To celebrate Essex Book Festival, this month’s Ignite Chelmsford meet-up focused on the theme of Distributed Storytelling, which saw a range of local creatives come together at Foyles Bookstore to listen to our two guest speakers on the night.

Backnang in Germany has been twinned with Chelmsford since 1990. In 2020 we will share our 30th Anniversary. This is at a time where the world sees many divisions, so we believe messages of love, sharing and unity are important — especially during the Christmas holidays.

My name is Carmel Green. I am a local Chelmsford artist and, like so many other local free-thinking creatives, I want to create positive change in the world.

The focus of August’s “Ignite Chelmsford” meet-up was “Art for Everyone”. For someone who has been known to utter the words “I can’t draw”, this might not have been a promising title.