The team at Kinetika, the Purfleet-on-Thames-based outdoor arts organisation, have been out and about making site visits to places along the routes of this year’s T100 Walking Festival.
Kinetika’s flagship community project, T100 moves to September for 2020 and, now in its sixth year, its theme is T100 Calling. At key destinations along the festival’s route from Shoebury to Purfleet-on-Thames, communities are invited to join Kinetika in making mandalas. Kinetika’s Artistic Director Ali Pretty and T100 Project Manager Katie Beadle visited these sites between 13-16th July to meet those preparing to host the T100 walkers and help create the mandalas.
The aim of these mandalas is to offer T100 participants a chance to re-imagine their futures in creative ways and commit to specific social action within their communities. Hindu and Buddhist mandalas are artworks symbolising the universe. The purpose of designing a mandala is to think about the connectedness of the universe, the challenges faced in the modern world and inspire people to think about the potential for change and alternative futures. T100 Calling aims to bring communities together through the making of the mandalas from locally sourced materials. Each place is adopting a theme and connecting with local partners as follows:
- Tide Turning, Shoebury East Beach with Southend Beach Care
- In Other People’s Shoes, East Tilbury with Bata Heritage Centre
- Spring Clean, Grays Wharf with Thames 21
- Make Do and Mend, Tilbury Cruise Terminal with Tilbury Riverside Project and One Community Development Trust
- Imagination Our Nation, Stanford Le Hope with Friends of Hardie Park and Abbots Hall Primary Academy
- Biodiversity, South Ockendon with Little Belhus Country Park,
- Renewal, Langdon Hills with Friends of Langdon Hills
- Grow Your Own, sustainable communities, Purfleet-On-Thames, with High House Production Park, PCRL and Purfleet-On-Thames Community Forum.
Ali Pretty, Artistic Director, Kinetika said ‘It’s been brilliant and truly inspiring meeting with so many passionate individuals who are dedicated to making a real difference in their communities. I am optimistic that T100 Calling will help to raise awareness of the many opportunities for volunteers to get involved in transforming Thurrock and to highlight the borough’s strengths to a wider audience.”
T100’s unique feature is the silk flags that are designed and painted by communities and carried on walks each year. This year, to mark the change of name of Purfleet, Kinetika’s home, to Purfleet-on-Thames, a variety of groups, organisations and small businesses across the town have been invited to design a flag to illustrate their place in the community. These flags will all be on display together for the finale of T100 Calling at the High House Production Park following a parade through Purfleet-on-Thames on Sunday 27th September.
T100 has this year been invited to be part of the Totally Thames Festival, extending the festival all the way to Shoeburyness. To find out more about the festival programme, please go to www.totallythames.org.uk
To discover more about the walks for T100 2020 and get involved, please go to www.thurrock100.com where you can also download a pack and design your own mandala.
