News

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch in partnership with Clarion Futures, the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group, are delighted to be launching a new project ‘Spring Into Creativity’ this week for residents of Orchard Village and Passive Close in Rainham, Essex. The project provides positive creative activities residents can engage with from their home while social distancing restrictions continue. Designed for all ages, with specific focus on adults who are shielding, these free resource packs contain everything needed to join in. Activities include crafts to make, recipes to bake, adult colouring, games, quizzes and puzzles, creative writing challenges and competitions with prizes including 60 theatre tickets to Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch productions later this year. Key to the project has been the ambition to generate something special, personalised to the local community and celebrating the huge number of brilliant partners who would usually be delivering activities and events but have been limited over the last year, including; the Mardyke Community Centre, Newtons Primary School, Rainham Foodbank, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, West Ham United Foundation, Havering Changing, the Y.M.C.A, the Youth Service and Sports Development teams and others at the London Borough of Havering. Celebrating the local touch included supporting local artists and businesses, including Gemma Compton (Craftschmooze stationary), born on the old Mardyke estate (now Orchard Village) and still a Rainham resident, who was commissioned to generate brand artwork as well as resources for the pack. ‘Spring Into Creativity’ also aims to share valuable local resources such as London Borough of Havering’s #LookAfterYourNoggin campaign as well as signposting digital and non-digital community initiatives including Havering Changing and upcoming digital and telephone based creative workshops. Clarion Futures has previously funded the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s participation work though regular dance and drama workshops at the Orchard Village estate as well as commissioning digital and telephone based activities. Clarion Futures is also a member of the Havering Changing consortium, a partnership of 8 local organisations that will seek radical new ideas to engage local communities in arts and culture, support local decision makers and share learnings, led by Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.  James Watson, Head of Learning and Participation at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, said ‘We hope everyone will find something inside to make them smile, give them pause to think or a chance to explore something new. Spring is here, new opportunities and initiatives are starting up and we are so excited to be at the heart of it continuing this valuable partnership with Clarion Futures and delivering more creative projects within the community.’  Matt Parsonage, Head of Communities at Clarion Futures, said: ‘We’re delighted to be continuing our partnership with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch which has evolved to meet the changing needs of residents during the pandemic. The ‘Spring into Creativity’ project will be fantastic for local people, providing opportunities to take part in activities and engage with the community and I’m sure it will prove to be very popular.’