The new Garden Community planned for the north-east of Colchester, straddling the border with Tendring, will become home to 20,000 people over the next 20 years.
We were commissioned by Latimer, the master developer, in 2023 to produce a cultural strategy for the new community, setting out what new facilities and programmes will be needed to support a community of this scale, as well as the wider strategic opportunities are for the Garden Community to become a creative hub that can benefit the wider communities of north Essex. The cultural strategy and brief was supported by mapping and analysis of existing provision, interviews with over 20 cultural stakeholders locally and regionally, from Arts Council England to local artists, and learnings from best practice elsewhere.