Dear fellow art lover,
We are a new group that has formed in Basildon with the intention of lobbying for greater recognition of the arts within Basildon.
Please make a note in your diary- we need strength in numbers, and do come armed with your ideas. We intend to have workshop sessions where groups can work on proposals for each of the separate headings e.g. what kind of theatre should we have, then these can be collated into a report for Basildon Council, a report that CHASE will present to the Council and a future meeting.
We are striving to be a formal, properly constituted voluntary group that represents cultural activity across south Essex. We emerged out of the public meeting held at Basildon's Towngate Theatre on March 28 this year, at which well over eighty people attended representing the arts across Essex. Since then we have held a number of meetings and we are agreed that our mission is to establish an inclusive cultural space for the people of south Essex in particular, where we intend to champion a very broad range of cultural activities. It is envisaged that this Cultural Quarter will include a Contemporary Art Gallery (The Essex Gallery), a Local History and Heritage Museum, Public Library, Youth Quarter and Children's Activity Area, Theatre with Performance and Rehearsal spaces, Artists' Studios and Workshops, Meeting Rooms and Catering Facilities, and Basildon has been chosen as the ideal location for this sub-regional centre for the arts.
Basildon is going through an environmental renaissance that will see it get a regenerated town centre within the next 10 - 15 years, and the present District Council has made a commitment to establishing a Cultural Village within the town centre redevelopment, that we would like to see becoming a beacon for the arts in south Essex. We recognise that this will not be accomplished unless everybody involved in anyway with the “arts” acts together. To this end we propose to act as a clearing house of your needs so that we can present the Council with clear ideas as to what the arts community expects from them.
Will you help? Can we speak for you? Our chair is Vin Harrop who has already had talks with Basildon Council on this subject , but it is now clear that we need numbers to add weight to our proposals on your behalf. Please email me with your thoughts and ideas, and give us permission to speak on your behalf. I am sure your club members would also like more recognition from councils across south Essex for the stalwart work that you do."
Please email me
Secretary of CHASE