Creative Barking & Dagenham(CBD) provides opportunity for local residents, CBD Cultural Connectors, to choose and develop great arts experiences. Over the last three years, CBD’s new festivals programme has proved really popular, with local residents demanding more events; 97% of our audiences surveyed would like to see more activity happening (over 50% of our festivals audience have not had an arts experience in the last year). In 2016 we piloted our first light festival – the first ticketed festival in our programme, at the locally-affordable cost of £5 for adults. We achieved 2100 visitors to the event, and 700 local residents were involved in the preparation and support for the festival, which featured 20 bespoke artworks - chosen by the Cultural Connectors - and four projects were created and delivered by the Cultural Connectors. GLOW 2018 is even more ambitious. We are excited to announce that we plan to work in partnership with internationally renowned producers, Artichoke.

What we'll deliver:

• 4 paid assistant roles for local people
• A commission for local creative talent to design and create work to be exhibited in Lumiere London 2018 and at GLOW
• A high-quality light festival, steered entirely and supported by local residents
• Pre-festival learning activities for 2,100 young people
• Trade stalls for local artists and makers to sell their work
• 15 new art commissions
• 150 volunteering opportunities
• An arts experience, for 3,000 people, in Barking and Dagenham
• Involve 750 local people in the preparation and support for the festival

Why it's a great idea:

There is a huge local demand for outdoor arts festivals in the borough and the development of and ambition for this has been strongly resident-led. It is one of the best ways that CBD can reach large numbers of people to involve them in other parts of the programme, increasing opportunities for arts engagement, personal and skills development, volunteering and employment opportunities. Our GLOW pilot activity really put Barking and Dagenham on the map, as a place where great arts and cultural activities exist. The partnership with Artichoke, producers of extraordinary large-scale events - from light festivals to giant mechanical spiders - will take this to an exciting next level. The festivals strand has a huge role in place-making. GLOW, happening in February 2018, will enable local people and visitors to discover the local asset of Valence House Museum, learn the history of the Manor House, enjoy its pleasant grounds and surrounding parkland.

Steps to get it done:

• Early December - volunteer recruitment
• Early February - cont. press and PR campaign, inc. pop-up marketing activity
• Early February - design of map and signage
• Early January - marketing for open access community activity (inc. half term activity)
• Early November - outline support/bursaries for shortlisted artists to develop their work
• Early October - (local) call-out for craft and market stalls
• Early October - begin marketing for ticket sales
• Early/mid-February - confirm guests for stakeholder event
• March - evaluation and monitoring
• Mid- November through mid-February - deliver community projects and making workshops
• Mid-February - volunteer briefings
• Mid-November - artists to submit more detailed proposal for selection panel
• Mid-November - offers made to artists (connecting artists with expert support from Artichoke / CBD Production Mgr)
• Mid-November - produce (programme-specific) marketing material
• Mid-November onwards - begin event management plans and risk-assessing activity
• Mid-October - deadline for applications from artists
• Mid-October - panel meeting / shortlisting (CBD, Cultural Connectors, Artichoke, GLOW Production Manager)
• Late November - meet/begin development work with commissioned artists (expert support Artichoke / CBD Production Mgr)
• Late November - Press and PR campaign launch
• Late Sept - artist call-out (brief designed in partnership with Artichoke, consulting Cultural Connectors)
• Late Sept - community partners approached; begin licensing processes with Local Authority
• Late Sept/early Oct - site visits for artists (applicants for GLOW commissions)
• w/c 19 February - festival get-in on site
• w/c 26 February - festival get-out on site

Pledge towards GLOW, and you’ll receive special invitations to VIP and benefactors’ events. GLOW brings great opportunity for communities to work together in co-decision-making activities, and to bring increasing numbers of people together and grow the network, contributing positively to community cohesion. At a time of massive change in the borough, local ownership of emerging cultural programmes becomes increasingly important. Core to our mission is the commitment to the Council’s ambition for growth - “no-one left behind” - with local residents taking ownership and benefitting from opportunities. The CBD festivals strand has the greatest local ownership from local Cultural Connectors, on steering groups, who develop the festivals. We now have 180 of them, representative of the borough’s diverse local communities, all with access to volunteering, skills-development and paid employment opportunities - this year including an exciting opportunity to exhibit work in Lumiere London.