Babylon ARTS is very proud to have supported the Isle of Ely Arts Festival. In recent years we have taken on a number of important roles to help coordinate, programme and market festival events. One of our jobs has been to help the festival secure Arts Council funding so that it can develop and expand its activities.
The festival aim to celebrate the best of local, bringing in appropriate professional artists to raise aspirations and performance quality. Recent examples of this included: Ely Sinfonia receiving professional master classes, Funk It Up dance group working with Steady from Flawless, young poets working with Page to Performance and Lantern Dance producing new work with Stop Gap Dance Company.
We were delighted that we succeeded in increasing the number of local groups that came together at the festival planning stage. This included local visual artists, poets and musicians. We also gathered local traders, councillors, gallery owners and representatives from Ely Cathedral. This facilitated our aim of expanding the content and reach of the festival and encouraged local groups to develop what they could offer the community. New geographical areas covered by the 2015 festival included: Prickwillow, Isleham, Little Downham and Littleport.
"The project has increased capacity in the Company…we are extremely pleased with the results.It's a truly inclusive way of working and not only generates a lot of material but also elicits dynamic and committed performances. All stayed completely engaged throughout the two days and all contributed fully to the finished piece as creators and performers. The performance was very successful". - Lantern Dance feedback on the experience of working with Stop Gap Theatre
