Arts Council gives grants to Wiltshire groups for Platinum Jubilee celebrations
Dance, music and other artwork will mark the occasion
Ten arts projects across Wiltshire have been awarded more than £50,000 worth of Arts Council England grants in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June.
There will be a variety of artwork, dance and music which will bring communities together throughout the month to provide lasting memories and a creative legacy to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne.
The money, originally from the National Lottery, have been distributed by Wiltshire Community Foundation.
Wiltshire is one of the network of UK community foundations supporting the Let's Create Jubilee Fund, a £5 million nationwide programme to develop creative and cultural activities as part of the celebrations.
Among the recipients is Age UK Wiltshire, which will use a £9,900 grant to create a record of old peoples’ jubilee memories through music, poetry and art.
The charity will run workshops in locations including Salisbury, Amesbury and South West Wiltshire with artists to record their memories and use them to inspire songs, poetry and artwork.
Project leader Emma Walker said:
"The Jubilee Chronicles is being run in partnership with the Wiltshire Music Centre’s Celebrating Age team of artists. We want to give older people an opportunity to be involved because it is such a special event coming up.
“We want them to be feel involved in the celebration and also it’s an opportunity to capture their stories by using the milestones of the Queen’s reign to unlock those memories. It will be a social, historic record that captures these stories.”
Muse SW in Salisbury will use a £5,795 grant to organise a day-long jubilee garden party over the bank holiday weekend in the Cathedral Close for people living with dementia and their carers, as well as the wider community.
Director Jane Ebel said:
“We plan to have music, entertainment, stalls and games for adults and children, which will appeal to the groups we have worked with over the last two years, as well as being able to welcome passers-by.
“The centrepiece of the project will be creative sessions (both musical and artistic) and intergenerational performances with two opera singers from Celebrate Voice) and community musicians from Music for Wellbeing), using a backdrop of work done by participants attending art workshops in various parts of the gardens.”
The party will be the culmination of work done during the pandemic with isolated dementia patients and carers through garden parties and also with the city’s older Polish, Romanian and Moldovan communities who are also isolated.
Roche Court Educational Trust in East Winterslow, near Salisbury, has received a £6,495 grant for a series of inclusive arts celebrations, including workshops and live performances with dance company Surface Area Dance, which specialises in working with deaf and hearing-impaired dancers.
It will also run a multi-sensory art project working with children with profound disabilities and devise a singing sculpture with low-income families.
Head of education Laura Joy explained:
"There will also be a themed art competition at Roche Court’s sculpture park. The grant will enable us to create a celebratory showcase, where moving image, sound and a display of artworks could be shared with project partners and participating groups."
Wiltshire Community Foundation joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said:
"I am proud the foundation has been able to bring £50,000 of arts funding into Wiltshire through the relationship with Arts Council England. We are excited at the breadth and variety of the celebrations being planned this June to mark the jubilee, they will involve large sections of the community and leave lasting memories.
“We are especially proud that our position as a key funder for the county has brought this money into Wiltshire so that these celebrations can go ahead. We the thank Arts Council England for the trust it has placed in us to ensure its National Lottery funding makes the most impact at a local level.”
Arts Council England chief executive Darren Henley said:
“This June, we’ll see communities across England coming together to celebrate a historic milestone for this country. I’m excited to see these projects brought to life in villages, towns and cities across the country as our wonderfully creative communities celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.”