Bourne to be Wild

Level Best is situated in the heart of Colchester City offering a wide range of outstanding opportunities and learning for adults and young people with learning disabilities. What is so inspiring about Level Best is their range of creative and wildlife opportunities and the quality of the provision. They have a contemporary gallery, creative learning programme, allotment, kitchen and cafe. We teamed up with a wonderful group of Trainees, each fueled with a passion for art and local nature and its been a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with everyone.

Probably the most colourful building we have ever had the pleasure of working in, The Outhouse in Colchester is a thriving hub of activity and support for the LGBTQ+ community in Colchester. For our project we engaged their youth group and Craft with Pride group and we were blown away with the amount of creativity they brought to the project. The Outhouse has a very busy calendar and programme, and they still managed to squeeze us in and we were welcomed with open arms.

YAK is a group of young people who wish to develop their skills and understanding of art and creativity - based at Firstsite. This group - probably the biggest group we have engaged on any project - is buzzing with ideas and concepts for print. Diverse and fun, these young people regularly invite guest artists and have a very busy calendar of creative curation, exhibitions and events.

We’ve had the pleasure of gaining 1-2-1 skills and access to the Makerspace in Colchester. An incredible printing and ceramic resource space for the community to join as members with opportunities to use specialist equipment and resources. As well as taking up the invitation to speak about our practice and our Bourne to be Wild project at one of their monthly events, we have also printed 90 limited edition Risograph prints as part of our Bourne to be Wild print giveaway on the 10th December. If you want to connect with an inspiring community of artists and learn some new skills we can’t recommend Makerspace enough.

Colchester’s oldest gallery, The Minories is certainly a hub for not just an incredible collection of works, but also contemporary arts, with a programme of inclusive and progressive exhibitions, events and opportunities sure to inspire. The Minories, sited at 74 High Street, recently set up in a central temporary pop up space (during a recent refurbishment). A space we identified as a space to build 2 x billboards for the project.

This space on Wyre Street is street level and in the heart of the city. It’s a privilege to have connected with the creative team at The Minories and to be invited to share our work on their walls. Their trust and encouragement for our vision and artwork plans have been amazing.

It was always going to be ambitious to suggest building a billboard onto an iconic heritage site such as the Jumbo Water Tower, but when we approached the team, they were really excited to be part of our vision.

Jumbo is currently going through an exciting bid to The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and as part of their vision for the building, charity North Essex Heritage, are keen to incorporate creative and nature plans, and increase engagement.

The team have been brilliant in helping get the permissions for our artwork billboard to be installed on what is a very important building. We are now looking forward to following the Jumbo Project and seeing their plans for such an awe inspiring building. You can follow them on Instagram @JumboHeritageColchester