©Mark Massey Creative Estuary is delighted to announce the awardees of the Thurrock Creative Infrastructure Programme, recognising and investing in individuals, organisations, and initiatives that are shaping the future of Thurrock’s creative and community landscape.
The Thurrock Creative Infrastructure Programme, a partnership between Creative Estuary and Thurrock Council, aims to strengthen the local creative sector by drawing on local expertise to meet the needs of artists, creatives, and cultural organisations. The programme supports freelancers and creative businesses through grants and bespoke skills development opportunities, delivered via three targeted grants: A Creative Development Grant for 18–30-year-olds, an Enterprise Grant, and a Creative Community Small Capital Grant.
In order to best equip those we’re supporting through our grants and the wider Thurrock creative community, Creative Estuary is pleased to have partnered with Creative United. Through this partnership, grant awardees and local creatives in Thurrock will gain free access to Creative United’s on-demand Re:Create Business Skills E-learning course until end of February 2026. This on-demand toolkit covers core topics such as business planning, funding, resilience, marketing, and e-commerce. Those interested simply need to complete a short eligibility form using their Thurrock-based postcode to receive a 100% discount code.
Meet our awardees:
©Mark Massey
My name is Grace, and I run a fashion atelier focused on community, culture, and circularity. My work blends contemporary design with African heritage, creating meaningful bespoke pieces and experiences that inspire creativity and cross-cultural connection. The Thurrock Enterprise Grant will prove instrumental in helping me take vital next steps in growing my local business. I’m using the funding to refine my branding and marketing with expert guidance, develop a professional sample collection, and take short courses in digital fashion design. I’m also investing in tools to update our digital media and to organise engaging community-based workshops for local creatives. Finally, I’m working toward securing a dedicated space to run these workshops and grow my understanding of business strategy under the amazing mentorship of Stuart Balmer.
©Film Thurrock
Film Thurrock is a film and arts organization based in Thurrock with the aim of enriching the local and wider Essex community to the arts with film screenings and festivals, workshops and exhibitions. Our Organization prides itself on its various projects such as our annual film festival showcasing international films , Young film network allowing the next generation to directly get involved in local projects and exhibitions and so much more. With this vital funding from Creative Estuary we will have the opportunity to invest into purchasing up to date film equipment, update our website and develop our team by funding the learning of new skills , all of which will allow us to further grow and expand to reach new audiences.
©Lights Camera Action CIC
Lights Camera Action CIC is a community-led social enterprise dedicated to empowering young people from underrepresented backgrounds through media, photography, and creative skills training. Based in Thurrock, we provide hands-on workshops, mentoring, and work experience that build confidence and pathways into creative industries. Many of our participants face barriers due to socioeconomic factors, and we aim to give them real-world opportunities and tangible skills.
This grant will be used to strengthen our youth engagement and training programmes by funding equipment hire, software licenses, and expert-led workshops. A portion of the grant will also be allocated to upskilling our team with training in digital production and safeguarding. This support allows us to scale our impact and ensure young people in our community gain access to career-building opportunities in media and storytelling.
©U-turnships CIC
U-turnships CIC is a social enterprise working with disadvantaged young people who have been marginalised by mainstream education. We provide mentorship by encouraging creative and artistic aspirations with the young people we work with, whilst also working to build resilience through physical activity (gym & boxing) with mental health & well-being exercises.
We also support young people to access work experience and training by working with businesses in the community that upskill apprentices so they may have viable career paths.
We recently opened up our own music studio that also has a Hair & Beauty studio for service users to access training in barbering & beauty provision with the possibility for accreditations with our Arts Awards programme.
Our proudest achievement is our Annual Afro Food Festival, which is a celebration of the diversity in Thurrock with food, culture and music and the centre. The festival provides a platform for our young people to perform on stage, whilst also allowing them to utilise some of the skills they have gained through our work in photography and filming. After receiving some feedback, this year’s festival will be a 3 day event, consisting of a Film Festival, a youth ‘Party in the park’ event, and a Family day.
©Courteney Emans
I’m a Thurrock-based textile artist specialising in naturally dyed fabrics and jewellery handcrafted from real flowers. Working mostly with organic materials, many of which I’ve grown myself, I create unique accessories that preserve the beauty of the natural world. My practice began with a love of plants and a desire to work with the seasons. Using natural dyes from plants such as yarrow, coreopsis, marigolds, cosmos, and eucalyptus, I eco-print and bundle dye onto 100% cotton fabric to produce one-of-a-kind prints, which I make into bandanas and scrunchies. I also use fabric scraps and early dye experiments for patchwork pieces to minimise waste. Alongside textiles, I craft earrings from pressed flowers, preserving them in resin with gold wire hooks I make by hand.
The grant allows me to develop my practice professionally, fund a dedicated workspace, and purchase materials to build stock sustainably.
©Laurel Jumeau
I’m a designer developing Jesta, a bittersweet fashion brand that explores the performance of happiness, the act of smiling through things even when you’re not okay. Drawing from my own experiences with mental health, I use nostalgic colour palettes and character design to express the tension between humour and sadness. Inspired by clowns, jesters, and old cartoons, I’m developing embroidered prototypes that capture sincerity and silliness as I take the first steps toward launching my brand.
Receiving this grant means so much to me. Coming from a working-class background, it makes my creative ambitions feel genuinely achievable in a way they haven’t before. Without this support, I wouldn’t be able to afford the tools and materials I need to bring my ideas to life. It’s given me both the opportunity and the confidence to move my project from an idea into something real and tangible.
©Emily Moon
I’m Emily, an illustrator and animator who recently graduated from Falmouth University with a First Class Honours in Illustration. Before university, I studied a UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Costume at South Essex College and volunteered with community arts organisations such as Kinetika T100, Thurrock Festival, and Artful Explorers, creating costumes, marketing materials, and animations. My work explores themes of nostalgia, nature, and folklore, capturing the magic in the everyday through tactile, handmade techniques using textiles, collage, pastel, and paint. One of my favourite projects was The Enchanted Garden, a stop-motion animated trailer created from hand-painted paper cut collage.
Being selected for the Thurrock Creative Development Grant means the world to me. Thanks to Creative Estuary, I’ve joined Aardman Academy’s Stop Motion 1 course, learning from the animators behind Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, with invaluable one-to-one industry mentoring.
©CoDa Dance
Founded in 2013 by Artistic Director Nikki Watson, CoDa Dance Company began from a desire to create dance opportunities for people with Multiple Sclerosis after Nikki’s mother’s diagnosis inspired her to use choreography as a way to process and express lived experience. Today, CoDa is an award-winning, socially driven, female- and disability-led dance company delivering participatory projects in hospitals and communities for people with neurological conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and Acquired Brain Injury. We work collaboratively with participants and Lived Experience Consultants, using immersive technology to create pioneering digital dance works that challenge perceptions of disability.
Thanks to support from the Creative Estuary Thurrock Capital Fund, we’re developing a mobile version of our interactive digital work Beyond the Darkness, enabling us to reach more people in schools, care settings, and community spaces through accessible, transportable creative technology.
©The Complete Commedia Company Ltd
Complete Commedia Co. is an audacious theatre company that dares to perform sixteenth-century Italian commedia dell’arte, think Hamlet performed by Basil Fawlty. Their slapstick, clowning, and Laurel & Hardy-style antics disguise the serious purpose behind their work: empowering young people from under-represented communities and ensuring everyone has access to high-quality, community-rooted theatre. The company sees its audience as collaborators, its community are also its managers, commissioners, critics, and co-creators.
Complete Commedia Co. delivers curriculum-linked workshops, supports Artsmark Awards, and is proud to be a Trailblazer Cultural Partner. Each year, the company performs at the Horndon on the Hill Feast & Fayre, where it runs a two-day commedia festival.
Thanks to this grant, we’re commissioning a specialist commedia dell’arte stage set with doors, flaps, and low curtains, perfect for fast-paced comic timing. We’ll also be able to share the set with local groups and schools, helping us bring vibrant street theatre to communities across Thurrock.
©Purfleet Community Pantry
Purfleet Pantry is grassroots, volunteer-run initiative founded by local residents determined to tackle food insecurity and social isolation in their community. What began as a small effort to support neighbours in need has grown into a vital hub offering affordable groceries, warm meals, and a welcoming space for connection. The pantry reflects the spirit of solidarity and resilience, providing not just food but dignity, hope, and a sense of belonging.
Receiving this grant will be transformative, allowing us to refurbish our building from a clinical, doctor’s-surgery look into a bright, vibrant, and accessible community hub. The new space will host cooking workshops, arts and crafts, open mic nights, family events, wellbeing sessions, and community meetings. This funding will strengthen social ties, reduce isolation, and expand Purfleet Pantry’s role as a centre for connection, empowerment, and growth at the heart of our community.
