There’s just over two weeks left to apply to Creative Commissions 2024!
Over the past three years, we’ve funded 28 projects, giving over £20,000 to local projects that have engaged with over 6,892 people in the community.
Take a look at some of the projects over the last three years that received funding from Adur & Worthing Trust Creative Commissions small grant scheme and find some inspiration to create your own creative project for this year.
2021
A Wave of Creative Energy – Celebrating 10 years of Creative Waves
Creative Waves is a local, not-for-profit organisation, creating inspiring community projects to bring people together.
In October 2021, artists Nadia Chalk and Vanessa Breen celebrated a decade of Creative Waves by inviting people to participate in free creative workshops in their pop up studio at Colonnade House. They hosted 2 days of mosaic workshops hosted by local artists; Shona Macdonald and Claire Lemmon. The mosaic tiles that were created in the workshops were placed together to create a collaborative piece of artwork that formed an outdoor rug in their community garden, Bugcycle in Beach House Park.
The rest of the event featured drop in creative activities including the creation of a collaborative artwork using vinyl offcuts. Nadia and Nessy also took the opportunity to exhibit their own work which inspired them to create more, develop their own practices and exhibit together more frequently. The gallery became a space for them to bounce ideas with fellow artists / creatives and create new working partnerships and contacts for future collaborations.
2022
Just Add Water
Kristian Coburn made a short film, Just Add Water about the community of people who swim in the sea off Adur & Worthing all year round.
The film was shot entirely on the beaches of Adur & Worthing where local people were interviewed about their experiences of sea swimming and the reasons they were drawn to the activity. Over a six-month period of filming, 50 swimmers were featured in the final film. Six months of footage was edited down to a 15-minute-long film, featuring original music by local artists, beautiful shots of the coastline and interesting insights from swimmers of all ages and backgrounds. The film was shown to contributors and supporters at a launch party which took place at Coast Cafe, which was visited by 120 people.
Kristian also hosted ana event called ‘The Big Jubilee Dip’ that was organised over the Jubilee weekend, inviting swimmers to come together for an afternoon dip and picnic.
In 2023, Just Add Water was also selected to be screened at Colonnade House during an exhibition that was hosted by Worthing Film Club after they received funding from the Trust as part of Creative Commissions 2023, to showcase films by local talented filmmakers.
2023
A Summer of Print
Artists, printmakers and educators Karolyn Minch, Claire Lemmon and Clare Roberts collaborated with Over the Moon at The Circular Space in Shoreham to run a series of printmaking workshops over the summer.
The Circular Space in Shoreham became a hive of activity during the summer as Claire, Karolyn and Clare held a series of experimental printmaking workshops. The three artists worked with groups of adults and children within the local Adur community. The workshops covered screenprinting, monoprinting, collagraph and cyanotype printing along with other relief printmaking methods as well as some mixed media. This enabled local people of different ages and abilities in Shoreham to have fun learning new skills as well as raising awareness of The Circular Space.
At the end of the workshops, they held a week-long exhibition which coincided with National Heritage week’s theme ‘Creativity Unwrapped’ with other events and a community creatives trail that took place in Shoreham. On the opening day of the exhibition, participants of the different workshops were invited along with friends and families to see the exhibition, as well as being invited to have a go at some cyanotype printing.
If you’re inspired to apply for Creative Commissions 2024, you can read more about the application process, you can also watch our online launch.
Applications close at midnight on 03 March.