£1 million funding for home grown culture in Bexley!

Three Rivers has been awarded a significant grant as part of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places portfolio. The £1m fund will support it to deliver its new Hello Earth project over the next three years.

Scott Burrell, Director of Three Rivers, said: “Our programme has been made with, and by, thousands of people from across the borough. They have worked with us since 2019 to challenge where culture can be encountered and who can make it. Recognition of this by Arts Council England is a testament to their hard work and imagination.

“Three Rivers' ambition is to grow a nationally recognised and celebrated community-arts movement, rooted right here in Bexley. This funding will enable us to support more communities to engage with arts and culture by experiencing their local surroundings in new creative ways.”

Next year, Three Rivers will launch Hello Earth, named after a song by the area's best-known cultural figure, Kate Bush. This will see the delivery of a series of creative community projects to bring underused or forgotten spaces back to life. The projects will run alongside major new commissions along the Thames, Cray and Shuttle — the three rivers that give the organisation its name — including a new art trail.

Hello Earth is inspired by Bexley’s many ‘Friends of’ groups, teams of local volunteers who care for places around the borough on behalf of local communities.

Afia Yeboah, Slade Green resident and Co-Chair of Three Rivers, said: ”Bexley is our place and it’s undergoing significant changes. We really wanted to find a way for different communities to come together and respond to the issues that matter to them locally.

“Many of the people we talked to explained that reviving the empty playgrounds, shops and parks in their neighbourhoods to restore a sense of civic pride mattered most.”

Launching in April 2026, Hello Earth will build on the work Three Rivers is already doing in the borough to reach more people.

Recent work by Three Rivers includes a successful programme at Tump 39 in North Thamesmead, where a group of 45 volunteers now run an arts and ecology space at the former Royal Arsenal munitions site. The unique urban wilderness was disused and inaccessible to the public before the Friends of Tump 39 were formed by Three Rivers in 2023.

Lorraine, from the Friends of Tump 39, said: “That little plot that doesn't look like anything is opening doors. It's got no electricity, it's got no running water, you know, no posh seats, but it's brought people together and you've got to have a start and that's a good start.”

The new funding will enable residents across the borough to adopt this model to give spaces in their neighbourhoods a new lease of life.

Funds will also be invested in developing The South East Way, a group of 12 to 18-year-olds who run their own stage at the Thamesmead Festival. This will help more young people to develop skills and experience in the creative industries.

Scott added: “Hello Earth is all about answering the question 'How Can We Be Mates With Our Place?' as a community, and there will be lots of creative ways for people to get involved, bringing gardens, playgrounds, bandstands and even rivers back to life in their neighbourhoods.

Three Rivers has already engaged with over 75,000 local people since 2019 through its social arts programmes. More than 5,000 residents have participated in co-creating its arts and culture projects.

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