What a year! A look back at 2024.

Blog

Celebrating Medway’s creative community
2024 was a big year for Medway and our cultural community as we marked 40 years of culture-led regeneration in Medway since the closure of Chatham Dockyard, along with significant anniversary years for the Universities at Medway, Medway African and Caribbean Association and the Medway Queen Paddle Steamer.

To mark the year, Creative Medway worked with partners including our three universities and the Council to lead Medway Culture Fest 24, a year-long programme of over 250 events and activities bringing together 50 plus creatives, companies and event makers to celebrate Medway’s people, places and communities.  The year saw local, regional and national press attention, in June we marked the award of nine honorary degrees and doctorates celebrating those who contribute to and support Medway’s creative community and reputation.  In the summer we reached out to the families of every primary school child in Medway to invite them to take part in a packed programme of family summer holiday fun. Another highlight was Icon Theatre’s epic immersive show Ghost Ships, charting over 450 years of Chatham Dockyard history and featuring a cast of 150 community performers, young people and professional dancers supported by a team of Medway Change Makers volunteers.  

Supporting and connecting Medway’s creative community
Creative Medway has been a strong advocate for Medway’s cultural community over the last year, feeding back on Medway’s Draft Local Plan to the Council, and advocating on behalf of the sector with general election candidates.  We have run 18 masterclasses, workshops and trainings in direct response to requests by the sector, and we continue to run monthly meet-ups in partnership with Nucleus Arts and sector socials every quarter to connect the creative community. 

We continued to work with Ideas Test to support the Medway Change Makers cultural volunteering programme, and were delighted to announce a major new creative health programme and partnership for Medway.

Addressing challenges and opportunities on behalf of the sector
Every year Creative Medway invites Medway’s creative community to set focusses for the year ahead and supports working groups made up of sector and community members to deliver activities and practical action in response to those priorities.  

Last year we supported working groups to address the following sector priorities:

• Access and Inclusion: less talk, more doing!
• Media and Messaging: improving what’s on coverage and media coverage
• Cross-Sector Working:  breaking down sector silos
• Environmental Sustainability: supporting action

We were proud to lead on the Kent and Medway Creative Sector Sustainability Pledge and launch a Sector Accessibility Toolkit and Checklist. You can find out more about what our working groups achieved in our blog here and how you can get involved in our 2025 focusses here.