Walk into Romford Town in October and discover a thrilling trail of sculptures and installations. An exhibition of light and illusion in the heart of Romford, Illusionarium is a town exhibition which brings together our local community in exploring colour and making art in unique and familiar places.
All of the artoworks at the Illusionarium light festival have been chosen or created by local people for local people. In preperation for Illusionarium 2021 we have already had 1 x art-choosing day in Romford, 3 x glass-blowing days in Harold Hill and Romford, 2 x recording sessions in Rainham, 1 x urban design workshop in Collier Row and 1 installation concept week with NCC Havering Colleges - and there is still time to get involved by attending one of our artist workshops or events below!
Artist Carlos Cortes is going to create a giant light sculpture in The Brewery on Saturday 16th October and he is looking for people to help!
Whether you are a crafting pro or a first time artist, we need you to help put the finishing touches to our light festival! He is looking for businesses to get involved by decorating their shop windows and also Havering residents to create a lantern to put in their home windows too!
Neon Knights was a workshop ran by architect studio WSMS to find out what makes Collier Row and Romford 'Home'. Attended by 18 residents of the area - a neon shield will be revealed this October combining the symbols developed by the group.
Do you recognise any of the illustrations?
This type of artwork process is called 'co-creation' and participants don't need to be a great artist already to take part - just a story and some enthusiasm! Click below for an insight into this 'co-creation' process, and see if you agree with our participants viewpoints of Romford!
All events during the festival are free to attend and will be in and around Romford Town Centre. Try out new skills like photoprinting, or become a light explorer for the day. See our events programme to make a booking or set a date to investigate! Browse available tickets for all bookable events at our eventbrite page.
More events will be added throughout the month!
If you are a business in the Romford Business Improvement District, you can take part in our Halloween Pumpkin Carving Competition. Get in touch with us, or a BID host to get your free pumpkin and guide to take part!
Winners will be chosen by 'likes' on social media and the winning business will recieve a selection of goodies!
If you are a business in the Romford Business Improvement District, you can take part in our Illusionarium 'Multicolourism' Window Decoration Competition alongside artist Carlos Cortes. Download your window design guide to take part!
To enter the competition please follow instructions in the guide.
The winning business will recieve a hamper of goodies!
If you are a visitor to the Illusionarium festival, you can take part in our 'Play Stop' competition.
Find all of the secret characters on the trail to find out the secret code. Email us the code to be entered into our secret prize draw! Paper copies of the trail competition can be picked up and dropped off at The Mercury helpdesk.
The Illusionarium is brought to you by the support of The Romford BID, Havering Changing (an Arts Council Funded Programme) and The Mercury Shoppping Centre. Organised by The NO Collective, the partnership cares about the local area, the people in it and sharing with them high quality arts and events programming.
Want to find out more about previous artworks and see what happened last year? Check out the Illusionarium 2020 archive here:
