On July 16, Southend, England will have its first Street Painting Festival. International artists will be painting, even from the United States. This event was inspired by our very own Street Painting Festival here in Lake Worth and others around the globe.Anna Heim is the International Projects Director of Cultural Exchange Group, Three-Way-Split, which sees Lake Worth, Sopot, Poland and Southend, England as a partnership for cultural exchange. After Vice Mayor Suzanne Mulvehill mentioned our festival, she came and visited Lake Worth to witness it first-hand, a painting festival that has been around for 17 years and known as the largest in the country.
Westcliff, a superb of Southend that is situated on the northern bank of the Thames Estuary and about 34 miles east of London, anticipates "hordes of tourists" to visit its first event. All of us in Lake Worth wish you success.
2 comments:
Hi Lynn,
Yes, Southend is one of our sister cities. Anna Heim, who was here in LW last year, met with then president Beth Johnston about the Street Painting Festival and learned how she could start one in Southend.
LW was featured in a 2-page spread in The Echo news last fall when I was there and met with their Mayor and several Councillors about the possibility of international collaborations between our cities. the UK is the largest international tourist market to South Florida - that is one of the reasons that the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau has agreed to sponsor the winning artist from the Street Painting Festival in Southend to win free airfare and 4 nights accomodation here in LW to participate in our street painting festival next February.
This is all being discussed in the marketing task force meetings. A number of residents are going to be in the UK for this festival - Jill Karlin, former CHair of the Sister City Board, Cora Bresciano, Director, Blue Planet (not sure of her exact title, her daughter will be painting in the street painting festival, June Evans, Jinine cronin (sp?), the two woman who live in Southend 1/2 the year and here in LW the other half of the year (don't know their names). You can reach out to Anna Heim who is organizing the event in Southend. her email is annaheim@annaheimonline.com
Anna was my student when I was teaching at the University of Essex in the summer of 2008. I spoke often of Lake Worth and saw many of the similarities to Southend - famous fishing pier, arts community, great downtown (they call it the High Street), great music scene, etc. and that's what started it off.
This is the article from last sept: http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8385802.Florida_town_and_Southend_link_up/
S.M.
All I can say is.....Wow!
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