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Community-led activities are getting underway to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee
Community-led activities in Kent and Medway are getting underway in celebration of Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee!
In April this year, Kent Community Foundation awarded twenty-four successful projects a share of £140,000 from our Let’s Create Jubilee Fund, on behalf of Arts Council England, the national development agency for creativity and culture. This was made possible thanks to National Lottery players.
With only one week to go until the big day, preparations are underway to create these exciting events allowing thousands of people to come together in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. From a festival at Rochester Castle, street parties, and family fun days, to creating songs, videos, and a stitched mural, there will be a huge range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds across Kent and Medway to get involved in next week and throughout June.
Check out all of the projects that received funding, what they have planned and what local events you can attend to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee:
Medway African Caribbean Association
Received £10,000 to run a series of workshops where participants will learn about the Queens contribution to the Commonwealth and create costumes, flags, and banners. These sessions will culminate in a ceremonial procession, ending at the Chatham Historic Dockyard where the participants will take part in a Commonwealth-themed garden party which will have entertainment that represents different cultures on 3rd June.
Tonbridge Baptist Church
Received £4,200 for an intergenerational project that will work with local children to put on a fashion show depicting trends from the last seven decades. During the fashion show memories of the Queen’s accession, from older people who use the local Day Centre, will be read by some of the older children and a local entertainer will write a song for the children to learn and sign as part of the performance.
Broadstairs Town Team
Received £10,000 to capture individual recollections about previous Jubilees and any personal encounters or recollections about the Queen and the Royal Family. These recollections will then be used to create a short film, using Jubilee themed backdrops, which will be part of a competition open to all local schools and judged by a panel of local artists. The resulting video will be available to view and download on the group's website. These recollections will be gathered as part of the planned Broadstairs Jubilee Celebrations in June 22 and will be cross generational - including members of the community from 5 to 90.
Attend the event on Friday 3rd June in Broadstairs
Commonwork trust in Sevenoaks
Received £6,600 to partner with Same Sky to make 3D sculptures of animals found in the British countryside. These will be placed around Bore Place as part of an interactive trail that will start with an installation piece dedicated to the Queen, developed by one of Commonwork's arts students, as part of their 'Powerful Women' module. The animal sculptures will be developed by other Commonwork arts students, in partnership with local SEND groups that regularly attend Bore Place and have a wide range of additional needs. The trail will be advertised on social media and local schools and organisations will be invited to come and experience the trail during the month of June, with an additional one off event being held to celebrate the Jubilee, where Same Sky will set up a pop-up workshop where participants will be able to create their own animal sculptures that can either be taken home or added to the trail.
Creative Lives in Dover
Creative Lives will run community workshops in May 2022, creating large hand painted silk banners that will be hung in three venues over the town to celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee. This will include St Radigund's Community Centre, where the banners will be used to decorate the venue for their Platinum Jubilee celebration. These workshops will be a catalyst in bringing the community together in advance of the jubilee celebrations, enabling the participants to enjoy a shared experience and take ownership of the celebrations.
The banners will be hung as part of the Jubilee celebrations at St Radigunds Community Centre on Friday 3rd June from 1pm.
Deal Music and Arts Limited
Received £5,000 to hold a public concert to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee 2022, including 200 primary school children from schools in areas of high deprivation. The music chosen will be from the Coronation of HM The Queen in 1952 and will also include input from the applicant’s weekly Music Centre choir. Connaught Brass from City Music Foundation will work with the children in groups on the day and will join them to play during the concert itself. It is hoped that introducing the children to professional young musicians in this way will inspire them to see what is possible.
East Kent Mencap in Thanet
Received £8,850 to work with people with a learning disability (PLD) from each of their four sites across East Kent creating multimedia pieces to commemorate the Jubilee. This includes an inclusive performance with music, dance and singing, a group taking portraits dressed for a Royal celebration, with outfits sourced from a local charity shop which will be curated into a collage in the shape of the number 70 and displayed in the window of their drop-in centre in Cliftonville. Another group in Thanet will work with the Moonbeam Theatre to create a short performance piece celebrating the Jubilee, using an array of recycled and repurposed materials to design costumes and props with a sensory theme. The fourth and final group will work with a local artist to create an illustrated book inspiring young PLD to aim for greater independence. In the final scene, the character will meet the HM The Queen to tell her about their achievements. The story will be made into a book to be self-published and shared with families and friends across East Kent, as well as local special schools, to inspire young people.
Jubilee Flashmob taking place next Wednesday 1st June at 11am at Ramsgate Harbour Street, at the junction with the High Street.
ellenor in Gravesham
Received £6,200 to partner with Live Music Now (LMN) South East to involve patients on their Living Well programme - which supports patients with a life-limiting illness - in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The funding will pay for two LMN musicians to come in to the hospice once a week for a period of 6 weeks to lead hour long workshops, providing short performances and supporting the patients to produce their own collaborative song. Once the song has been developed, they will then perform it in June at two concerts for friends and family, where it will also be recorded. The recording will be produced into a video that will be published on ellenor's website and social media accounts.
Espression Arts CIC
Funding for the ‘Creative Celebration Fit for A Queen’, which will engage 45 older people in Canterbury to tell their stories and share memories of the royal family and of past celebrations. These recollections will be played to 180 children from three local primary schools who will use them as a base to create various artworks, including music, pottery and illustrations. The artwork will be linked together to create one collaborative piece which will be exhibited in June as part of a the Jubilee Celebrations.
Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre in Canterbury
Received £9,600 to provide 32 free creative workshops - 12 of which will be led by experienced artistic practitioners with the rest supported by skilled staff within their own team, culminating in a four day exhibit over the Bank Holiday Jubilee weekend, presenting the artworks created in these sessions as the centre's contribution to the wider celebrations in Canterbury. The programme will be developed with all ages and abilities in mind, offering a wide variety of activities, including workshops on including lino/screenprinting, contemporary textiles, traditional crafts and ceramics. In order to make sure no one in the community it barred from taking part, they will also design and deliver craft packs that come complete with materials and instructions to create one of the elements of the tea party that can be adapted depending on age and ability. These packs will be distributed throughout the community to enable those isolated or unable to visit the centre to still be part of this community celebration.
Faversham Music Club
Received £4,000 to create a small Music Festival for the Jubilee celebrations, which will involve performances by professional musicians, local brass bands, a specially created children's choir and professional ensemble performing in St Mary's Church at the heart of Faversham. Other events would include a showcase for Kent young musicians, masterclasses and workshops and a series of performances by professional musicians and singers - many local to Kent and Faversham. The whole event would form a part of Faversham's Jubilee celebrations - a multi-layered celebration whose content will be based on the title This Sceptred Isle: taking in music and words from across the nations of the UK.
This Sceptred Isle Music Festival takes place from 2nd-5th June. Find out more here.
Funder Films CIC in Ashford
Received £6,500 to make a participatory film about the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. This would involve commissioning film footage from eight young people in Ashford and training them to take appropriate footage on their mobile phones. They will also request volunteer footage from other residents of the borough and liaise with other groups in the area, such as Animate Arts who are producing their own work in Ashford for the Jubilee. This will all be combined together to produce nine films, one from each of the eight young people participating and one overarching edit from Funder Films. Together these will make a comprehensive video account of the borough-wide festivities in June 2022.
Hoo Peninsula Cares
Received £2,200 for an afternoon of 'Celebration and local performances' for elderly and isolated members of the community. The afternoon will be held in a local village hall which is fully accessible and the local community will provide Jubilee-themed performances for the guests. This will include a ballet from a local dance troop, a play from a drama club and music from a local choir who will sing classic tunes to engage the audience and encourage them to sing along. Refreshments and a gift bag including a celebratory jubilee pin badge, flag and cake will be provided for each guest.
Jubilee Celebration and Performances for our older generation will be held on Wednesday 1st June at 1pm – 4pm at High Halstow Village Hall, The Street, ME3 8SQ.
Maidstone Alzheimer’s Society
Received £2,700 to hold a Platinum Jubilee Celebration Day for their members on 4th June 2022. All of these members suffer with various forms of dementia and music is particularly valuable and stimulating in stirring their memories. The venue will be decorated with a Jubilee theme and members will be asked to find photographs or memorabilia of the Coronation which will also be displayed. The day will include a performance by a local musician that features the popular music of WW2 and will encourage audience participation. This will be followed by lunch and members will be asked to share some of their memories of the Coronation or of subsequent Royal Jubilees.
The Net Community Hub in Medway
Received £1,900 to employ Medway based arts organisation Creatabot to run Jubilee themed arts and crafts activities for their beneficiaries on the Wednesday and Friday of the Jubilee celebration week. The celebration will culminate on Saturday of the same week, when they will host Live Music Now at their community Big Tea Party. These events will primarily engage with elderly and/or vulnerable people, but most of our sessions are available to everyone in the local community.
Check out all their events here
Medway Valley Countryside Partnership
The funds will be used to hold an outdoor Family fun day for the Queen's Jubilee celebration. Set at the local country park of Leybourne Lakes in Larkfield, the event will include a range of entertainment, including an interactive theatre performance, an axework sculpting exhibition (shaping natural wood via axe and chainsaw) Morris dancing throughout the day (including routines created specifically for this event) and a variety of themed arts and crafts including willow weaving and an interactive storytelling session. This event is a high quality mixed art and performance event to celebrate the Queen's work efforts to support the environment as well as her Platinum Jubilee.
Attend the event on Thursday 2nd June from 10.30am - 3.30pm at Leybourne Lakes.
Mind in Bexley and East Kent
Their ‘Jubilee Community Mural: A Stitch Together’ project will include a series of workshops co-facilitated by a local artist and an experienced wellbeing support worker from Mind in Bexley and East Kent. The workshops will bring people together to work on a multi-material textile mural, with a focus on, and celebrating, achievements from the last 70 years and looking ahead to the next 70 years. These curated pieces will include contributions from local residential homes, schools, and from within their mental wellbeing group network. The project will culminate with the Jubilee celebrations in June, involving a grand unveiling of the finished mural alongside a photographic exhibition depicting the story of the project.
North Kent Independent Advocacy Scheme
Received £7,300 for the ‘A song for the Queen’ project, involving people with and without learning disabilities, who will work together to create a song and video celebrating the Queen's Jubilee and what it means to them. This will be achieved by working jointly with 2 groups, one based in Swale and the other in Dartford. Each group will then meet for 4 days (8 days in total) for rehearsals and then record the song at the Sunlight recording studios in Gillingham. They will attempt to get the finished song played on play on local radio stations and TV channels and will also send a copy to her Majesty the Queen.
Watch the video/listen to the song here
Youth NGage
Received £3,000 to provide a series of African music, dance and cooking from April to May 2022, culminating in an event to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee in June. Professional dance teachers and singers will teach Youth Ngage's members songs and dance styles to perform during the celebration, alongside other performances of African music and poetry. The event will also showcase various festive meals prepared for the jubilee celebration, reaching out to other cultures in the community to share a meal and celebrate together .
Wellbeing Link in Dartford
Received £3,250 to provide a Commonwealth themed event on Friday 3rd June for the Queens Platinum Jubilee. Members will be involved in the planning and execution of the day, with entertainment including drama, Steel pans and Indian and African dancing as well as jiving and singing provided by their own members. There will also be an art competition, where participants will be invited to depict the Queen in whatever media people would like to use, with the finalists artwork exhibited during the Jubilee Garden Party.
Romney Marsh Community Hub
Received £6,600 to provide a free street style party for members and other vulnerable groups within the area at their Jubilee decorated Sunflower Room at the Hub. This will include themed music, traditional games and a topical quiz with a slide show of important memories from the queen's reign. People will be provided with a supper box to take home, a celebration pin, and a memory sheet for them to return the Hub with their key, stand out memories of the Royal family. These responses will be used by local artists will create a wall of reminiscence and a sensory table, which will be on display at the Hub. In order to not exclude anyone who would like to engage with the celebration they will also create a supper box and special activity pack - including pin commemorative pin broach and memory quizzes - that will be delivered to members of the community that are shielding or otherwise housebound.
The Memorial Hall Frittenden
Received £9,700 to run a series of celebratory events, entertainments and workshops that will take place from 3rd - 6th June 2022. There will be a concert of local talent on 3rd June with performances by both children and adults, a craft competition and professional puppetry show on 4th June and a picnic and fete on 5th June on the Parish Field, with a craft competition for the children as well as other games and activities. There will also be three productions from Applause Rural Touring over this period; a play, a family show and an evening of World Music.
Icon Theatre in Swale
Received £10,000 to commission Applied Stories - who specialise in place-based audio drama - to provide five, one-day workshops that will be held in April and May 2022. They will work with 115 local young people to co-create a 45-minute audio drama, on the theme of Pride, and is set in Sheppey locations. Applied Stories will bring in two professional actors and a professional director to work with the young people to record the audio drama and bring their script to life. On Sunday 26 June at 2pm join them for afternoon tea at The Waterfront Room, Sheppey Matters, followed by the listening party on Sheerness seafront.