The Foundation for Essex Arts - A great County deserves great art!

Essex is a unique county with a unique cultural heritage derived from a chequered history and its unique geographic position in the world, being both close to continental Europe and adjacent to London, one of the leading financial and cultural centres of the world. These characteristics alone have provided the county with an exceptional, cumulative potential to develop its economy and its culture, and to being the most effective entrepreneurial business hub of South East England.

The unifying power of culture, if given the importance that it deserves, can be the mutual base for a community  and a focus for dialogue, understanding and identity, getting people to unite around important common objectives and initiatives even where hitherto there may have been  some lack of agreement.

At The Foundation for Essex Arts, “FFEA”, our efforts will be guided by our belief in the fundamental importance of arts and cultural expression in people’s lives and a commitment to serving our three constituencies: artists, arts and cultural organisations, and the wider community. We believe that artists are at the centre of creative endeavour. Therefore, we are committed to providing artists with opportunities for artistic development and expression, and to the public presentation of their work. Towards this end, FFEA will therefore encourage:

• Arts and cultural organisations to work with artists to support the creation, presentation, and dissemination of their work through ‘The Essex Gallery’, and to serve as an advocate on artists’ issues.

• The vital connection of the arts to peoples lives through arts and cultural organisations in Essex, both prominent and the not so prominent.  [At FFEA, we are committed to assisting a wide range of arts and cultural organisations – small and large, new and established – to achieve their artistic, educational, community projects and organisational goals. As the arts domain evolves and expands, FFEA will seek to support personal and organisational development, continuity of leadership, and improvement of professional conditions for leaders within cultural organisations].

• Every individual in Essex should have a meaningful connection to creativity and every community should have the right to cultural self-determination.  The Board of FFEA is also committed to making the arts accessible to all of the people living in, working, or just visiting Essex.  FFEA aims to support artistic and cultural diversity, the economically disadvantaged, people with disabilities, rural populations, and those who may experience discrimination on the basis race, creed, or gender. FFEA is committed to fostering public understanding and enjoyment of arts and culture through the arts in education, public participation, and lifelong learning programmes in the schools and community settings for young people and adults in Essex.

The Foundation for Essex Arts [FFEA] strives to achieve its purpose through its core objectives and through consulting and convening field leaders, providing information and advisory support, and working with partners on special initiatives to achieve mutual goals. Further, FFEA’s vision for cultural development in the county is reflected in the following goals. FFEA aims to:

• Be a positive influence on the arts and culture of Essex, and therefore exists to support, promote, and disseminate both this unique culture and the indigenous arts of Essex, to include artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure.

• Establish a cultural centre or series of centres to provide a permanent home for all the arts in Essex, but in particular the indigenous visual arts and a centre for architecture and the built environment.

• Uphold the rights of all Essex people whatever their race, creed, or ability to access and experience the power of the arts, architecture and culture, and the vital contribution the arts can make to the quality of life in Essex towns and other communities.

• Celebrate the county’s rich range of artistic and cultural resources, inclusive of diverse cultures and aesthetics

• Be a force in sustaining a vital ecosystem of individual artists and cultural organisations that supports the creation, presentation, critical review, and distribution of the arts and culture.

• Broaden public access, appreciation, participation, and education in the arts and culture throughout the county and in collaboration with neighbouring counties and member states of the European Union.

• FFEA reserves the right to amend this statement at any time to take account of the changing needs of the arts in Essex.