Billericay Trails an Idea

The first “Billericay Voices” meeting was held at the Red Lion in Billericay High Street, attended by Immediate Past President Roger Kettle and Rtn. Peter Greene.  The objective was to come up with two art projects that we would like to see in our Billericay community.  These two options would then be opened up for a live vote by local groups and residents to choose their favourite.  Following this, the Creative BasildON team would open commissions for artists to apply to complete this project. 

Cultural Democracy

Creative BasildON is a radical cultural programme funded by the Creative People and Places (CPP) Programme of the Arts Council, England.  It places cultural democracy at its heart. Basildon is a borough of 180,000 artists, each capable of contributing to its cultural vitality.
The July Billericay Voices meeting came up with two project ideas:
•    Community Trail:  A trail project celebrating culture and arts of the community.
     This could look like a Billericay creative trail of artwork.
•    Public Art Installation: A project around public art installations with a historical and cultural element made with the community. This could look like the creation of a new piece of art.

Residents were invited to vote for their preference and 51 votes were cast with over 72% preferring the Community Trail project.  Following the vote, the projects were opened up to local artists to bid for the work, and a total of 5 local Artists responded for consideration and review at a second Billericay Voices meeting at the Human Kind Café on October 9, 2024.

Innovative Projects

The projects proposed by the five artists included a trail of the town using picture postcards, a trail between miniature community art galleries, a mannequin art trail, a communal banner-making trail, and a creative walking trail.

President-Elect Stephen King and Rtn. Peter Greene went along to the meeting, joining Hannah Stacey (Communities Manager) from Creative People and Places (CPP), and Emma (Lead Facilitator for the Community Voices programme).  Hot food and drink was again provided, and Hannah and Emma then took us through the five proposals, including a 50 word project summary by each artist and a video of them each presenting their plans. 

Each project had a 10-minute session where attendees could question details and Hannah and Emma referred to detailed notes from each artist to provide answers.  There was then a final vote by all attendees for their top three projects – with each attendee giving 3 marks for their top proposal, 2 marks for the second, and 1 mark for third.

All the votes for each project were added up and the winner was “Free Little Art Galleries” by Lizzie Mellish-Dix.

Community Voices?

Creative Basildon wants to create an ambitious, borough-wide arts programme, working with residents to make it happen. This means more people engaging with more arts activity, more often, in places local to you.  They’re looking to connect with as many people as possible - whether you’re an interested local resident, an amateur dramatic expert, are involved in a community group, a business owner, a local creative at any level - or anything in between.  Does that sound interesting to you? Become a Community Voice!