Marketplace Arts is delighted to announce the community‑led light art festival, Light Up the Town, has been awarded major funding from Suffolk County Council Culture Fund and will return to Brandon, Mildenhall, Lakenheath and Newmarket in January and February 2027.
Marketplace Arts will be commissioning a mixture of new and existing light art from professional artists based in the Suffolk and beyond. Community panels taking place in each town will bring together local residents to shape the events that will take place in 2027.
Over the past two years, Light Up the Town has grown into a much‑loved annual highlight attended by nearly 3000 people. In 2025, the light shows toured across seven towns, where historic buildings were transformed with projection artworks co‑created by local residents with artists SDNA Collective.
In 2026, the project expanded further, as Suffolk artist Henry Driver transformed churches with Water Portals, an interactive video artwork exploring hidden microbial worlds. Alongside this, community workshops, lantern displays and a guided folklore Light Walk brought people of all ages together. 2026 also saw the unveiling of a permanent glow‑in‑the‑dark mural at Brandon Heritage Centre, co‑created with local young people from Teen Chill and the Breckland Astronomical Society members, now a lasting legacy for the town.
Light Up The Town is an annual light art festival taking place in West Suffolk. MarketPlace Arts is recruiting local residents to act as ambassadors and be involved in a group meeting to inform the next Light Up The Town events. Ambassadors will receive £25 to cover expenses for their time in and travel to the group meeting. Our questions are designed so that we can recruit a diverse group that can represent each town truly. We hope to hear from a range of voices. You don’t have to know about arts and culture, or have attended one of our events before – we want to hear from local people who can tell us about what their life is like in their town.
Ambassadors will take part in one, two-hour meeting which will be a friendly, informal session to share ideas and discuss what matters locally. These will take place in June or July. Food and drink will be available. We particularly welcome people who don’t usually get asked for their views, and anyone who feels their perspective isn’t often heard.
Have questions about the Ambassadors call out? Join us for an informal online Q&A session where you can ask members of the MarketPlace team any questions about the Light Up The Town ambassadors.
Light Up The Town will run in Brandon, Mildenhall and Newmarket in 2027. We are running a group meeting in each town so that local people can shape the event for their town. Each meeting format will run in the same format.
Schedule
The meeting will run for 2 hours. The MarketPlace Arts team will be on site for 30 minutes before the meeting so ambassadors can arrive early and ask any questions if they wish to. This is entirely optional. A comfort break will be scheduled mid way and food and drink will be provided.
Venues
We will be booking a private room in a town centre community space in each town. We will ensure the space is wheelchair accessible and easily walkable from the town centre/ local public transport links, The venues will be booked when a meeting time slot has been confirmed.
Ambassadors
Each meeting aims to have 15 local residents who live, work or have a strong connection to the town. Our questions are designed so that we can recruit a diverse groupl that can represent each town accurately.
What is the project about?
Over the past two years, Light Up the Town has grown into a much‑loved annual highlight attended by nearly 3000 people. In 2025, the light shows toured across seven towns, where historic buildings were transformed with projection artworks co‑created by local residents.
In 2026, the project expanded further, as Suffolk artist Henry Driver transformed churches with Water Portals, an interactive video artwork exploring hidden microbial worlds. Alongside this, community workshops, lantern displays and a guided folklore Light Walk brought people of all ages together. This year also saw the unveiling of a permanent glow‑in‑the‑dark mural at Brandon Heritage Centre, co‑created with local young people from Teen Chill and the Breckland Astronomical Society members, now a lasting legacy for the town.
Light Up the Town will celebrate local creativity through large‑scale illuminated artworks, participatory workshops, and a programme of events designed to bring people in West Suffolk together in joyful, accessible ways. Happening in January and February, the event uses these transitional months to focus on climate adaptation and the local environment, at a time when the landscape is dormant. Attendees say “The environmental theme draws people together” and “the theme is good because it is something you wouldn’t normally see”.
What to expect
The group meeting will take place in a private meeting room.
Refreshments will be provided throughout.
The MarketPlace Arts team will present the project’s aims and vision.
On a screen, the MarketPlace team will go through the potential options for activities that could be offered, inviting a group discussion.
Ambassadors are not expected to have prepared any thoughts or opinions – no prior research is necessary.
We welcome all forms of feedback. It is important to us that this project feels exciting and relevant to local residents. This might mean being critical of some ideas or suggestions. This is important for us to hear and we welcome it.
We don’t expect you to speak ‘on behalf’ of local residents. We invite you to bring your lived experience, knowledge of local services and events to the discussion..
Access information
We will leave feedback forms which will give ambassadors the option to leave anonymous feedback in case they would prefer to share thoughts anonymously following the meeting.
The meeting takes place in a meeting room with backed, armless, chairs.
The meeting will take place in private rooms in community centres and we expect that some background noise from other activities on site might be heard.
All information will be shared via a powerpoint presentation which includes pictures, video and descriptions of activity. If you would like a copy of this in advance, please let us know and we can get this to you
Why is a group meeting happening?
The ambassadors have been invited by MarketPlace Arts to represent their communities in the decision making process for this project. MarketPlace is proud to be part of the Creative People and Places programme, developed by Arts Council England with support from National Lottery funds. This initiative supports people in creating cultural activity right where they live.
We produce a wide range of creative projects all year round. From all day festivals, to art installations, creative workshops, theatre or storytelling; there’s something for everyone. Every project is co-created with the communities they’re happening in, ensuring authentic and meaningful experiences for all. For this project, the group meeting is one part of our co-creation process.
Will I be paid?
Ambassadors will receive £25 to cover expenses for their time in and travel to the meeting. This will be facilitated through bank transfer. Please let us know if receiving a payment presents an issue for you – for example if you are in receipt of universal credit or work allowances.
What experience/ qualifications do I need to apply?
No qualifications or experience are necessary. We would like to make this process as accessible as possible – if there are reasonable adjustments we can make to support your application and involvement we welcome the discussion, please email Maddie on [email protected] . You don’t have to know about arts and culture, or have attended one of our events before – we want to hear from local people who can tell us about what their life is like in their town. You might have lived/worked in Brandon, Mildenhall or Newmarket for 3 months or for 30 years. You might be a teacher, a charity shop volunteer, a cleaner or a baker. You might be looking to learn more about arts and culture or you might just know a lot about your town. You might have never done something like this before! We would love to hear from you.
What happens next?
The group meeting will inform the decision making for what events are offered, where and how. The MarketPlace Arts team will use the feedback from ambassadors to make a programme of events that best meet the need and requests from the meeting. You will be invited to join us for Light Up The Town in 2027. We welcome suggestions and feedback outside of the meeting and would like to build a relationship with all ambassadors.
Want to know more?
If you would like to hear more about the project or discuss the opportunity, please email Maddie (Creative Producer of Light Up The Town) at [email protected]. No question is too big or small.
A Spring Celebration – How We Lit Up the Town Together
Light Up The Town brought communities together across Fenland and West Suffolk, transforming local towns with stunning light projection art during early 2025. Collaborating with SDNA Moving Image and community groups, the project illuminated historic buildings with artworks made by local residents, bringing people together during the transition from winter to spring.
“It brought all ages together. This was especially appreciated by those who suffer with the dark nights. Spring is now in the air! Thank you for brightening up our town.“ – Rev.d Canon Wendy Thomson | Vicar, Chatteris Church of St. Peter & St. Paul
We saw over 1,500 of you visit the light shows that lit up buildings in Chatteris, March, Wisbech, Whittlesey, Brandon, Mildenhall, and Newmarket in early 2025.
West Suffolk Light Shows
The West Suffolk leg of the project featured three captivating evenings:
Brandon came alive on Tuesday, 25th February at the Town Council’s Old School House on Market Hill
Mildenhall was beautifully illuminated on Wednesday, 26th February at St. Mary’s Church
Newmarket concluded the West Suffolk shows on Thursday, 27th February at St. Mary’s Church
Fenland Light Celebrations
The Fenland towns followed with their own spectacular light displays:
Wisbech kicked off on Monday, 3rd March at Museum Square
March hosted its event on Wednesday, 5th March at the Town Hall
Chatteris shone brightly on Thursday, 6th March at the Church of St Peter & St Paul
Whittlesey concluded the series on Friday, 7th March at Saint Mary’s Church
“I didn’t know that music and light could be so overwhelming to make you feel better. It’s so healing.” – Attendee
How was the artwork made?
The artwork was developed in 4 stages: collecting images from local gardening groups, workshops with community groups collaging these images, SDNA animating the artworks with projection mapping software and presentation of the artworks projected onto local landmarks at the Light Shows. The artworks celebrated the work of the gardeners, the creativity of the workshop participants and the transition from winter to spring.
“using our images made it so personal and we instantly connected to it” – Laura, Newmarket Community Nature Reserve
We would like to thank community groups: Brandon Circle, Mildenhall Teen Chill, Newmarket Art Group, Wisbech Recovery Cafe, Cromwell and Neale Wade Academies and Whittlesey brownies and girl guides for creating the artworks for their towns.
Gardening groups Brandon in Bloom, Brandon Town Keepers, Mildenhall in Bloom, Newmarket Community Nature Reserve and Fenland In Bloom kindly supplied images of their hard work for the workshops.
How was the community involved?
Decision Making: Community voices shaped the project from the start. MarketPlace Arts ran two community panels to select the artists SDNA for this project. The community panelists represented each of the seven towns involved in the decision making process for this project.
Collaboration: MarketPlace Arts worked with SDNA to run creative workshops with community groups in every town. We worked with local gardening groups to source images and plant names which served as inspiration and material for collages created by local community groups in the workshops.
Artwork Creation: SDNA used the artworks made by community members, animating them and projecting them onto local buildings for the Light Shows.
Local Support: Local venues hosted the events and provided refreshments, helping to create a warm, welcoming space for neighbours to gather and celebrate together.
Volunteering: Our Light Shows couldn’t happen without the support of local volunteers! Want to get involved? We’re always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help bring future events to life – get in touch and be part of something special in your town.
We would like to thank the community spaces kindly hosting the light shows: Brandon Town Council, St Mary’s Church Mildenhall, St Mary’s Church Newmarket, Wisbech & Fenland Museum, March Town Hall, St Mary’s Church Whittlesey and Church of St Peter & St Paul, Chatteris.
Who are SDNA?
SDNA is a creative studio founded in 2010 by Valentina Floris and Ben Foot. They specialise in producing distinctive digital artworks and interactive experiences for a range of settings, involving people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds in the creative process. They animate galleries and public spaces with bold and imaginative displays to engage and inspire new and diverse audiences in fresh and exciting ways.
“For the first time in our 800-year history, the church was beautifully illuminated with stunning projected lighting displays.“ – Richard, Mildenhall
Why did MarketPlace Arts commission SDNA?
MarketPlace Arts is part of the Creative People and Places programme, funded by Arts Council England and the National Lottery. We support communities in creating cultural activity where they live, producing festivals, installations, workshops, theatre, and more throughout the year.
Every project is co-created with local communities to ensure it’s meaningful and relevant. For this project, we ran two community panels made up of representatives from all seven towns to select the lead artist.
“Being part of the community panel gave me some insight into the process of developing a community art project. I felt that my perspective was valued. Being involved in the panel pushed me to consider my future career in the creative industries and helped me in my studies by giving me information and experience.” -Yve, Community Panellist
We were joined by the public at Brandon Country Park to celebrate the opening of the new performance space – the FireCrest Theatre. The space was made possible through a collaboration between Brandon Creative Forum, Brandon Country Park and MarketPlace, working alongside an incredible team of volunteers led by Mike Willett who worked to bring this vision to life.
We all celebrated the new space in style in the afternoon sun, with live music, poetry, storytelling and singing.
Local artist Flaming June, (led by marvellous our Creative Producer Louise Eatock) kicked off the afternoon. They performed a number of original songs which resonated beautifully within the space, showcasing the impressive acoustics that the venue offers.
Claire Sawford, Programme Manager at MarketPlace, opened up the rest of the performances by saying a few words. She spoke about MarketPlace’s work with local communities in Forest Heath (and Fenland) to help develop and support innovative and fun creative experiences.
She went on to give a big thanks to everyone involved in creating the FireCrest Theatre including: Jill, Mike, members and volunteers at Brandon Creative Forum; Head Ranger Sarah Austin and Jackie, Paula and Malcolm and their volunteer helpers at the Country Park; West Suffolk Council for permission to create this space; and Louise Eatock AKA Flaming June, MarketPlace lead on this project.
Claire said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this great project which encourages people to come to such a beautiful spot and get creative in nature.”
Brandon Poetry Group stepped into the performance space next. They read from ‘Lovely as a Tree: Poems of the Forest‘ which was created from a recent poetry writing workshop with Melinda Appleby earlier this year. One poem ‘Plum Tree’ was written about the poet’s neighbour, who spent hours stewing the fruit from a plum tree while her husband was recovering from illness.
Celtic Essence performed by Diane Jackman Plum Tree performed by Rosemary Appleton
The mic was handed back to Louise who wrapped up the day by thanking everyone involved, the performers and the members of the public who came to give their support.
What a great addition for the Brandon community. We look forward to witnessing the performances and experiences that will take place in this remarkable space in the future!
Get ready for the grand opening of the new performance space at Brandon Country Park. The brand-new performance space is a result of a collaboration between Brandon Creative Forum and MarketPlace, and is soon to be opening its doors. Join us on Saturday 29 July from 2 to 4:30pm, as we celebrate the new space in style with live music from local artist Flaming June (AKA our Creative Producer, Louise!). Plus poetry, storytelling and more.
We’ve been hard at work alongside Brandon Creative Forum and the dedicated volunteers from Brandon Country Park, digging foundations and preparing the space. Leading the project are Mike Willett and Jill Blanchard of Brandon Creative Forum, with an incredible team of volunteers supporting them every step of the way. The performance space was skillfully designed by Mike, who is a retired engineer.
Brandon Creative Forum is part of the creative collective, established in the first phase of MarketPlace. They are composed of individuals and volunteers from local community groups. Back in Autumn 2022, they approached MarketPlace with their idea for the performance area. They have delivered some wonderful projects over the past few years including Ferry Tales, Tails and Trails as well as stained glass window and lantern projects around Brandon. Brandon Creative Forum hope that the space will prove to be a valuable asset and are looking forward to seeing how it grows within the community.
In the future, this space will be available for hire, opening up even more creative opportunities for the area. Exciting times lie ahead, so mark your calendars and get ready to celebrate with us!
This case study is part of our project evaluation for Phase 2
In October 2020, artist Genevieve Rudd responded to the MarketPlace commissioning process of Creative Conversations in Lockdown with the idea of a workshop that would connect people, using creative activities to explore their local environment on their daily Lockdown walks. We developed the project in collaboration with Brandon Creative Forum and community members to become a digital guided creative walk.
In 2020, Genevieve had pivoted to Zoom group creative sessions during the first lockdown but had never undertaken a blended distance engagement approach to facilitate creative experiences. Enabling connection for groups unable to meet due to national restrictions and responding to a national trend of residents exploring their hyper-local natural landscape, this concept met the self-identified needs of local community groups that MarketPlace had been working with. The Creative Agents wanted to find ways to unlock doorstep curiosity creatively whilst enabling community groups to remain connected during the national restrictions.
Testing and trialling with community members who show a willingness to try something creates the potential for new advocates to learn and ensure that the ideas work before rolling out to wider, more cautious community members.
The Walk ’n’ Craft Group, based in Mildenhall, and the Can’t Sing Choir, based in March, participated in timed socially distanced (in line with the government restrictions at the time) group creative walks that were led by Genevieve using WhatsApp to send prompts.
Pictured: Left: Environmental artist, Genevieve Rudd sits on a tree stump, surrounded by the lush greens of Brandon Country Park woodland.Right: Genevieve’s mark-making drawing.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for Phase 2
Brandon Creative Forum is a community group established in the first phase of MarketPlace, delivering their first event in 2016. With MarketPlace support they have organised 4 local festivals with Tales and Trails 2019 their largest to date. We have supported them to continue local activities as far as possible through the pandemic, with all its challenges, and they are still growing from strength to strength.
In 2019 the group had no ambitions or desire to become a constituted group: they aspired to develop a central hub for cultural activity, enable the community to think about Brandon positively and organise events for everyone to access. At this stage, the group of 4 core leaders universally identified a desire to develop skills in commissioning and to consolidate their learning to date.
Throughout the pandemic, MarketPlace supported the forum and their wider community interest groups to remain connected, develop digital skills, and participate in shortlisting, commissioning, and testing new projects ideas.
Two members of the forum are also members of the Creative Collective. This enabled the group to identify learning from other towns and recognise their skills and achievements whilst participating in commissioning, shortlisting, and interviewing commissions.
“We still need youngsters to come in with us on the forum. And we are working on that, but it’s such a strange town. But having talked to Wisbech as part of the Creative Collective we can see that their problems are the same as our problems and then we could work out a solution together from that.” – Jill, Blanchard Brandon Creative Forum
Through remote working and digital connectivity with MarketPlace, the forum became more embedded in the team’s processes. It started to identify the community’s needs in the face of the pandemic, beyond activities and events for enjoyment.
By August 2020, the group took steps to become constituted and, in 2021, challenged what their perceptions of a central hub could and should look like by taking on a market stall to begin to reach wider communities.
Pictured: Left: Brandon Creative Forum member Jill Blanchard chatting to Brandon residents at the ‘See You Soon’ stall at the market. Right: Members of Brandon Creative Forum meet at Brandon Country Park to assess the area for the Walking Companions podcast project.
This case study is part of our project evaluation for Phase 2.
In 2020 Michelle Brace was commissioned by MarketPlace and the Creative Collective to pilot an objects-inspired oral storytelling project, ‘Mantlepiece’ to connect and celebrate communities. This project has since tested and developed it’s distance engagement methods as an intergenerational project between a school and a care home. In this latest testing phase the model trials democratised delivery and archiving potential within community organisations and by community advocates.
The first iteration of the project tested the model of remote recording and artwork production with groups during lockdown over Zoom. The first iteration saw the collective share objects and stories over Zoom and send their content to Michelle to create a SoundCloud library of their stories and a group portrait of objects to represent the group.
The sharing and intergenerational potential of the project, due to the nostalgia of items shared by people, resulted in a second commission testing a distance delivery model between a care home and a school group. This enabled sharing of heritage and learning about past generations whilst increasing the wellbeing and feelings of value felt by care home residents. This delivery model provided resources and instructions to staff to deliver the activity to safeguard against COVID-19 transmission. This resulted in an exhibition of the stories and objects including the responses of the children to the experience.
When MarketPlace was approached by Suffolk Libraries to partner on their Let’s Get Creative programme and platform development, Michelle’s project was a natural fit for working across multiple locations to create a sense of ownership and belonging of libraries with its existing users and new audiences. Objects and Stories is the latest iteration of this concept, testing a new devolved delivery approach.
MarketPlace has a specified geographical area for delivery and so Michelle delivered the project in Brandon, and Community Producer Louise led delivery in Newmarket, with mentoring from Michelle. A training day was held in order to reach the wider West Suffolk Libraries to support the staff through the experience and to explore the potential for delivering activity directly with their service users.
“When we did the CPD session with library staff I came away feeling overjoyed and convinced that this is a great idea and works with everyone. They all came with a story, some thought out, others grabbed on the go, but they each told a compelling story of who they are. The objects provide a lovely way to connect people and enable them to be vulnerable and share, as it’s an insight into who they are. They become not just a person in a library but a guy who had a fine art degree.’ – Michelle Brace, artist
Casson & Friends, an award-winning dance company based in London spent early Summer 2021 bringing their own unique style of dance and ‘people powered performance’ to our area. The goal? To speak to as many people as possible to create a dance inspired by what people love about where they live.
Dancers engaging with community members, especially young people, to create a bespoke dance for their towns and districts resulting in a Collaborative Choreography
The Community Producer POV
We asked Jodie Hicks, our Community Producer, to give her point of view about her summer worling with Casson & Friends.
Events in March, Wisbech, Brandon and Newmarket
Across four events in Fenland and West Suffolk two teams of dancers had the chance to engage with people of all ages, to dig deep and mine their thoughts and memories for choreography ideas and inspiration. It was a real joy to observe someone, with great animation, describe a cherished memory about their town or a certain place within it, and then to see the dancers transform these words into fluid movements.
Casson & Friends brought their dance moves to Forest Heath in Brandon and Newmarket in August 2021, inspiring choreography moves with creative people in their creative places. Photography credit: Malachy Luckie.
A moment which stood out for me was at National Play Day at The Spinney Adventure Playground in Wisbech. Not only did the parents and children speak to the dancers, but they actually got involved physically to help create these moves alongside them.
On a couple of occasions, some of the children would correct the dancers and suggest their own alterations to more accurately capture what they loved about their hometown. The connections and collaborative process was a truly wonderful watch after we have all spent the past two years keeping distance from each other.
Slowly but surely, as each day would draw to a close, singular movements would grow into short sequences and in turn develop into a dance performance lasting a few minutes long. Alongside this, MarketPlace was on hand to invite people to also write down thoughts, feelings and also provide some suggestions for filming locations for the final stage of the project, producing a dance film.
Casson & Friends dancers performing their finished #TinyDance in Fenland for the final film. Filming day photography: Jodie Hicks.
Bringing the moves together…
After our days in March, Wisbech, Brandon and Newmarket the dance teams went away and explored all of the information they’d gathered, narrowed down the filming locations to just three in each town, (no easy task) and put all of the choreographed motions together to create two distinct dances for Fenland and Forest Heath.
Casson & Friends dancers performing their finished #TinyDance in Forest Heath for the final film. Filming day photography: Jodie Hicks.
All that was left to do was film it. Our travels took us to all sorts of places from racetracks to mausoleums, and even a castle. The #TinyDance teams accomplished the astonishing feat of filming in 6 locations per day and performing the Tiny Dances a staggering 18 times over the course of each day!
It was exhausting just watching them! Not only this, but in true East Anglia fashion, the dancers and filmmakers had to compete with weather ranging from sunshine to wind and rain and back again and often in the space of an hour (which could be a little detail to look out for in the Forest Heath film).
Clips from the Casson & Friends performers creating the final video on location in Brandon, Suffolk (Forest Heath).
What was never lost was the sense of fun and wonder from the Casson & Friends team. They had the chance to visit all of these little gems we have in our towns, and really experience for themselves; what we are proud of and what is distinctively unique about living in Fenland and Forest Heath.
The #TinyDance films will be ready very soon so be sure to keep an out on our social media pages or sign up for our newsletter to have it sent direct to your inbox.
With all that said, where’s my popcorn…?
Written by MarketPlace Young Producer, Jodie Hicks.
