Collecting Dreams, Shifting Futures

What role does the shifting coastline play in shaping our collective dreams? Embark on a journey through the stories, creativity, and heritage that define the communities of three unique East Coast locations.

This collaborative story-gathering project unites communities from three vibrant East Coast locations – Great Yarmouth, Harwich, and Orford Ness – inviting participants to work with artists to explore the unique coastal histories that have shaped these places.

Through immersive experiences of walking, heritage site visits, and creative expression, the project uncovers shared narratives and individual stories, while prioritising inclusivity. Working alongside diverse local groups, including those with access needs, it fosters connections across generations, amplifying voices that reflect the deep, evolving relationship between people and the ever-changing coast. The commission aims to gather 150 stories reflecting the area’s three stretches of coastline.

Those stories will be translated into silk pennant designs and digital content, inspiring written work, drawing and photographs created by artists. The pennants will form part of the Beach of Dreams national commission, The Beach of Dreams Silks, will be displayed during free, family-friendly events and walks from 28 to 30 May across Harwich, Orford Ness and Great Yarmouth and will remain in the communities as enduring symbols of their stories and identity.

About the partners

Collecting Dreams, Shifting Futures is funded by Historic England.

We are Historic England, the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England’s spectacular historic environment, from beaches and battlefields to parks and pie shops. We protect, champion and save the places that define who we are and where we’ve come from as a nation. We care passionately about the stories these places tell, the ideas they represent and the people who live, work and play among them. Working with communities and specialists we share our passion, knowledge and skills to inspire interest, care and conservation, so everyone can keep enjoying and looking after the history that surrounds us all. We fundraise from individuals, charitable trusts and foundations and public sector bodies to enable us to deliver those aspects of our work that are not funded by our Government grant.

Out There Arts - National Centre for Outdoor Arts & Circus is a registered charity and Arts Council England funded National Portfolio Organisation. Based at the Drill House in Great Yarmouth, in one of the most deprived areas in the UK, they host a year-round programme of residencies, a youth circus school, community classes, events and festivals, which engages approximately 110,000 individuals including 4000 school children each year.

Out There Arts produce the annual Out There International Festival of Street Arts & Circus – now in its 17th year and one of the 3 largest free Outdoor Arts festivals in the UK – with 30-50 artistic companies and audiences of 60,000+.

Essex Book Festival is a community-wide, multi-discipline festival that celebrates storytelling in all its forms. The Festival takes place in over forty venues across Essex every June, including Essex Writers House, which is based in Chalkwell Hall in Southend. It additionally runs a programme of youth-based projects throughout the year.

Kinetika unites communities through exceptional silk-based designs and public spectacles that inspire social action and enrich local environments. Guided by a vision to pioneer community-driven art and design, we aspire to ignite enduring positive change, celebrate cultural diversity, and cultivate resilient, sustainable communities worldwide. Founded in 1997 by Ali Pretty, Kinetika is a charity and a National Portfolio organisation of Arts Council England.

About the artists

Harwich

Marley Karazimba is a filmmaker, photographer and videographer based at Cuckoo Farm Studios in Colchester. He combines his love for filmmaking and videography with a passion for community projects, using film as a medium for storytelling and platforming diverse voices, capturing the personality, feeling and essence of both places and people through the unique perspective of his lens. Marley has worked throughout Essex in collaboration with artists, creatives, local businesses and councils, as well as arts organisations, festivals and events.

TriggerBliss fuses spoken word with other art forms to inspire healing, conscious thought, and authentic expression. She is the founder and director of Trigger Your Bliss CIC, building resilience to life’s resistance through creativity and coaching. TriggerBliss facilitates accessible and inclusive intergenerational creative wellbeing activities that support the mental and emotional wellbeing of the wider community.

Orford Ness

Lucia Barbagallo employs art as a lens to discover and enhance the awareness of the present. Lucia’s work investigates topics like poverty, human conditions, urbanism, architecture, identity, home, ecology, and nature. Lucia’s work ranges from photography to short movies, from poetry to drawing illustration and ceramic, from workshops and reading groups to activating a terracotta studio in Ethiopia empowering and emancipating local ceramists.

Emma Kittle-Pey is a writer, educator, and the community founder of Colchester WriteNight, a diverse gathering of creative writers living in and around Colchester. Her writing passion includes short vignettes and flash fiction for performance. She has recently submitted her first novel for her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Essex.

Great Yarmouth

Belona Greenwood is an author, scriptwriter and creative facilitator living in the East of England. She creates and runs arts projects in schools and the community working with all kinds of groups and has come to love working with those who are new to the arts or find writing a challenge. She is a versatile scriptwriter producing plays for both adults and children. She is part of a cohort of emerging cultural leaders in Norfolk and Suffolk. As founder and co-organiser of Words and Women she was twice runner up for Women In Publishing’s Pioneering Venture Award and received a Norfolk Arts Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Arts.’

Mark Hannant is a versatile filmmaker working across film, TV, theatre, radio, and the performing arts. His primary focus is on camera and editing, alongside solo projects as a director. His work has been screened across the UK as well as internationally. His documentary Layers of Reed recently won Best Documentary Short at Sunrise Film Festival. He often aims to explore connections between subjects and landscapes and is fascinated by local heritage. Previously, as a media technician, he taught camera and editing skills to students, emphasising creativity and inclusivity. Nowadays, diversity and representation are integral to his work.