All posts by Eltham Arts

Postcard from Eltham Competition – update

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The competition deadline has been reached ! Thank you everyone who has designed a postcard, encouraged someone else to design a postcard , distributed leaflets and run postcard workshops in the community. We have had some magnificent entries and judging will commence soon. It will be a very difficult task for the judges,

Put 23rd April in your diary , as that will be our celebratory event . It will start at 6pm at Eltham Centre Library , 2 Archery Road, Eltham SE9 1HA .  The winners will be announced and prizes and awards given. We will be printing some winning entries , and you will see what great new postcards we now have in Eltham.

Everyone is welcome at the Celebratory Event . Come and support the local community and our artists!

Eltham is a Creative Community!

Eltham Winter Festival !

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At our conference in October on developing the arts in Eltham , one of our BIG IDEAS was an Eltham Festival ! The discussions have started ! The proposal is an Eltham Winter Festival starting Halloween and finishing on 22nd November . The annual event,  Eltham Lights Up, which is organised by Royal Greenwich council is scheduled for 19th November 2015.

We are looking at bringing together a programme of events during this time which reflect Eltham’s creativity and engergy. We are also planning an Eltham Art Trail, involving galleries, shops and anywhere else which can host a small display of paintings,pottery or crafts.

We hope this will be an innovative and enjoyable Festival for everyone. There is great enthusiam from groups and individuals so far . We are looking for partners to join together to make this a success.  There is support but no finance from Royal Greenwich Council, apart from their event on 19th November, so we will all have to work togther to make this happen.  If you have ideas or want to be involved in any way, do get in touch.

Our story for Remembrance Day

This short story was one of our award winners in our Tales of Eltham competition. The author said it was inspired by the Eltham War Memorial, St John’s Church , Eltham High Street. It is a moving story.

REMEMBER
by Ann Tolladay

When he and his brothers finished at Roper Street school, he felt such pride when he was taken on as an under gardener at Eltham Palace. Bill was working in the post office in Passey Place and Eddy worked in the bank at the cross roads.

On a Friday they would meet up for a pint or two at the Greyhound pub. One night it was so crowded they went round the corner to The Rising Sun and there she was, fate had put the love of his life in front of him, all blond hair and blue eyes. They got talking and to his surprise she agreed to met him the next afternoon.

The Tarn could not have looked better, sun lush greens and flowers. Their feelings for each other blossomed too, they married at St. Johns Church and a year later the twins were born. They lived very contently in a two up two down in Sun Yard. Money was short, but his wife and children gave him a life full of love.

Now he lay here in the mud soaking wet cold and yes angry. The anger welled up in him, the destruction and carnage they were causing must be stopped. It was for the love of what he had left behind, for little families like his that he was prepared to do this terrible thing. The whistle sounded then the movement of men going over the top like a great unstoppable wave. At that moment he knew that what ever his fate, in one part of London what he had planted would continue to grow and even in a hundred years time people would remember and be proud of the sacrifice they were making .

Our Tales of Eltham book is launched!

With a hundred people attending the book launch at Eltham library on Saturday it was standing room only ! What great support for our community short story book Tales of Eltham, with over 90 short stories on subjects as diverse as love, loss, pantomime horses, ghosts and funerals for goldfish . Such a range of stories based on the theme of ‘An Eltham Experience’ has created a lovely book written by children and adults who live in the area or know Eltham well. With many authors being prepared to read their stories at the launch we were moved by some stories and laughed at others. What a great creative community we have in Eltham!

If you would like a copy of the book Tales of Eltham , copies are available at Eltham Library or email elthamarts@aol.co.uk

Tales of Eltham front cover

Five Big Ideas !

The Creative Eltham conference on 18th October was a great success. Fantastic networking and enthusiasm for developing the arts in Eltham.The five workshops were asked to come up with ideas on their ‘themes’ and then to select a BIG IDEA. These are the Five Big Ideas. People went away with lots of ideas that they were going to implement themselves. We will write a longer report of the conference , as we do not want to lose sight of the discussion and other good ideas . However, now we need everyone (Royal Greenwich Council, local arts groups, individual artists, events organisers, businesses ,venues and the community) to show their commitment , look at the Five Big Ideas and think about the future. Together we now need to see how we can take them forward.

PUBLICITY AND MARKETING
Publicity in Passey Place that promotes the arts and events in Eltham, which is able to be used by any local organisation. This should ideally be managed by the council and could be a digital board. Also an opportunity for a piece of local art to be displayed, similar to the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

BUSINESS AND REGENERATION
A four-week Eltham Arts Festival, perhaps as part of the Greenwich and Docklands Festival. An attractively-produced programme for the month, funded by adverts for local businesses, and incorporating as many events and venues as possible over Eltham. This would encourage performances and exhibitions in public and open spaces. This would also encourage businesses to be part of the Festival both by having events in their premises (e.g. open mics in pubs) and by bringing their produce (e.g. pie and mash/curry) onto the street alongside arts displays and performances.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Making the arts more ‘portable’, like the university theatre project and also marketing arts as a health benefit to both health professionals and potential users. Maybe a GP surgery (or new community hospital) could pilot promoting local arts groups and activities and forge closer links with a local group. Arts on prescription?

FUNDING AND DEVELOPMENT
Building a structure around Eltham Arts. The big question being whether Eltham Arts wants to remain a community group which continues to respond to local artistic development and opportunities or, if it wants to be a bigger player which can attract larger funding pots.

ARTS FOR ALL
A ‘pop-up’ tour of Eltham, with art displays and performing arts along the way e.g. drama in Passey Place; music in the parks; art in cafes and restaurants or a photo exhibition. Artists could be invited to add to a display, which could then be auctioned. Pop-up shop where artists can sell their products.

Comments about our Creative Eltham conference

We have been getting lots of great emails about the conference!

‘I had a great day and thought it was very successful. Well done on brilliant
organisation.’ Dr Heather Lilley (Greenwich University)

‘I want to thank you and your team for such an amazing afternoon last Saturday. It was a real eye opener for me. Thank you ever so much. Keep up with the good work. ‘
Sandra Marques (Photographer)

‘Lynn and I really enjoyed the conference on Saturday. We met some lovely people and came away with some great ideas, so thank you for putting it on.’
Rita Billinghurst (Progress Estate Residents Assoc)

‘Well done yesterday – so well attended, well organised and sparking so much interest.’
Reeva Charles (writer)

‘Thank you for a very interesting meeting yesterday. It was good to network with so many people in the arts. ‘
Brenda Hamblin (Eltham Ceramics)

‘Yesterday the Eltham Arts conference was very successful and I was happy to be part of it.’
Svetlana Quigley (artist and teacher)

‘Just had to write to say how hard you must have worked to put all of the afternoon presentation together. Well done.’
Elizabeth Gwyver (Royal Eltham Writers Circle)

;Thanks for inviting me to the meeting this afternoon. l met lots of interesting people, and heard some good ideas. ‘
Jean Bright (Brightglass – glass designer)

And Twitter!

Kirsty Davide @KirstyDavide • Oct 18
Thanks 2 Gaynor & John 4 a Gr8 networking event @ElthamArts Really enjoyed it & looking 4ward 2 getting more involved

Barry White @EldoradoBarry • Oct 18
Great meeting with Eltham Arts today. Very encouraging.

andrew downie @andrewdownie1 • Oct 18
A productive afternoon at the @ElthamArts conference. Looking forward to collaborating and contributing to Eltham as a creative hub.

amy ash @amy_ash_ • Oct 18
@ElthamArts thanks for the exciting day! Nice to see so much interest in the arts. #cultivatingcreativity #letsmakeascene @GeraldMooreGall

Kirsty Davide ‏@KirstyDavide
What a wonderful afternoon spent with @ElthamArts #Brainstorming with local people to get #Eltham more #Creative its a @corganisers life4me

Mark Elliott @Markselliott68 • Oct 18
Attending @ElthamArts conference today. Great initiative to develop the arts here

Amy Duffin @duffinamy • Oct 18
At @ElthamArts’ Conference this afternoon, where the MC and all three keynote speakers are women #girlpower