Eastbourne art gallery provides creative kitbags for most vulnerable

An Eastbourne art gallery is providing creative kitbags to help make life ‘a little bit better’ for the most vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Towner has joined up with Eastbourne Borough Council, Eastbourne Food Bank and Community Stuff to create the bags – filled with sketchbooks, drawing equipment and brightly coloured pencils – for the vulnerable and low income households.

The project has been orchestrated by the Towner’s new Learning Team, which includes Esther Collins and Willow Mitchell, and aims to ‘relax, inspire and encourage people to get creative’ at home.

Head of Learning at Towner Eastbourne Esther Collins said, “We hope the kits will encourage people to get creative and that they will be enjoyed by all who get one.

“It has been great to work with our partners across the town on this initiative and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with these groups and other partners and communities across Eastbourne when the gallery opens again soon.

“We have also included a blank postcard for people to send us their art works, to keep in touch with us and share what they have made – I look forward to receiving these and seeing all the wonderful works.”

Towner director Joe Hill said, “As a team we believe strongly art and creative activity can improve people’s health and wellbeing and we wanted to do something tangible for the households that will be hardest hit by this crisis.”

A Towner spokesperson said each bag is designed to be used with things people might have in the house already without having to go out.

The spokesperson said so far people have created tents, flags and other creations from materials including rugs, skateboards and balloons.

The gallery is also delivering creative kits to carers through the Association of Carers and to refugees and asylum seekers through Eastbourne NetworX.

For more information, visit @hello_towner on Instagram

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