MESSUMS CREATIVE
ACCESS, LEARNING, EXCELLENCE
BUILDING A NEW MODEL FOR ART, COMMUNITY, AND ENTERPRISE
Messums Creative is launching a permanent creative centre in Lowestoft - a space where people of all ages and backgrounds can make, learn, and share together.
This centre brings artists and audiences together in a living community. By volunteering, supporting, creating, or collecting, you help keep creativity open and shared.
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WHAT WE ARE BUILDING
A HOME FOR MAKING, LEARNING, AND SHARING
Messums Creative is a registered charity dedicated to building long-term creative infrastructure that supports artists and strengthens communities.
Since 2021, Messums Studios in Wiltshire has operated a thriving, community facing, creative learning programme. Building on this success, Messums East will open in Lowestoft’s historic Old Post Office, alongside the neighbouring National & Provincial Studio. Working with local partners, Messums East will be established as a home for making, learning and sharing at the heart of the community.
These are not temporary projects.
They are a permanent civic investment in creativity, exchange, and opportunity.
WHY NOW?
A MOMENT FOR OPPORTUNITY
The UK’s cultural and societal landscape is changing. Messums Creative addresses these challenges by creating a self-sustaining ecosystem where artistic enquiry and social needs work hand-in-hand.
We have a unique opportunity to rethink how creativity is shared and experienced. With your participation, we can create a model where making, learning, and exchanging ideas are part of everyday life - open, vibrant, and alive in the community. This is a moment to make creativity accessible to all, not just the few.
WHERE WE STARTED
CREATIVE STUDIO FOR EVERYONE
On a disused RAF site near Chilmark, Wiltshire, Messums Studios was set up in 2021 as a community facing art studio offering skills based creative learning.
Having started with a handful of short courses and a small number of students, Messums Studios now operates six days a week during term-time, providing a robust programme of creative learning classes for people of all ages. Out of term-times, we deliver masterclasses with expert artists and creative workshops for young people and families.
As facilitators of community outreach and public engagement work, we are now a significant driver of cultural ecology within Southwest Wiltshire.
OUR IMPACT
CREATIVITY CREATES CHANGE
Messums Creative is designed to generate lasting cultural and social impact. Through our studios, exhibitions, workshops, and public spaces, we:
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Support artists and creative careers.
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Provide access to creative learning and making for everyone.
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Revive historic civic buildings.
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Create opportunities for young people and families to make and learn together.
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Strengthen community connection, pride, and collaboration.
Creativity is participation in problem solving together.
2025 IN WILTSHIRE
2025 IN LOWESTOFT
WAYS TO SUPPORT
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DONATE AND SUBSCRIBE: Fund workshops, spaces, and outreach programmes.
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VOLUNTEER: Support events, workshops, and delivery.
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CREATE: Take part in workshops, courses, or residencies.
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COLLECT: Acquire artworks to help artists and communities continue making.
This is a rare opportunity to create a space from the ground up where art, learning, and community thrive together.
SHAPE A SPACE FOR EVERYONE
Supporting Messums Creative helps to deliver and sustain every part of our participatory ecosystem:
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Spaces & Studios: Keeping creative venues and artist studios open and accessible.
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Learning: Supporting workshops, courses, and creative programmes for all ages.
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Artists & Projects: Enabling residencies, commissions and new creative work.
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Events & Exhibitions: Bringing talks, projects, and public programmes to life.
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Community & Connections: Linking artists, audiences, and local communities.
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Access & Participation: Ensuring creativity is open, shared, and available to everyone.
