Last updated: 17 May 2024
Next review: 13 May 2025
Our flagship grants programme offering seed funding for new cultural and creative projects in Waltham Forest.
Photo: Claire Conroy/Oily Cart
Make It Happen is our flagship grants programme offering seed funding for new cultural and creative projects taking place in Waltham Forest. The funding celebrates the diversity of local communities and shines a light on creative talent across the borough in the process.
We have committed £125k this year to fund 16 exciting projects across Leytonstone, Leyton, Highams Park, Chingford, Higham Hill and Walthamstow:
MYXELIA will be putting on three community events in Walthamstow which will be a curated mix of facilitated workshops, creative healing activities, exhibition, music, films, food and social gathering. Myxelia have been renovating an unused building on Boundary Road which they have access to on a 15-year lease. They are developing a vision of a home for facilitators, organisers and participants, where communities can come together for healing and creativity, centering people of the global majority and providing a safer and accessible space that cares for our multiplicities and marginalisations.
Location: Walthamstow
A one day relaxed literature festival organised by Write for Joy in collaboration with Waltham Forest Libraries focussing on joy and creativity. A morning of workshops for children (including two weeks of prior in-school outreach) and an afternoon/evening of talks and panels for adults across all forms of writing.
Location: Leyton
Let’s reclaim the streets! From Sketches to Projections is a project that empowers women, especially South Asian women, to feel safer on the streets at night through art. Idea Space will run free daytime walks in safe green open spaces, where women will learn to draw nature and turn their sketches into animated digital light projections. Their artwork will illuminate Leytonstone High Road during free winter events, promoting a sense of safety and community. This project is about making Leytonstone feel vibrant and safe for women, especially at night.
Follow Idea Space on Instagram
Location: Leytonstone
Threads of Resilience is a project by Baitaari Design designed to provide a nurturing environment for Black and ethnic minority individuals who are navigating mental health challenges. The project spans over six weeks, from August to October, and will take place in Chingford and Walthamstow. Participants will explore the rich history of African textiles through monotype printing workshops, where they will learn traditional techniques and discover renowned African textile artists. Attendees will craft their own printed artworks. This holistic journey fosters healing, empowerment, and cultural connection, threading resilience into every stitch of artistic expression.
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Location: Chingford Mount
Breaking Bread is a project celebrating baking in Waltham Forest, engaging with businesses, residents and the breads of different communities. Showing its importance in the history of Waltham Forest and Lea Valley in particular. This project will share the heritage and culture of bread and use it as a way of bringing people together, celebrating the skills of local bakers, sharing stories, recipes and histories, engaging people through events, demonstrations, a short film and a sharing event where a map of bakeries and other connected businesses will be made available.
Location: Leytonstone
Artemis Theatre Company, in partnership with east london out project (elop), will present three play readings of At the Rainbow's End – a piece based on interviews with older LGBT+ people who have experienced homophobia and transphobia in 'care' settings or when receiving 'care' at their homes. Performances will be held at the Calaloo Club in Chingford and Trades Hall, Walthamstow and will be followed by a Q&A session with informed panelists, cast members and the audience. There will be two follow-up focus groups run by elop for older LGBT+ people about the issues raised by the play.
Find out more on the Artemis Theatre Company website
Location: Chingford and Walthamstow
LivLit by MakedaMakes is a creative project that will see a group of young people work alongside industry professionals to takeover Leytonstone Library in honour of Flash Fiction Day.
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Location: Leytonstone
Follow the Forest is a project by artists Shaun C Badham and James Ravinet which aims to provide two artist guided walking workshops, an associated legacy pamphlet and an audio walking guide. All focused on Centenary Way, a waymarked walking path that traverses the suburban and green spaces of Waltham Forest, along a 4-mile section of the walk that passes through the areas of Chingford and Chingford Plains. The project will embrace the benefits of access to green space for both physical and mental wellbeing, as well as engaging communities in the discovery of cultural histories and perspectives along the walk.
Location: Chingford
Wild Mix is a new, immersive, choral musical in development by local artist Jenny Moore. Rooted in drumming, singing, and kickboxing, Wild Mix uses these communal practices to explore queer healing and rituals for survival. Waltham Forest will host a range of activity supporting this acclaimed work, inclusive public workshops at Leyton Sports Ground, professional workshops & rehearsals at Audio Underground and a public performance which will be open to all. Together, we sing to stay alive.
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Location: Leytonstone
Enter The Dragon’s Cave is a small-scale, intimate, sonically-rich sensory theatre experience for young people in Waltham Forest aged 8-13 with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). It will be led by contemporary cellist Jo-anne Cox, in collaboration with Lowri Jenkins (creative enabler/dramaturg), Rachel Warr (puppeteer), Gary Day (creative technologist) and the young people themselves. Following a short period of research and development at Peterhouse Community Centre, they will collaboratively build the ETDC story through 4 interactive workshops at a specialist school in Waltham Forest. Waltham Forest Music Hub are confirmed project partners.
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Location: Highams Park
Creativi-tea a weekly session aimed at older residents, based at Good Shepherd Studios. Held on Thursdays from 2pm to 4:30pm sessions will include seated exercise, refreshments and creative learning. This project will also launch the creative club ‘Good Shepherd Studios Seniors’. Monthly sessions to include Short Film Club in partnership with WOFFF, photography using smart phones with Photography by Accident, Silver Singalongs with Little Sing-song and more. There will be a variety of other creative sessions including dance, music and performance art as requested by local groups, these will be announced when confirmed.
Location: Leytonstone
The Francis Road Festival will be a free family friendly event taking place on Saturday 21 September 2024 celebrating Leyton’s eclectic community through film, music, food and fun. The one-day cultural programme is produced by the Francis Road Collective and will feature local artists, creatives, performers and arts organisations as well as London’s world-famous cultural institutions, including an outdoor screening of 'Summer of Sol' by Stow Film Lounge; a selection of black owned food stalls curated by BLK Eats LDN, music curated by Dreamhouse Records, Drag Queen Karaoke, family activities and more.
Follow the Francis Road Collective on Instagram
Location: Leyton
Buttress and Snatch will be working with residents to teach them how to turn local textile waste into new, useful and affordable clothing and then how to generate personal income from the sale of their work. They will provide open access to vocational training for all, with free materials, free sewing patterns and drop-in tuition sessions. Giving inspiration and access to specialist equipment will teach participants techniques for garment production that can be translated for use at home with domestic machines. The project will culminate in Christmas makers markets to activate local public spaces and enable people to sell their resulting work.
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Location: Walthamstow
This summer Compiler will run a series of artist-led digital art activities, inviting residents to create a collaborative artwork exploring the lost Philley Brook river and celebrating the local heritage of Leyton and Leytonstone. Including a guided 3D scanning walk following the Philley Brook river with a local psychogeographer and a sound artist, a weekend of family friendly 3D scanning workshops, plus a 3D scanning session for neurodivergent young people aged 14 to 25 in partnership with Artillery and Some Kind of Hack Space. Objects, areas and sounds that participants capture during the activities will be included in an interactive, collaborative artwork to be exhibited in Leytonstone and online in November 2024.
Location: Leyton and Leytonstone
ARIA will be a new digital app and platform concept designed by and for local youth. lt will host audio and video podcasts, music, and discussions on culture, local issues, and self-expression. Designed to be a safe space for young voices to be heard, not just by each other, but by parents, businesses, and professionals seeking to understand and support them. Project by Creative Engagement Services CIC.
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Location: Leyton, Highams Park and Higham Hill
Discover Children's Story Centre will be running a project involving three interactive stories aimed at Early Year’s children in Leyton and Leytonstone Libraries. Each fabulous story will be created and performed, by a professional storyteller that they call Storybuilders, to engage and inspire 3–5-year-olds and their families.
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Location: Leytonstone and Leyton