Welcome to our new website!

Blog

We are really excited to reach this milestone in the process of growing and shaping Creative Medway.

We are launching with an invitation to join us and we will be adding more features and content as we go.

The picture here is a reminder of where we started together at the Corn Exchange, Rochester in September 2020.

That incredible turn out and all of the remarkable work that we did as a community subsequently with GJG Consultants (online during a pandemic) to write the Cultural Strategy 2020 – 2030 underpins what Creative Medway is here to do.

In November last year we were awarded some funding from Arts Council England and Medway Council. We have been working hard behind the scenes to use this and the invaluable support of Nucleus Arts and the Place Board to build strong foundations for the Creative Medway network that we hope you will become a part of.

Our vision, as set out in the Strategy is ambitious:

“Diverse, inclusive, collaborative and engaged, we will celebrate the strength and creativity of all our residents“

Diversity

We know that culture and creativity mean different things to different people and we really want to celebrate the diversity of what this means to all our communities here in Medway.

If you would like to invite us to a conversation or an event with a community group that you are involved in, please get in touch.

Accessibility and Inclusion

You will see on the website that we have an orange Accessibility button. The software here is called ReciteMe and it offers a whole range of options that allow you to access the website in a way that suits you best.

We are aiming to be as inclusive and accessible as possible with our in real life events as well.

We are learning all the time so please get in touch if there are other resources you think we should be aware of.

Events

Let us know what you are up to – our Calendar on the website is free to use and we would love to fill it with the exciting, independent creative and cultural events that we know are happening all over Medway. Give us as much notice as you can so that we can promote what you are doing in plenty of time.

Online information sessions

We have been running a series of online information sessions to help us understand the wider network that Creative Medway sits within. Please join us if you are curious.

Our next sessions are with the Medway Creative Schools Network and the South East Creative Economy Network. We are recording these sessions and we will be making them available soon as resources here on the website.

Creative Meet Ups

We know that many of us working in the creative sector are freelancers, sole traders and small businesses and that we can often feel isolated.

Our Creative Meet Up events are a chance to catch up informally, in person each month. We are going to alternate between breakfast meetings and early evening drinks to start with. We want to hear from you as we go how that works.

We hope this can be a true mix of experienced professionals, those starting out and everyone in between who may be juggling portfolio careers to build their careers and businesses in this sector.

This is a chance to chat and to share your ideas with us about the kind of resources you would like to help us to develop. We have some ideas we would like to share with you too!

Creative Medway is also about joining dots and we really hope that events like this might provide an opportunity for new collaborations to start.

Get in touch, let us know what you are up to, how you would like to be involved or if you would just like a bit of a chat to find out more.

We are looking forward to finding out more about you!