Jam-Packed

Community Outreach

Partners:

• Colchester and Ipswich Museums
• Colchester Borough Council Arts Development Team
• Thurstable School
• Essex Libraries
• Tiptree Amateur Dramatic Society (TADS)
• Friends of Tiptree Heath
• Wilkin and Sons Ltd

Artists and freelancers:

• Penny Brice
• Olivia Armstrong
• Lynn Weddle
• Madalena Carvalho

Project Description:

Jam-Packed was a 2008 literacy project which took place in the village of Tiptree. It was developed in partnership between Colchester and Ipswich Museums and the Colchester Borough Council Art’s Development Team as part of Rec-Create, a scheme to support rural areas within Colchester Borough. The project had four main strands.

Artist Penny Brice worked with older members of the Tiptree community to express and record their memories of working in the Wilkin and Sons jam factory. Penny also ran a series of family workshops in Tiptree Library, developing story-telling ideas and themes through different artistic mediums.

Actress Olivia Armstrong supported the youth section of Tiptree Amateur Dramatic Society to write and act in a play detailing the history of Tiptree. The play depicted various scenes from the village’s past, from medieval myths through to recent protests against a supermarket.

Photographer Lynn Weddle worked with local young people with dyslexia, teaching the photographic and photo-editing skills to help them create an exhibition illustrating the affects of the condition. Their work highlighted how much we rely on being able to read and how difficult it is when that ability is impaired.

Additional, the project supported a “Wind in the Willows” themed fun-day on Tiptree Heath, celebrating the animals in that book, many of whom can be found on the Heath. Freelancer Madalena Carvalho ran family story sessions and the Outreach Team were on hand with mask-making activities.

Project Aims:

To engage with targeted young and adult residents of Tiptree’s Maypole and Tiptree Heath with a creative outreach programme using the history of Tiptree as a way of addressing literacy
To enable informal learning opportunities for targeted young people and adults in Tiptree to experiment, communicate, develop self confidence, play and communicate with others through creative means
To increase local interest in creative life long learning
To foster new partnerships between Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Colchester Borough Council Arts Development Department and Essex County Council
To produce a body of work from the project that can be exhibited
To increase local interest in the Skills for Life programme that Community Development will lead on in late 2008 thereby providing sustainability or the project