Babylon ARTS working with Ely Arts Festival awarded £5525 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation – ensuring that creativity plays an important role in local community celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will ensure that thousands of people from communities all across England will have the opportunity to take part in exciting creative events – all in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. From puppetry and story creation, through to making crowns, carnival and art trails, there will be a huge range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved in.
The funding will support three activities taking place in June. Firstly the creation of a new carnival eel ‘Eelizabeth’ with children from Littleport Community Primary. Elizabeth will join the parade in Ely on Sunday 7th June. Ely Arts Festival will deliver a new project, with artist Amy Wormald, called #PictureEly where everyone will be invited to draw, paint, sketch or photograph their favourite place or space in the city as part of a day of art and finally, residents and visitors will be able to participate in a temporary Lion Trail, created by ceramicist Louise Beale, this trail will highlight key moments in Queen Elizabeth’s 70 year reign and will be located in seven sites across the City from 5th June for a month of celebrations.
Made possible thanks to National Lottery players and administered by UK Community Foundations on behalf of the Arts Council, the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will support a huge range of projects throughout England. 44 community foundations have been awarding grants across the country.
Claire Somerville, Chief Executive, Babylon Arts said “We’re pleased to be working with Ely Arts Festival to help create new opportunities for arts and culture across Ely, in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee.”
Darren Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England said “The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund is a wonderful example of our ambition to give everyone the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts, culture and creativity – made possible thanks to National Lottery players. 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.”
Rosemary Macdonald, CEO, UK Community Foundations, said: “For community foundations, people and places are the priority and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee is a unique opportunity for people to get together and celebrate in their communities. We are proud to have connected Arts Council England with local organisations whose imaginative and exciting projects and collaborations with professional artists will bring communities together to enjoy marking this milestone moment in our history.”
HM The Queen Elizabeth II is the first monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, having overtaken Queen Victoria as the longest reigning monarch in 2015. Her reign has been marked by a commitment to public service, reflected by her extensive programme of engagements at home and abroad, and support for over 600 cultural organisations, charities, military associations, professional bodies and public service organisations.