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Eltham Arts in 2017!
Connecting the Community through the Arts!
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Some highlights and photos to thank everyone for a great year!
We had just recovered from the Eltham Arts Winter Festival in November 2016 and Christmas Carolling in December and 2017 was off with a bang planning for the year!
The music community had been challenged to write songs ‘of a culinary nature’ in the Winter Festival and over a weekend in February 2017 we recorded ‘A Plateful of Songs’ with 15 tracks from talented local singer /songwriters.
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In July we launched the CD at the Bob Hope Theatre Bar! An excellent album!
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Be a Local Tourist in Eltham day was on 2 April!
We worked with Royal Greenwich to organise the programme including heritage sites and walks and we were also Involved with the Invisible (l) ink twinning project at the Eltham Centre (Eric Maclennan with Royal Greenwich and Better) in April and July 2017 twinning places in Eltham with places around the world.
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The Greenwich and Docklands Festival came to Eltham and we publicised the festival and loved the Rear View theatre event at the end of June. We look forward to more events in Eltham in 2018.
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July was Eltham Music Month and we were delighted to work with FolkMob, Eltham Choral, Eltham Palace, Eltham Jazz Club, Parksfest, the Met Police and Royal Greenwich to organise a Music Festival throughout July in Eltham.
We organised the Eltham Music Festival with Royal Greenwich Regen Team with an open-air music programme with 23 acts, 250 local performers on 3 Saturdays in July in the newly expanded Passey Place.
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The July Festival ended with the fabulous Eltham Park Festival on 31st July where we worked with the Met Police organising the music tree, craft and stalls, involving the local community.
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No rest in August for the Eltham Arts Team!
Pragya, Zahira and John designed and painted a mural for the New Eltham Business Association on an empty shop front entitled ‘Over the Wall and Far Away’ it looks splendid!
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We love Severndroog Castle and have been involved with the castle since it reopened. On 17 Sept we joined in with their Autumn Fayre with Eltham Arts publicity, creative community books, CDs, Eltham postcards, Silu’s cartoon drawing and local author Lee Stuart Evans with new book and some games for the kids! A great day!
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Soon after that there was the lovely Taste of India event in New Eltham on 30 Sept, organised by our EA committee member Pragya Kumar and her Cultural Connections group.
A feast of food, Indian crafts and good fun for the whole community!
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In September we hosted guests from Eltham, New Zealand organising visits with our network members to Eltham Library, Bob Hope Theatre, Severndroog Castle, FolkMob, White Hart Comedy night and Well Hall Pleasaunce. New links between libraries in Eltham Uk and Eltham NZ established.
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Celebrated author Eleanor Fitzsimmons from Dublin is writing a book about our famous Eltham author Edith Nesbit. Gaynor met her in October and organised a tour of the site of the home of Edith Nesbit. Well Hall Pleasaunce and a drink in the Tudor Barn. She is also supporting our Writing on a Wall creative writing challenge.
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We encourage local access to creative groups and our network supported the setting up of creative writing courses by SELondon college at the Eltham Centre and we also met with the college to suggest further creative courses in Eltham. We also recruited the tutor John Paul O’Neill as a judge for our Creative Writing Challenge in 2018.
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As stakeholders in the redevelopment of Eltham Town Centre by Royal Greenwich, we attended meetings and gave suggestions supporting the new initiatives, including more community space in Passey Place, and in November supported the Culture Bid by Royal Greenwich for money from the Mayor of London to develop cultural projects over the whole borough.
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We have launched the Multi Media WALL project and various projects are now underway with opportunities for the community to be creative on a theme of Walls Around Us.
- ‘Bricks on a Wall’,
- ‘Writing on a Wall’
- ‘Songs across a Wall’
- ‘Walls of the Mind’
- ‘Walls from the Water’
and photography projects all being part of the wider project with exhibitions being planned at SE9 Container Gallery and Gerald Moore Gallery. Our display at the Eltham Centre of the WALL Project in November intrigued the local community and we hope inspired participation
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We finished the year on 19 Dec with the Eltham Arts Festive Singalong at the Eltham Centre with participation by the local community and passers-by. We had great fun and collected £50 for the Leprosy Mission and made the Eltham Centre Christmassy!
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We believe that connecting the community through the arts is good for health and community identity. Gaynor writes a regular monthly arts column in the Greenwich Visitor ‘Life in Eltham’ which informs and entertains.
Members of the Eltham Arts team are involved in running FolkMob, Cultural Connections and Eltham Library as well as attending local events and those nearby organised by members of our network. We support cultural events across the borough.
With over three thousand Twitter followers and a strong Facebook presence, we stretch out to people locally and further afield. We tell people about and celebrate local events and creative talent and opportunities. From feedback we know this has supported local groups with events and encouraged people to join in with what’s going on in SE9.
Our newsletters and website also keep people in touch with what we are doing and what’s going on. We always promote our wonderful SE9 parks and open spaces for enjoyment and inspiring creativity.
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and thanking you for being part of the Eltham Arts Network.
from Dave, John, Zahira, Pragya, Gaynor and Miriam
Connect with us:
Email info@elthamarts.org
Twitter @ElthamArts
Website www.elthamarts.org
Facebook www.facebook.com/ElthamArt
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