We’re an arts charity, bringing arts and culture to life in everyday spaces across Crawley, West Sussex.
Creative Crawley began in 2021, growing out of an online celebration of creativity during the Covid pandemic called the Right Here Festival. What started as a digital initiative led by founder Louise Blackwell, has since evolved into a thriving organisation with a dedicated core team of seven and a turnover of just under £1 million.
At Creative Crawley, we make things with care. And we believe that how something’s made – and who gets to be part of the making – matters.
Our work is grounded in rigour and collaboration. Whether it’s a pop-up performance, a powerful piece of public art or an informal drop-in session, everything we do is shaped with attention, curiosity and imagination. We take time with the details, because we want what we create to be joyful, thoughtful and welcoming for everyone.
Crawley is a place full of voices, stories, and possibilities. We collaborate with local, national and international people, artists, businesses and organisations to shape cultural experiences that truly resonate—experiences that feel rooted and relevant.
Quality to us doesn’t mean fancy. It means we want you to feel something real – connection, curiosity, joy and perhaps something you didn’t expect. Like stumbling across a brilliant book or hearing a song that stays with you, we craft experiences with care and intention, designed to linger.
Creative Crawley is always learning. We’re curious about how creativity and cultural work can shape communities, make lasting impact and change things for the better. We’re on a journey – trying new things, listening more deeply, growing together.
Above all, we believe creativity should feel like belonging. The spaces, the projects, the partnerships are open to all – because Crawley’s got something to say.
‘The Staff Team’ listed in our ‘About’ section shares the core team who currently deliver our mission.
The Trustees are the group of people that lead the charity and represent a range of different sectors, skills and knowledge. They are high quality leaders in their fields of business, education, community, youth, arts and culture (both professional and voluntary sectors) and ensure the highest quality creative work is able to exist and connect with people in Crawley.
From summer 2021 – March 2023, we worked in partnership with Crawley Town Centre BID to enliven the town centre through arts and culture. This programme created the Graphic Rewilding: Crawley Town Centre mural by Baker & Borowski and Aura’s Odyssey, three day festival where a 5 metre high puppet visited the town. Thanks to an Arts Council England project grant we also developed Crawley Creatives; a support network for local professional creatives. From autumn ’23 to spring ’24 we produced the Give it a Go season.
We manage Crawley’s Creative Playground, the Creative People and Places project for Crawley, and between 24/25 delivered The Creative Village; a place partnership project with AudioActive and Theatre Centre, funded by Arts Council England (ACE).
We employ Project Co-Directors for Creative Playground and a team of people to deliver our projects but we do not receive any funding towards our core costs or programme currently. Our team are a mixture of part-time, full-time and freelance.
We are on the Town Deal Board sub-group who are responsible for developing a blue print for a cultural quarter in the town and are part of the Cultural Strategy Reference Group and Cultural Compact group in Crawley. We lead West Sussex Creatives in partnership with Chichester Festival Theatre and sit on the Culture Sussex group.
Click here to see the events and art works we have produced so far.
You can read our 2026 – 2029 business plan HERE
You can read our annual reports HERE
And you can read all about the impact we are having in Crawley through the case studies we have created HERE
