HOPE & LIGHT – Community Christmas Engagement Project
for East Lindsey in Lincolnshire
Hope & Light is a new community engagement project commissioned by ELDC in response to the effect the pandemic is having on the high streets of East Lindsey. The Different Light Collective (the guys behind Spilsby Light Night) will be delivering this special creative project across the four ‘Vital & Viable’ Towns of Spilsby, Alford, Horncastle & Louth.
The project begins with anyone across the district being encouraged to download the simple Christmas templates at the bottom of this page, which have been allocated to each of the 4 towns like this:
SPILSBY – CRACKERS
LOUTH – CHRISTMAS TREES
HORNCASTLE – SNOWFLAKES
ALFORD – STARS
All the templates are at the bottom of this page ready for you to download. You can grab one, two or all of the templates if you like and you can send us as many completed versions as you want, but the different template designs will only be shown in the town they have been allocated to! You have until Friday 6 November to design and decorate the templates in any way you wish and email them back to us. We will then animate the designs into 4 simple short films. (The templates can also be posted to people who are not online and returned by post or taken to any of the 4 town councils, so if you know of people who might want to get involved but don’t use the web please tell them to get in touch with us by post or phone – see below).
From the beginning of December, 4 projectors will be placed in each of the 4 towns opposite a building that will have been designated to act as a small outdoor screen for the whole month. The films, linked together by another short piece made by professional digital video artist Barret Hodgson, together with safety announcements and festive messages, will be shown on a constant loop from dusk until 9pm in each of the market towns from the start of December right through to New Year’s Eve.
Hope & Light will be a kind of Advent Trail for the district and the Council hopes that anyone who creates a design will want to come, maybe with their family, to see their own design projected in the centre of their town and will also consider travelling to one or more of the other three towns to see the other project films during the festive month too. ELDC hopes that the project will create a modest increase in footfall across the 4 towns during what is bound to be an unusual and difficult Christmas period, but have also designed it so it won’t encourage large crowds at any specific time.
As well as the community projections, each town will also host a digital exhibition of all of the community images in an empty shop unit on a screen that will be placed inside a specially designed festive backdrop so you can see your own artwork more clearly (this will run all day, every day). Anyone can then also pick up a special weather-resistant tag from a number of shops & places (yet to be agreed) around each of the 4 towns and take them to a set of railings (probably those around each town’s Christmas Tree) where you will be able to tie them on and make a wish for 2021 and – if you like – you can also write a message on the label too.
Please send your completed templates by Friday 6th November to
hello@different-light.co.uk
or get in touch directly with the
Hope & Light Producer, Mr Holly on 07795 416149 simon@mrholly.co.uk.
Or, if you prefer, contact us by post at:
The Different Light Collective, c/o Spilsby Sessions House House, Church Street, Spilsby, Lincolnshire PE23 5DY.
We look forward to seeing your fabulous festive designs…. : )
