This financial year, Creative Colchester has delivered a full programme of events and projects to support our network of creatives. Growing Business This year we delivered 12 networking meetups, a performing arts teacher’s networking event and 3 skills training workshops. We have kept the creative community informed of news and opportunities via our fortnightly newsletter and regular social media posts. ‘Thank you so much to Frazer and Dan for putting these sessions together. They were really well structured, informative and I came away with a series of actions I can take to get myself and my practice into a stronger position.’ - Workshop participant Creative Careers Following our pilot events the previous year, we successfully delivered 2 Creative Careers workshop days at local secondary schools, delivering 48 workshops to young people in topics that included graphic design, illustration, publishing, songwriting, performance and more.Through these events we were able to employ 12 local creative practitioners and engages with approx 250 young people. ‘The Creative Careers Day had a very positive impact on the students. It gave them the opportunity to meet professionals from a range of creative industries, ask questions, and gain first-hand insight into different career pathways. Many students left with a better understanding of the variety of roles available and the different routes into creative career and freelance work.’ - St Helena School As a development of our youth focused programme, we collaborated with Signals to deliver 2 Creative Careers Progression Days at Colchester Institute, in which 16 local professionals met with approx 200 creative subject students, offering career guidance seminars, portfolio reviews and one to one advice. We also offered a similar event to members of YAK (Young Art Kommunity, working out of Firstsite) in which 4 creative professionals offered advice and support to young people pursuing art and creativity as potential careers: ‘The YAKers got so much out of it – it was really good to see them come out of their shells and chat with everyone, be inspired, and get some real world advice that they can put into practice.’ YAK Facilitator First Thursdays We have continued to produce monthly First Thursdays festivals generating paid work for local creatives and increasing footfall to Colchester’s venues through performances and workshops. We have been able to employ people from the network as Production Assistants for these mini festivals, which have led to further employment opportunities with other event organisers. New Projects A new initiative for us this year is our ‘Culture for Everyone’ programme which aims to support grassroots projects by matching creative entrepreneurs with available, under utilised, city centre spaces. In doing so, we have helped facilitate a children’s writer’s workshop, development sessions for a new play, rehearsals for new performance work and the launch of a new short film festival.

Creative Colchester’s activity is guided by an advisory board which brings together the key stakeholders in the sector including Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations, University of Essex, Colchester Institute and representatives from the independent, freelance and business sector. Colchester City Council and Essex County Council, along with the Arts Council, have observer status. The board meets quarterly and provides the strategic direction for the CIC’s activity. Specific workstreams are overseen by a stakeholder steering group which shapes and provides oversight of the programmed activity. These steering groups include relevant wider stakeholders including the local Business Improvement District, community organisations, education representatives and smaller arts/cultural organisations as Appropriate. Creative Colchester also conducts regular surveys of the network membership and wider sector, to gather insights into the activities that would most benefit the sector and fulfil the CIC’s mission. The programme of business and freelancer support and training is developed to directly respond to this.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration