Community work
Arts is a way of maintaining cultural heritage, connecting different generations, and sharing that with the community. Arts and culture make considerable and necessary contributions to the well-being of communities. I passionately work with my Eltham Arts team to connect people through arts and to bring creative opportunities within our community. At Eltham Arts, we believe in diverse voices and respect all opinions. We are proud to have a management committee and a team of volunteers form different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This gives us the strength and direction to plan our projects for wider community benefit. We have access to various cultural groups in the area through our Cultural Connections project who we regularly consult, learn from and work together to understand the needs of our diverse community. We want to ensure that everyone in the community has creative access irrespective of their age, colour or background. The projects include poetry & short stories by local writers resulting in two published books, song challenges inspired by local musicians producing live events & two music albums. Three Music Festivals produced in partnership with Royal Greenwich Regeneration, two winter festivals including over 150 events each year with music, theatre, exhibitions, an art trail, roving poets & an opera evening and a multimedia participatory project ‘Wall’. This project involved over 2000 participants from the SE9 area from all ages and background. Parts of the project included a visual art, story writing & poetry competition and song challenge. Participants included local schools, local community groups, language school, individual photographers and artists. The Wall project was nominated for Epic Awards 2020 by Creative Lives, a national organisation funded by Arts Council!
Culture is a strong part of people's lives. It influences their views, their values, their humour, their hopes, their loyalties, and their worries and fears. So when we are working with people and building relationships with them, it helps to have some perspective and understanding of their cultures.
“Cultural Connection” was a year long project (May 2017 - Aug 2018) with an aim to connect people from different cultural backgrounds within the community. This volunteer led program used events, meet ups, workshops, talks and other sources to share and celebrate cultures, traditions and heritage.