Creative Basildon: Field Artists and Young Pioneers

The BasildON Creative People & Places programme is built on multiple projects that aim to engage across all of our communities. These were inspired by a range of unique cultural activities that were developed and assessed before putting in the application for funding to Arts Council England.

Alongside this, extensive community discussions were undertaken to ensure the activity is what local people want to see!

‘Young Pioneers’ is a series of youth-led creative activities, developed through our creative skills development programme for 16-25 year olds, funded and supported by ReGeneration:2013, a Creative Estuary project.

Supported by industry experts, our young pioneershave developed their own project that uses creativity to drive change in their local areas – happening in February 2023.

Halls Corner Film: Made in collaboration with local filmmaker Maz Murray, Halls Corner Film explores Wickford’s past and present through intergenerational storytelling between Young Pioneer Em and her family. Watch the film here!

Field Artists is a creative exploration project set in the Basildon Borough. Artists embed themselves within a community within 5 areas of the borough, and co-create work in response to the connection they create. The Field Artists residencies support artists investigating what is happening within 5 areas of Basildon Borough - Wickford, Laindon, Billericay, Pitsea and Vange, and Basildon itself. This artist led process will enable better understanding of communities and residents, and aims to produce a series of public art pieces across the Borough alongside a digitally held archive of the residencies.

Syd Moore is an acclaimed novelist and short-story writer whose work focusses on the historic witch hunts in Essex. Her first book, The Drowning Pool (HarperCollins, 2011) looked at the legend of Sarah Moore, a notorious sea witch, in Moore’s home town of Leigh-on-Sea. The bestselling Witch Hunt (HarperCollins, 2012) investigated the hysteria of 1645–47 inflamed by the notorious Witchfinder General. Moore continues to explore the witch hunts of Essex in her current series The Essex Witch Museum Mysteries (Strange Magic, Strange Sight, Strange Fascination, Strange Tombs) published by OneWorld. The Strange Days of Christmas (OneWorld, 2019) is her first short-story collection. Prior to writing, Moore was a lecturer, worked extensively in the publishing industry and presented Channel 4’s book programme, Pulp. She was the founding editor of Level 4, an arts and culture magazine, and co-creator of Superstrumps, the game that reclaims female stereotypes. Moore was also the Assistant Curator of ABBA: Super Troupers The Exhibition that launched at the O2 in December 2019 and co-curated This is What an Essex Girl Looks Like at the Beecroft Gallery, as part of her work with the Essex Girls Liberation Front. Having founded the ‘Front’ she spearheaded the campaign to have the definition of ‘Essex Girl’ removed from the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary. And was successful.

For the Field Artists project, she has contributed an essay about Wickford which includes mention of St Mary's Runwell and the Running Well. In the piece, she concludes: "Wickford has its issues and, like other places, could do with some investment in the community to become whole again. But its soul is expansive, unique, eclectic, ancient and generous too. And of course, a town’s soul is its people. Wickfordians should feel very proud." Also on the site is a short film capturing Madame Curiosité’s Pub Quiz Caper live at The Railway Club in Wickford, an interactive performance piece scripted and performed by Moore.

For more on St Mary's Church and the Running Well, see my poem 'Runwell' by clicking here.

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Hall's Corner by Em Byron and Maz Murray.