The highlight of the month was Market Place event at the Open Day in High Lodge. This event was inspired by the conversations and ideas from the national Creative People and Places conference, which we attended early June in Stoke-on-Trent. One of our Consortium Partners – Music Arts Projects – offered this amazing opportunity for Market Place to develop a new partnership with High Lodge, a Forestry Commissions site near Brandon.
Open Day is a regular event held each summer at High Lodge, where they waive the entry fee to encourage maximum attendance. People who come to High Lodge usually engage with sports activities, and this time they had access to a diverse creative offer.
Organized and managed by Market Place consortium partners from ADEC, MAP, and 20Twenty the event sought to pilot the idea of an arts Market Place, where people can experience, and try a variety of workshops and activities provided by Fenland and Forest Heath, as well as guest artists.
Symbolizing the link between the past and the present, our Market Place was opened and closed by the Thetford Town Crier who declared the market open and invited people to join into numerous activities: monoprinting with Oyster Press and West Suffolk Arts Centre, puppet making with Norwich Puppet Theatre, circus skills with Circus Malabaristas, learning to play the ukulele with John Bassett, woodcrafts with Kate Francis, and dance workshops with Anthony Trahern. Market Place in High Lodge was also the launch of our new brand that is about bringing people together, being open and adventurous, ambitions and inspiring, sustainable and creative. Have a look at our photos from the day (LINK TO ALBUM)
Market Place event was a success, we received positive feedback from the participating artists, visitors and partners at High Lodge. It would have been not possible without the help of our volunteers – creative apprentices Ben and Charlotte, NCS jolly team of young people from Fenland, Creative Art Forum members from Fenland and Forest Heath. Nathan Jones, Director of ADEC and Project Manager for the event in High Lodge, was amazed;
“A coach of half-awake young people from NCS programme in Fenland arrived early in the morning, and it was great to see how engaged they were during the day volunteering to help at the stalls and trying out all the different workshops. By the end of the day they owned the Market Place!”
The event was developed by two Creative Apprentices from 20TwentyProductions, Ben and Charlotte, who were helping with marketing and talent management. Charlotte seems to have really enjoyed the day!
It was a very bustling day with warm families and children buzzing everywhere. It was great to feel the excitement and the huge involvement everyone took part in, staff, volunteers and visitors alike.
The friendly stallholders were fantastic including a huge variety of the arts from workshops including Ukulele, professional Printmaking, creating fantastic wooden sculptures with recycled materials from the woods, Puppet-making workshops and much more! It was great to see everyone having fun whilst learning and discovering new hobbies and the arts. I even took part myself and loved it!I loved working with Cary Otis, a very open-minded, adventurous, fun individual. I even took part in dancing of which I’m really nervous and self-conscious about but it was great fun and really brought me out of my shell.
The Market Place stall worked really well. People loved the ‘wishing tree’ of thoughts, drawing their favourite part of the day and hanging their picture up for display. They of course loved the free sweets! It was great to see everyone trying new and things and the reaction and outcome was fantastic! - Charlotte Diggines