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MarketPlace Arts, the new name for MarketPlace, a statement from Creative Director and CEO Rob Drummer
As of 1st April 2025, MarketPlace Arts is the new name for MarketPlace and from this same date MarketPlace Arts will be operating as a charity in its own right. This change represents an exciting moment in an over 10 year journey for MarketPlace and a real commitment to our Fenland and West Suffolk communities for the future.
March 2025
I wanted to explain these changes and share how we’ve arrived at this point as well as celebrate the brilliant support we’ve had getting here. Since I joined the organisation in January 2024, I have been deeply inspired by the projects with our communities and the growing of new relationships across Fenland and West Suffolk.
MarketPlace is currently in its third phase of Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places Programme which by spring 2026 will mean 11 years of co-creating a diverse range of activities, events and projects with communities across Fenland and West Suffolk. Since the beginning we have been supported by a consortium of partners, led by Babylon Arts who all invest a huge amount of time and resources into our programme.
Following the decision by trustees of Babylon Arts to close the organisation by September 2025, we were informed that reluctantly Babylon would be stepping away from the MarketPlace programme as of 31st March 2025. In order to secure our funding from Arts Council England and to continue delivering our programme, MarketPlace Arts has constituted as a charity in its own right.
As well as moving our administrative office from Ely to March, the team will be working more frequently in each of the market towns across Fenland and West Suffolk year round. We are especially grateful to the town councils of Chatteris and Wisbech, and our partners in Brandon and Mildenhall for helping us look for a base and are keen to find workspace in Whittlesey and Newmarket by spring 2026. Our small but dedicated team already travels across the region, working on a series of projects year round and we can’t wait to have even more of a presence as the year progresses.
For any of you who have been following the past 12 months of our work, you hopefully have seen some of the incredible events our communities have co-created. We’re on a mission to meet more people, produce larger, more surprising and diverse activities and can’t wait to get stuck into the next year. This is an exciting time for culture in Fenland and West Suffolk and we are looking forward to being useful in supporting everyone who lives, works and studies here access high quality creative activity.
Rob Drummer
Creative Director & CEO