Creative Crawley Announce Spring 2025 Programme Of Free Shows, Exhibitions And Workshops

Award-winning, national performance and exhibition will stand equally alongside the work of Crawley resident artists, and countless opportunities for locals to get involved with participatory arts events, cultural workshops and much more.

Creative Crawley continue their work to expand and grow the cultural infrastructure within the town, making arts and culture more accessible, affordable and welcoming for the town's residents. In partnership with Crawley-based national touring theatre company Theatre Centre, and grassroots music charity AudioActive, Creative Crawley will use their spring season to trial two new pop-up cultural spaces in the town, at Theatre Centre's home base in West Green, and with AudioActive at County Mall in the very heart of the town. 

Creative Crawley and Theatre Centre's long-term partnership aims to build a vibrant cultural hub for Crawley, empowering creativity and offering a programme with maximum benefit for local people and artists. The home base of Crawley residents Theatre Centre will take shape as an artist maker space for emerging and established local creatives, allowing young people and experienced artists to make new work and find new ways into the creative industries. Local artists will be in residence at the space and will make their work happen in West Green, Crawley. Funded by an Arts Council England Place Partnership grant and a UK Shared Prosperity grant supported by Crawley Borough Council, local residents will be able to experience the work of local, national and International Artists in their neighbourhood and local artists and young people will have a place to meet, make new work and share ideas.

In partnership with AudioActive and Pop Up Culture Crawley, based in Unit 79/80 at the County Mall Shopping Centre, Creative Crawley will test a haven for live performance and exhibitions, music and talent development in the town centre. Highlights at the venue will include a one night only performance of Talking About The Fire by seven-time Fringe First winner Chris Thorpe and Abbey Theatre's Claire O'Reilly, presented by China Plate and Staatstheater Mainz and developed with Tony Award-winning Rachel Chavkin, which invites audiences to join Chris in a conversation about the gravely constant threat posed by nuclear weapons. With music production and recording facilities on-site, AudioActive will offer a programme of free music making activities and performance opportunities for young people and emerging artists with full details to be announced in March.

Acclaimed choreographers and performance makers Requardt & Rosenberg, who combine the spectacle of large-scale dance with the intimacy of binaural sound, bring their show Super Normal Extra Natural to County Mall. Singers, dancers and Crawley locals will take over the shopping centre in a unique, intimate and surprising dance spectacle using headphones. The duo return to Crawley after the success of Future Cargo in Memorial Gardens (2022) and as part of DanceHub's DaM Fest, Crawley's Festival of Dance and Movement 2025 running across March and April 2025 . 

Exhibitions in the space will see Play Interact Explore from Leap then Look visit Crawley from 29 March - 6 April, as part of a national tour. Leap then Look offer an interactive exhibition with collaboration and experimentation at its core. With its artwork developed from ongoing creative engagement with Dimensions Outreach 3 Way, who support adults with learning disabilities, the exhibition adapts to the places it travels - so expect an experience specifically for Crawley! 

Crawley local residents will also make their mark in County Mall Shopping Centre with a Fashion Show for Crawley. Produced by Creative Crawley and curated by Crawley born and bred designers Beth Williams and Sophie Merriner, this is a fashion show by and for the community, showcasing the work of local, professional fashion designers. Participatory arts remain at the heart of Creative Crawley's vision for the town, with the fashion show created in consultation with and in response to the desires of local residents. The team encourages anyone who would like to be involved to get in touch! 

In June, award-winning national artists Sarah Maple - who is from Crawley and lives and works in Sussex - and Meg Mosley will present Breakfast Scene, a feminist reimagining of Morecambe and Wise's iconic 1976 breakfast sketch, documented through film and photography. 

Further performances will surprise and delight Crawley residents this spring, including Second Hand Dance's family-friendly dance extravaganza The Sticky Dance in March; wild literary gig-theatre cabaret Living Legends (and Dead Ones Too) from Brigitte Aphrodite and Quiet Boy in April; and Chad Taylor's beautiful audio-dance installation Closer To My Dreams at the Charis Centre in June.

Chad Taylor, creator of Closer To My Dreams, commented: "I'm really excited about bringing Closer To My Dreams to the people of Crawley. I can't wait to bring the audiences into our universe for 30 minutes and see the world through mine and my brother Ziggy's eyes. One of the universal themes for the show is to share and give hope. I'm looking forward to spreading this message outwards into Crawley in my own unique artistic way”

Woodzy & Friends returns to venues across Crawley in Spring. The ever popular monthly curated gig hosted by local spoken word and rap star Woodzy will continue to platform the wealth of creative talent across the area, featuring professional artists. Woodzy is joined monthly by two artists who open up the early stages of their artistic practice, allowing audiences a glimpse behind the creation curtain and giving them a unique insight into the creative industries.

Rounding off Creative Crawley's exhibition offerings this Spring, Eric MacLennan's Making the Invisible Visible will shine a light on often forgotten personal objects. Developing the artist's 2024 project In visible (L)ink, in which 102 Crawley people twinned objects with friends and loved ones across the world, a self-led guide will lead audiences across Crawley to visit these objects. During the walk, audiences can listen to recorded stories told by local people, showing how the town is linked with places all around the world. 

Creative Crawley's Spring programme of workshops provides extensive opportunity to the local community to find their place in culture and creativity. Returning due to popular demand is Foraging with Izzy on West Green. Crawley residents are invited to join Izzy Johns from Rights For Weeds as Summer begins to learn all about recipes, plant history, bushcraft and more!

On Saturday 10th May, Creative Crawley's newest space at County Mall will play host to a series of Japan-focused special workshops, with specialists Noriko Jazayeri and Chie Kutsuwada running workshops on making sweets and creating their own manga characters, against the backdrop of an anime movie marathon bringing fantasy, nostalgia and adventure to the town - all completely free.

Further workshops come as part of the continued Skills Exchange Programme which began in September 2024, providing ten locals aged between 16 - 30 the opportunity to gain hands-on skills related to the creative industries - running until June 2025. Part of the programme sees members undertake workshops on access and inclusivity in the arts, budgeting, using archives, and evaluation; but each will also be accessible to the wider community with 10-15 free tickets available to the public.

Louise Blackwell, Creative Director, Creative Crawley, commented: “This spring is the culmination of much of the work we have been doing over the last three years. It's a test, an experiment and an offer to the people of Crawley to come on in, explore the new creative space in County Mall and continue to celebrate creativity and creative people by taking a risk on something new. It's all free to attend, so what's to lose? We look forward to welcoming people in.”

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