Service’ at in the church gardens, complete with human flowers. Their bright and imaginative costumes were the perfect addition to the parade.
Artist Karin Forman held drop-in creative sessions in the sensory garden where people could make their own intricate paper flowers to take home.
Plus, we unveiled our street art sculpture which was installed in Horse Fair shopping centre, designed and spray-painted by the local community in our public workshops with Artist and Illustrator Nick Shove.
The community got stuck into our drop-in spray painting sessions at REMO in Wisbech, guided by street artist Nick Shove in the lead up to Wisbech Rose Fair.
These drop-in workshops were free and suitable for all ages. White umbrellas were used to spray on the colourful designs. These were then built into a giant sculpture which was on display during Wisbech Rose Fair.
MarketPlace has partnered with The National Gallery for Art Road Trip as part of their 200th year celebrations. Together we have curated a two week creative programme designed to bring art and creativity to communities in Wisbech and Mildenhall. This July, we are welcoming an art studio across multiple locations in both towns, along with a range of free, open to all, hands on creative workshops.
The travelling studio will be stationed at various locations across Wisbech from 2-6 July and Mildenhall from 9-13 July, with free workshops and interactive activities for all. We’ll be encouraging everyone to get creative, inspired by the theme of ‘Look up and take to the skies’ in Mildenhall, and ‘More than meets the eye‘ in Wisbech. Two incredible artists from The National Gallery, Chioma Ince and Alex Bowie will be facilitating these sessions, exploring a variety of techniques and practices.
The Art Road Trip mobile studio will be at the following locations in Wisbech:
2nd – 3rd July: Outside the Oasis Centre (St Michael’s Ave, PE13 3NR) – drop in between 10-4
4th July: Peckover House (N Brink, PE13 1JR) – drop in between 10:30-4:30
5th – 6th July: Market Square (PE13 1DT) – drop in between 10-5
The Art Road Trip mobile studio will be at the following locations in Mildenhall:
9th July: Mildenhall Hub Plaza (Sheldrick Way, IP28 7JX) – Camera Obscura making drop-in workshops between 10-12 and 2-4
10th July: Mildenhall Lodge Care Home (St John’s Cl, IP28 7NX) – Zoom in and discover: expressive marksof Van Gogh drop-in workshops between 10.30-12 and 2-4
11th July: Mildenhall Hub Plaza (Sheldrick Way, IP28 7JX) – Life in the Sky: exploring with sculptural materials drop-in workshop between 10:30-12 and History of Cyanotypes: using the sky to make art workshop between 1-3:30
12th July: Mildenhall Museum (6 King St, IP28 7EX) – Sky Stories: concertina book drop-in workshop between 10:30-12.
13th July: Market Place (IP28 7EF) – World building in the wind: transforming the market square into a new imagined world all day drop-in between 10-4
Drop in workshops include making stories from the sky, exploring sculptural materials, printing with the sun and transforming the market square into a new imagined world. Mixed age groups welcome. Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Community Workshops Throughout June
Wisbech: We will be working with artist Ann Bellamy and using found pictures from local charity shops to explore the theme ‘More than meets the eye’. Ann will be working at Peckover House and across Wisbech before the Art Road Trip starts in July.
Mildenhall: We will be running community creative writing workshops in June exploring the theme of ‘Look up and take to the skies’. The theme reflects Mildenhall’s celebration and commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Great Air Race from Mildenhall to Melbourne in 1934. The writing that comes from these sessions will then be available to inspire anyone who joins us in July for Art Road Trip.
Later this year we will be exhibiting a series of the artworks across both towns, developed with the communities and with an accompanying guide. More details on the exhibition will be shared later this year.
With the hope of some sunny weather, we programmed a Go See to Millfield Community Carnival which has been running since 2017. Each year the organisers work with over 100 community groups and organisations in the local area. We were delighted that Godfrey Smith from Fenland Arts, Town Clerk Joanna Merton and Councillor Sharon Selman (who are also on the Chatteris Midsummer Festival committee) from Chatteris Town Council accepted the invitation to join us for an invaluable opportunity to see a festival come to life, and gain some valuable inspiration for our forthcoming festivals in Fenland.
Unfortunately, the hopes for sun were dashed and the weekend turned out to be the first of the big summer storms of wind and rain. This for us, was actually a positive, and a really good opportunity to see how well-established Peterborough Presents, another Creative People & Place project, reacted to conditions out of their control; something we and our partners will no doubt experience at some point in the future!
The Carnival was moved inside to a local community centre, just the other side of the original location of Rock Park, Peterborough. The move from outside to inside seemed seamless from a participant’s point of view; however a huge adaptation of acts and activities had to happen in a very short space of time. Although a different feel to being outside, it became a more intimate experience for the viewer, and equally impactful as if an outdoors event.
There was a main stage, a story teller, craft stalls and a crafting/makers area. Professional artists had worked with the women’s prison to produce carnival parrots for the parade which adorned the walls and entrance. A food doodle workshop was run with a local food development organisation whilst a local textile artist and cultural activists offered interesting workshops for the participants to have a go at and discover more about the city of Peterborough.
There was a varied programme of dancers, poetry, singing, music and carnival characters on the main stage. The dancers/musicians were predominantly local groups of different nationalities, Raskila (Lithuanian Dance), Ritu Ranga (Bengali Sanskriti Club) and some from further afield to push the boundaries of the community’s creative culture, such as, Mughal Miniatures (Sonia Sabri Company).
We and our Fenland partners took home some valuable inspiration, ideas and thoughts with which we can build upon in our forthcoming development meetings.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for Phase 2
We worked with two local residents, one from Fenland and one from Forest Heath, to support them as Community Producers in 2021. They brought local knowledge and contacts to commissions and events, developed their skills and made creative things happen in their places with their communities.
Developing local people in cultural opportunities helps upskill and raise the ambition of art appetites by creating ownership over the activities. The community producers operate as advocates and a trusted source for local people and businesses to engage and activity partner. This has become an organic evolution from the Creative Collective, and Creative Forum structures the team has created. They identify development opportunities for each member.
Identifying talent, creating opportunities and the space to step into learning and leading happens through a subtle approach on a project-by-project basis. First, local people are engaged through an invitation and a reassurance of their skills and abilities.
Newmarket resident and Creative Collective member Louise Eatock has a passion and interest in the music scene and organising pop-up activities in local venues, but has big ideas for Newmarket’s needs for local people. Louise met Creative Agent Ali at a local authority community network meeting during the first phase of the activity, and Ali supported Louise in delivering the workshop activity. When the Creative Collective formed in Phase 2, Year 2, Ali invited her to join the group.
Louise helped commission ideas for the new Creative Conversations In Lockdown model as part of the Creative Collective. This process identified a commission that Louise could support and co-deliver with the artists as a local community representative. In addition, working on the More than Music project with Matt Cooper and Leanne Moden enabled Louise to take on a different role as a community producer on the project.
“It’s been a good experience working with MarketPlace. Ali (Creative Agent) is super supportive; she has helped me understand what my role could be in the community. Because before I met Ali, I was sort of thinking that I kind of had to not only organise everything but do everything myself as well. And she’s introduced me to other artists.
I’ve got a much clearer idea of programming arts in the community through working with Ali, so it’s been a good experience.” – Louise Eatock, Community Producer
Hilary Cox Condron, Louise Eatock and Colin Stevens at Newmarket Earth Arts Festival 2021.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for Phase 2
Brandon Creative Forum is a community group established in the first phase of MarketPlace, delivering their first event in 2016. With MarketPlace support they have organised 4 local festivals with Tales and Trails 2019 their largest to date. We have supported them to continue local activities as far as possible through the pandemic, with all its challenges, and they are still growing from strength to strength.
In 2019 the group had no ambitions or desire to become a constituted group: they aspired to develop a central hub for cultural activity, enable the community to think about Brandon positively and organise events for everyone to access. At this stage, the group of 4 core leaders universally identified a desire to develop skills in commissioning and to consolidate their learning to date.
Throughout the pandemic, MarketPlace supported the forum and their wider community interest groups to remain connected, develop digital skills, and participate in shortlisting, commissioning, and testing new projects ideas.
Two members of the forum are also members of the Creative Collective. This enabled the group to identify learning from other towns and recognise their skills and achievements whilst participating in commissioning, shortlisting, and interviewing commissions.
“We still need youngsters to come in with us on the forum. And we are working on that, but it’s such a strange town. But having talked to Wisbech as part of the Creative Collective we can see that their problems are the same as our problems and then we could work out a solution together from that.” – Jill, Blanchard Brandon Creative Forum
Through remote working and digital connectivity with MarketPlace, the forum became more embedded in the team’s processes. It started to identify the community’s needs in the face of the pandemic, beyond activities and events for enjoyment.
By August 2020, the group took steps to become constituted and, in 2021, challenged what their perceptions of a central hub could and should look like by taking on a market stall to begin to reach wider communities.
Pictured: Left: Brandon Creative Forum member Jill Blanchard chatting to Brandon residents at the ‘See You Soon’ stall at the market. Right: Members of Brandon Creative Forum meet at Brandon Country Park to assess the area for the Walking Companions podcast project.
