2018 Vibrators

2020 Visions of Experience

#00 Introduction to Visions - Sedge Seymour

#20 Introduction to Experience- Samuel Oyediji

#21 Earth's Answer - Lucy Anderson Jones

#22 The Clod & The Pebble - Jill Rock

#23 Holy Thursday - Stephen Micalef

#24 The Little Girl Lost - Naomi Foyle

#25 The Little Girl Found - Greg Kofi Brown

#26 The Chimney Sweeper - Richard Williams

#27 Nurse's Song - Lisa Hall

#28 The Sick Rose - Steve Grace

#29 The Fly - Joe Butt

#30 The Angel - Raine Geoghegan

#31 The Tyger - Suzy Duxbury

#32 My Pretty Rose Tree - Geoff Farrell

#33 Ah! Sun-flower - David Swann

#34 The Lilly - Elissa Barrett

#35 The Garden of Love - Simon Mouatt

#36 The Little Vagabond - Rachel & Mark Searle

#37 London - Matt Stanley

#38 The Human Abstract - Mikey Georgeson

#39 Infant Sorrow - Joan Secombe

#40 A Poison Tree - Stuart Morris

#41 A Little Boy Lost - Barry Smith

#42 A Little Girl Lost - Olivia Stevens

#43 A Divine Image - Jeremy Page

#44 A Cradle Song - Jim Cullen

#45 To Tirzah - Duncan McKenzie

#46 The School Boy - Tobias Churton

#47 The Voice of the Ancient Bard - Jude Rawlins

2017 BlakeFest

BlakeFest 2017 included the musical acts David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Gwyneth Herbert, Tymon Dogg and Joe Butt. The event was held at Bognor Regis' Newtown Social Club.

2020 Visions of Innocence

#00 Introduction to Visions - Sedge Seymour

#01 Introduction - Duncan McKenzie

#02 The Shepherd - Cheryl Craven

#03 Ecchoing Green - Carrie Horner

#04 The Lamb - Elaine Hamilton

#05 The Little Black Boy - Suzanne Sklar

#06 The Blossom - Krissy Grace

#07 The Chimney Sweeper - Staci Mendoza

#08 Little Boy Lost - Patrick Johns

#09 Little Boy Found - Farid Bitar

#10 Laughing Song - Clive Loseby

#11 A Cradle Song - Inna Erskine

#12 The Divine Image - Gill Newsom

#13 Holy Thursday - Helen Elwes

#14 Night - James Simpson

#15 Spring - Mandy Pannett

#16 Nurse's Song - Sue Overton

#17 Infant Joy - Emily Rose Smith

#18 A Dream - Jen Todd

#19 On Another's Sorrow - Charles Rollings

#20 Introduction to Experience- Samuel Oyediji

#21 Earth's Answer - Lucy Anderson Jones

#22 The Clod & The Pebble - Jill Rock

#23 Holy Thursday - Stephen Micalef

#24 The Little Girl Lost - Naomi Foyle

#25 The Little Girl Found - Greg Kofi Brown

#26 The Chimney Sweeper - Richard Williams

#27 Nurse's Song - Lisa Hall

#28 The Sick Rose - Steve Grace

#29 The Fly - Joe Butt

#30 The Angel - Raine Geoghegan

#31 The Tyger - Suzy Duxbury

#32 My Pretty Rose Tree - Geoff Farrell

#33 Ah! Sun-flower - David Swann

#34 The Lilly - Elissa Barrett

#35 The Garden of Love - Simon Mouatt

#36 The Little Vagabond - Rachel & Mark Searle

#37 London - Matt Stanley

#38 The Human Abstract - Mikey Georgeson

#39 Infant Sorrow - Joan Secombe

#40 A Poison Tree - Stuart Morris

#41 A Little Boy Lost - Barry Smith

#42 A Little Girl Lost - Olivia Stevens

#43 A Divine Image - Jeremy Page

#44 A Cradle Song - Jim Cullen

#45 To Tirzah - Duncan McKenzie

#46 The School Boy - Tobias Churton

#47 The Voice of the Ancient Bard - Jude Rawlins

2014 Promo

Here is a selection of the Promotional materials used for the first BlakeFest event in 2014.

2015 Promo

Here are a selection of materials used to promote our 2015 literary events.

2016 Promo

Here is a selection of promotional materials used in BlakeFest 2016.

2017 Promo

Here is a selection of the promotional materials used for the 2017 BlakeFest events.

2018 Promo

2016 BlakeFest

Amazing, jaw-dropping, spirited sets that raised the bar in Bognor Regis.

Each band performed their own original material from 14 year-old Bognorian, Bella Estelle to David Devant and His Spirit Wife to crowd-pleasers, Dodgy.

Sky Arts filmed two sets: the Blake-inspired Irish poet Niall McDevitt performing on the pier; and, in the intimate setting of SeaFish on the Sunday, Deborah Rose and Marie Randall singing an emotional Tyger Tyger, amongst other magical ballads.Poet Atilla the Stockbroker, after his initial anarchic, high-energy deliveries, switched into punk-folk which didn't leave many dry eyes when he performed the poem about his step-dad.

Sounditions' weird world music style went down incredibly well, alongside performances from Sky and The Speak.

There was something in the air and Niall posted 'A beacon has been lit on the Coast'.

All those involved are keen to carry on supporting an authentic Blakean Festival and Attila made a promise to the audience to help organise the next one if the land could be secured.

2014 Media

Here is a selection of the Media output for our 2014 event, Golgonooza Glory, the first BlakeFest.

2015 Media

Here is the media output from BlakeFest Literary Events, which took place in 2015.

2016 Media

A selection of the media output from BlakeFest 2016.

2017 Media

Here is a selection of the media output from BlakeFest 2017's events.

2018 Media

Here is a selection of the media coverage of BlakeFest's 2018 events.

2019 Media

Here is a selection of the media coverage of our BlakeFest events from 2019.

2019 Tyger - Body-Painting Event

During 2019's main BlakeFest event, in the window of Reynolds, a major local furniture in Bognor Regis High Street, Elissa Barrett from Imagine Face and Body Art transformed it into a jungle setting with a body-painted Tyger. This drew quite a crowd, as you might imagine! The result was a spectacular piece of art on a living human, transformed into a wild beast.

2019 Julie Goldsmith

Exhibited at our 2019 BlakeFest main event:

Julie works in ceramic, bronze and found objects. Taking the forms of animals or mythic creatures, influences are from literature, music and the Gothic. “I like to tell stories. For this show I have made works that are inspired by Blake’s belief in the imagination, and his visions of fairies in his garden.”
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Julie's work explores the hidden recesses of the subconscious holding both a dreamlike quality and emotional intensity. Based in London she has exhibited her widely. Last month her work was on the front cover of the International Times.

"I love the cottage in Felpham village where William Blake lived and worked for three years with his wife Catherine. I imagine the local children today, who will learn about this partly because of BlakeFest, to be peering over the garden wall of the cottage, hoping to see the fairies that William Blake saw there.

The walk from Bognor Regis to Felpham along the sea-front is enchanting, and the literary tours and lectures that are part of the festival are fascinating. William Blake can be loved and understood at a simple level but there is always more to appreciate. I feel excited and honoured to have been invited for the last two years to exhibit my painting and sculpture at both Bognor Library and the Regis Centre.

Long may BlakeFest thrive!"

Julie Goldsmith 2019

2019 Aldingbourne Arts presents Tyger Tyger

An exhibition of a number of artworks created by clients attending the creative arts arm of this independent local charity in Bognor Regis. They work with adults with learning disabilities to enable them to get creative as well as exhibiting and selling their work. Using Blakes famous poem as a starting point, they have encouraged them to incorporate imagery or words from the poem, creating their own personal responses to this seminal poem so rich in powerful imagery and atmosphere.

2019 Spirit Of The South

SPIRIT OF THE SOUTH SCULPTURE – GLAD DAY after BLAKE

Now more than ever communities should look to their leaders to carry their towns and cities forward into a brave new world. Leaders by return should look at and value ideas and suggestions from those communities. In the words of JFK, ‘Don’t ask what America can do for you, ask what you can do for America’.

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Online and out of town shopping is ripping the heart out of the high street. Various initiatives and research on a global scale have been carried out in recognition of the problem, including Soul of the Community. Knight Soul of the Community (SOTC) is a three-year study conducted by Gallup of the 26 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation communities across the United States, employing a fresh approach to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area’s economic growth and well-being. The study focuses on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.
In its first year, the study compared residents’ attachment level to the GDP growth in the 26 communities over the past five years. The findings showed a significant correlation between community attachment and economic growth.The second year reinforced these findings, and found that nationwide economic troubles did not have a notable impact on attachment locally.In the third year of the study, researchers analyzed the connection between community attachment and economic growth and found that cities with the highest levels of attachment had the highest rate of GDP growth. Social offerings, openness and aesthetics are most related to community attachment in all the 26 communities we studied.In 2017, the John Keats sculpture was unveiled in a quiet, nondescript quarter of Chichester. The result is a thriving and vibrant micro community helped by sensitive and considered planting, seating and lighting. This coupled with top brand restaurants along with vintage, designer and curiosity shops has made this area the place to see and to be seen.So called Gateway Sculpture is an initiative to do just that, it is the label on the tin and the tin, or in this case the town, does what the label suggests. We are open for business. High rents are not helping, the result, shop closures and bleak high streets. Shop closures are the death blow. I call on the leaders, however stressed and overworked they purport to be, address the problem or move aside. Bognor Regis BID (Business Improvement District) has done and continues to do much to make Bognor Regis Better for Business. You voted “YES” for a Business Improvement to:

Promote a positive image of Bognor Regis
Reduce crime and anti-social behaviour
Stimulate the evening and night time economy
Better parking

Why have a sculpture?
1. Tourist attraction and photo-opportunity (local history/national figure)
2. It contributes to the regeneration of the immediate context of a community and complement the work already undertaken to revitalise these areas
3. Raises cultural awareness on an inter- and cross-community level and provides access to the arts for all
4. Builds upon the tourism offering of the area and celebrates and interacts with Bognor’s rich heritage
5. Produces a positive image of Bognor Regis at local, national and international levels

Vincent Gray has worked alongside some notable and highly regarded names in the arts, engineering, military and entertainment, both in the UK and in Scandinavia. His work has introduced him to many leading lights and free thinkers, which he says, ‘do not fail to inspire and influence’. He is the sculptor of the life-size statue of John Keats in Eastgate Square and Leonard Bernstein at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester. His ambition is to erect a statue of Blake’s Glad Day on Bognor Regis seafront