The Isle of Wight Steam Railway has been awarded £7,540 from the Arts Council’s Let’s Create Jubilee Fund by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation (HIWCF) – ensuring that creativity plays an important role in local community celebrations for Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will ensure that thousands of people from communities all across England will have the opportunity to take part in exciting creative events – all in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee. From puppetry and story creation, through to making crowns, carnival and art trails, there will be a huge range of exciting activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to get
involved in.
The Isle of Wight Steam Railway will be working in partnership with English Heritage’s Osborne House and artist Anthony James (Creaturama based at Arreton Barns) to deliver an art and design challenge for 10 Island schools to design and build a train carriage fit for a member of the Royal Family. This will include a training session for teachers focusing on historic Royal connections with
both the Island Railways and Osborne House (including Whippingham Station, built for Queen Victoria’s household), a free junk modelling workshop, an exhibition of the children’s models and designs, with the winners awarded their very own ‘Jubilee Journey’ – a ride on the railway, a visit to the Train Story Museum, lunch at Osborne House and a Discovery Visit ‘The Queen is coming!’.
Made possible thanks to National Lottery players and administered by UK Community Foundations on behalf of the Arts Council, the Let’s Create Jubilee Fund will support a huge range of projects throughout England. 44 community foundations have been awarding grants across the country.
Sarah Girling, Heritage and Learning Manager at Isle of Wight Steam Railway, has said:
“We are very pleased to have been awarded this funding to celebrate such a historic event and to support the children of the Isle of Wight in their learning. As an educational charity we want to ensure children enjoy their education in a creative and engaging way, and working with both English Heritage and our local artist, Anthony James, who has a background in exciting junk modelling projects will help us fulfil this.”
Darren Henley, Chief Executive at Arts Council England, adds:
“The Let’s Create Jubilee Fund is a wonderful example of our ambition to give everyone the opportunity to participate in and experience the arts, culture and creativity – made possible thanks to National Lottery players. This June, we’ll see communities across England coming together to celebrate a historic milestone for this country.
Article continues below this advertisement “I’m excited to see these projects brought to life in villages, towns and cities across the country as our wonderfully creative communities celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee”.
