East Durham Creates is a Creative People and Places project funded through the Arts Council England with support from Durham County Council and Durham AAP. East Durham Trust has been working with consortium lead Beamish to make art engaging and accessible for the people of East Durham.

Phase 1 of East Durham Creates ran from 2014 to the start of 2017. East Durham Trust's strands included:

Go and Sees were exciting adventures that take people far and wide to explore art in it’s natural habitat. Best part? They were free! All together in phase 1 our Go and Sees included 26 trips to arts and culture across the North East and engaged almost 800 people.

Creative Socials were a new fun way of getting people engaged with art through vibrant one off events. They could take place any time of day, in any community venue and they gave the people of East Durham the chance to get using their local spaces, to showcase local artistic talent, eat tasty food and get involved in the arts. All together 16 Creative Socials were held by the local community and they engaged almost 1,400 people.

Let's Create was a commissioning scheme which supported local arts activities designed to engage the communities of East Durham. Communities could apply for between £500 and £2500. All together 22 projects received almost £50,000 of support and engaged almost 5,400 in almost 1,000 hours of new arts activities across East Durham.

The Community Panel was a group of East Durham locals including teachers, community centre managers, councillors, artists, facilitators and more who help to make decisions on how the East Durham Creates project was run and what it will deliver, particularly the East Durham Trust strands.

2017-2020

​Let's Create: Continuing with commissions that support the local community Let's Create launched Big Ideas and Small Ideas in August 2017. The two schemes encourage local groups, artists and organisations to apply for support for projects that engage the people of East Durham in the arts. For more information visit the East Durham Creates website

​Go and Sees: These trips will now act as research trips and generally further afield. So far we've taken a group of locals to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Hull City of Culture, the Ouseburn Valley and the Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland. We have lots more exciting trips planned over the next year, so watch this space!

​The Community Panel: The Panel will continue to advise on various aspects of East Durham Creates and transition into the Creative Community Learning Network. Are you interested in becoming a Panel member or getting more involved in the project? Why not contact Megan on 0191 5693511 or megan.collier@eastdurhamtrust.org.uk