Why Creative Crawley so important to the town

SussexWorld

Creative Crawley is an arts charity working to support, produce and present high quality arts and cultural activity in Crawley, West Sussex. We caught up with Creative Crawley director Louise Blackwell and Theatre Centre artistic director Eleanor Manners artist Lonny Chauhan, architect Karl Singporewala, and designers Beth Williams and Sophie Merriner about why Creative Crawley is so important to the town

Transcript

00:00I'm Lonnie Chahan, I'm an artist from Corolli based on Free Bridges.

00:12I think it's brilliant, I think towns like Corolli need these companies that are organisations

00:21that are doing these things for the community and really boosting the art scene.

00:25As an artist, I'm really grateful for it, having the space to make all this stuff but also

00:31then that feeds back into the community because stuff like this can then relate to people just

00:37passing by and I think it's all these, I wouldn't say little things but small things that each

00:47artist's work that all comes together to film this community which increasingly is thriving

00:53thanks to the efforts of places like Creative Corolli and you've probably seen the murals

00:58around town that they've done and I think just each little thing that they do I think helps

01:02brighten up and make it a nicer place to live so I think it's beautiful.

01:07My name's Carl Singpal Waller, I'm an architect and artist.

01:12It's massive, I mean they've built on what people have tried to do for many many years but it's

01:21not just them creating the community here, it's them creating the opportunities here as well.

01:27The first time I found out about Creative Corolli was just after the pandemic and they did a call-out

01:33for a mural in the children's part of the Crawley Library overall and without sounding too pessimistic

01:45about it but there was a brief, there was a budget and there was a program and okay this is all

01:52professionally put together and so forth but it's in my hometown. I see this, I've worked on projects

01:58around the UK and around the world and it's like oh no this is a five minute walk from where I live

02:06and it's such a silly thing to be surprised about but then there's been this consistency and you know

02:16this new maker space and the links with theatre centre have been wonderful that they've created this

02:25community and it will evolve and it will grow and it will change and people will come and people will

02:30go and and maybe come back again but it's it's wonderful to be part of that you know at this

02:36stage in my career to be able to not only support that but benefit and contribute to that it's wonderful.

02:44I'm Beth, I am a fashion designer.

02:48My name's Sophie, I am a fashion designer and bridal wear designer.

02:52So how important has Creative Crawley been to you and how important do you think it is for the town?

02:56Oh so important like I knew Crawley was a creative place and I knew lots of people in Crawley were

03:03creative but being able to kind of link up with them and like work together not just like on our

03:08personal projects also projects that benefit like the local community it's it's so important it's like

03:14it's not just doing jobs but it's also helping people's well-being like that's the best thing about

03:20the arts is showing people new things and getting to think about things in new ways but also in a

03:25way which is really rewarding for them being involved and it doesn't always have to be like

03:30financial sometimes it can literally just be like this is a new thing that made them smile

03:35yeah and I mean for professional development as well it's oh it's incredible and I think

03:40you know for a lot of creatives before I went to uni there wasn't any sort of um

03:43culture I suppose that well there probably was it was just hidden but I think Creative Crawley has

03:50definitely brought that sort of creative culture to the surface now and when I came back from uni it

03:54was oh my gosh this is an incredible organization this is an incredible network of people doing creative

03:59things so it's actually just been amazing to actually be able to stay in my hometown and you know work on

04:06my practice um and yeah and it's just this incredible community and we've met so many people through

04:11Creative Crawley um yeah it's just an incredible network really there's so much collaboration yeah

04:18absolutely lots of lots of opportunities yeah yeah so many amazing talented people yeah I'm Eleanor I am

04:26the new artistic director at theatre centre I think it's so important I think Crawley has got is such a

04:31brilliant hub of all kinds of um different people who can bring lots of brilliant stuff for Crawley

04:37and I think what's really sad is there hasn't really been a space where artists can make work

04:42and Creative Crawley are making that possible and hopefully then we can show the nation what

04:46Crawley can do and what we can make my name is Louise Blackwell and I'm the creative director of

04:51Creative Crawley well obviously I'm biased I'm the creative director of the town it's essential

04:55it's totally essential I guess the thing to say is that we okay we're led by creativity like that's

05:02our bag but what we're trying to do is change the town for the better for the people here and we

05:07believe I believe that arts and culture and creativity can do that it crosses into health and well-being

05:13it helps people get more confident and be more skilled and therefore get better jobs

05:17um there's such a range of things that arts and culture and creativity can do for you

05:22and you know some people will never do it as a career and that's fine but creativity is across

05:27everything you know pretty much everyone I know watches telly people listen to music read books

05:31imagine a world where that didn't exist um and for me it crossed you know it just crosses into

05:37everything so it helps people feel better and you know and this amazing town deserves it because

05:42it doesn't have the infrastructure at the moment that can support it properly so that's why I think

05:47creative quality is important

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