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Creative Citizens

The Creative Citizens programme creates professional development opportunities for artists and arts organisations living or working in Walthamstow.

Launched in January 2018, the Creative Citizens programme builds on the Barbican and London Borough of Waltham Forest five year collaboration on the Walthamstow Garden Party.

Prior to the official launch of the Creative Citizens, the Barbican and London Borough of Waltham Forest ran a series of open access masterclasses across the borough for local creatives providing them the techniques needed to grow their practice. The Creative Citizens programme builds on the learning from the masterclasses and has created a tiered approach to provide access opportunities for artists and arts organisations at a range of levels and encourage peer-to-peer learning and development.

Get to know our Creative Citizens and what motivated them to join this programme in this blog post. 

The Creative Citizen Programme is produced by the Barbican and London Borough of Waltham Forest as part of The Waltham Forest Cultural Connections Programme in association with Beyond Barbican. The programme is made possible thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England through the Great Place Scheme.

The Art of Change

See how artists respond to, reflect and potentially effect change in the social and political landscape in our 2018 season
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Creative Citizen Fellowship

The Creative Citizen Fellowship was a ten-month programme that supported eight people from the local arts and community sector in Waltham Forest. The fellows were provided funding and masterclasses that assisted them with their professional development, and helped them build their activities and creative output. Participants were split into two fellowship groups with a respective focus on Participatory Performance and Community & Sustainability and both groups led the planning and programming of two key areas at the Walthamstow Garden Party 2018 - Fellowship Island and News from Nowhere. 

The learnings from this programme will be shared with the London Borough of Waltham Forest community on Wed 28 Nov. 

Creative Citizen Masterclasses

The aim of the masterclasses was to support creative individuals and organisations to grow their practice and be more sustainable. The masterclasses ranged from topic-specific sessions on fundraising and marketing techniques to inviting experts to showcase their line of work and share tips on inspirational practices. 

The sessions proved to be extremely popular with 137 attendees across 6 creative citizen masterclasses. 

About Walthamstow Garden Party

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Watch: Walthamstow Garden Party

 

Our free summer festival, presented in association with Waltham Forest Council and Create, is back for another year.