Ely has joined the Window Wanderland revolution! As the sun went down on 23rd October 2020, the lights in 140 Ely homes & businesses went on, illuminating their window artwork.

Window Wanderland began in 2015 when Lucy Reeves Khan used her experience of isolation as a force for good, inspiring communities to transform their streets into unique ‘galleries’ for neighbours to enjoy together. Such a fun idea and Lucy can’t have known how much this kind of togetherness would be so desperately needed in 2020.

In true Smith style, we started the week leading up to the Window Wanderland festival in a panic because we still hadn’t decided our theme! Drawing inspiration from festivals in other cities, we bought some black card from our local Tindalls art shop and got measuring, drawing & cutting.

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On Friday evening, after making sure our windows were illuminated – although obscured by scaffolding – we set off on our walk with cups of hot chocolate, treat-filled pockets and the window map. What would we see?

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We decided to stick close to home that evening, planning to go further out on Saturday, and we covered a good distance. These are some of our favourites during Friday’s two-hour wander:

By Saturday afternoon, it was clear it was going to be a wet evening but we were determined to see as many windows as we could. So we took the car to the furthest end of town and wandered as much as we could before the weather forced us to stop.

We’d just seen the windows of the Babylon Gallery (below) when the weather took a turn for the worse. Goodness, so much rain! We got back in the car and drove the long way home, seeing as many windows as possible.

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All was not lost: the organisers went straight onto social media to encourage people to keep up their window art for one more evening – which many did – so there was another chance to catch the displays on Sunday!

It was a wonderful event to be involved in, and I’ve seen that many other towns around the country have been taking part too. I already knew we had a vibrant artistic community in Ely but the variety and quality of the window art really blew me away.

I’m pretty sure something like this will be organised in Ely again as it was so well received. I have my fingers & toes crossed there will be the opportunity to create some sparkly Christmas windows..! 🙂

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Bye for now!