T100 EXHIBITION
Kinetika is proud to present an exhibition that celebrates 5 years of T100. It is available to tour around venues in Thurrock during August and September 2020, and nationally from October.
T100 is an annual walking, talking and making festival that encourages multiple stories to surface in Thurrock. Over the last five years we’ve travelled on a journey with a growing team of local volunteers, one year spontaneously building the theme for the next, all the time drawing more people in through a range of arts activities.
The T100 exhibition captures the spirit of the festival and the people and places who have taken part along the routes over the last five years. Some of the exhibition information can be explored on these web pages, but there is so much more to see in real life, such as the beautiful handmade journals, the gorgeous silk flags, the printed tablecloths, the maps and recipes created and collected as the festival has grown.
The exhibition is free to hire, please see the How to Hire the T100 Exhibition info to find out more.
Click the buttons below to explore the individual years
How did it all begin?
In 2015, Kinetika was invited by the Council’s Public Health Department to develop a Thurrock walking arts festival to change people’s attitude to walking, reveal accessible footpaths across Thurrock and get people talking to each other.
What began as a 100-mile marathon across the borough, has developed into a festival that starts and ends in Thurrock and stretches along and across the estuary, into Southend and over to Kent.
The concept of T100 is very simple. In response to a theme selected for the year, a programme of walks and community-led activities is devised by local groups.
The festival takes place in towns and villages across an area over 3 weeks each summer, with a series of walks connecting all the events together.
Leading up to the festival, activities are undertaken in libraries, schools and community spaces and have included writing, drawing, cooking, painting, researching, dancing and acting. The results add colour to the walks which have incorporated heritage talks, shared community meals, outdoor theatre, silk flags reflecting local stories, singing and even the making and performing of an animated 12-foot-tall Tilbury Docker puppet designed by local high school students.
The magic of T100 is its simplicity as a framework. It enables groups to come up with their own ideas, develop them as separate projects then showcase and share them to the wider community as part of the ten-day festival.
“T100 has surpassed project ambitions in so many ways. It is an interwoven web of community relationships, informing and supporting the artistic response instigated and guided by Kinetika and local community leaders. The depth of the T100 festivals proves how embedded and established it is within the local landscape and how listening is pivotal to artistic integrity and co-creation. The future is bound to be colourful, richly layered in exciting content. Thank you for shining a light on Thurrock in ways beyond words.”
Dulcie Alexander Arts Council England
“The Thurrock100 festival shines a spotlight on the creative spirit and passion of the people across our borough. At the heart of it are members of our community and the stories they share between them. Thurrock has so much to offer and see and Thurrock100 is a great way for people discover its history for themselves. With our many marshes and green spaces along the Thames Estuary or passing through our heritage towns of Orsett, Chafford Hundred and Chadwell St Mary, there is so much for people to experience. I look forward to seeing the Thurrock100 festivals continue to bring people together for many years to come.”
Lynn Carpenter Chief Executive, Thurrock Council
