Third round of Shoreditch and Hoxton Art Fund launched as aims for a fair recovery take shape
Hackney Council has launched the third and final round of the Shoreditch and Hoxton Art Fund, which since 2019 has seen more than £175,000 invested into arts and cultural-led projects which aim to build positive and open relationships in the area’s diverse communities.
Projects to date have included a festival exploring working class identity, cross-cultural orchestras, poetry and dance, community murals and a live soap opera.
The investment is raised from "Section 106" contributions, which are levies placed on new developments in and around Shoreditch and Hoxton. The fund is enabling and supporting community projects that bring residents, businesses and visitors together through art and culture, building a better understanding between communities and helping them to share experiences.
The £300,000 fund delivers on a commitment in the Council’s Inclusive Economy Strategy and Arts & Cultural Strategy to promote and support activities in town centres and neighbourhoods that help to keep people connected to opportunities in a rapidly changing borough. More than £80,000 is available as part of the third round of funding.
Over the last 15 years, Shoreditch and Hoxton have seen huge changes, with a significant rise in the number of businesses and residents in one of the UK’s most successful local economies. The area has become home to a thriving small and large business community that includes some of the world’s leading creative tech and digital media companies. To ensure this exceptional economic growth benefits residents, Hackney Council has committed to supporting participatory creative and cultural-led initiatives.
The Shoreditch and Hoxton Art Fund has provided the wherewithal for artists and creative practitioners to become the bridge between residents and the changing neighbourhood brought about by a successful and rapidly growing local economy.
The Art Fund has helped us all to embrace change and sets out to ensure that this change in our local neighbourhoods works for and with us, not against us. Led by local arts and culture organisations the response has helped build a bridge between the creative and creative tech business community clustered in and around Shoreditch and Hoxton and the community of local residents.
Some of the projects to win funding in rounds one and two
- Autograph ABP - #HackneyIsHome - a project exploring experiences of home and migration in Hackney.
- Clod Ensemble - The Black Saint and The Sinner Lady - a programme of events inspired by Charles Mingus’ 1963 masterpiece The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady, created in collaboration with members Nu Civilisation Orchestra.
- Create London - Hoxton Gardenware - a youth-led not-for-profit enterprise producing distinctive, small-batch terracotta gardenware.
- Eastside Educational Trust - Your Future Worlds - a project celebrating the young voices of Hoxton and their aspirations for the future.
- Grand Union Orchestra - Hoxton and Shoreditch Community Orchestra - a project to bring together musicians from all over the world, many of them first generation migrants and now UK citizens and living in London.
- Hoxton Hall - Hoxton Street soap opera - a Hoxton soap opera using interactive theatre performances, and podcasts.
- Ministry of Stories - Poetry in Unexpected Places - stories written and envisioned by 8-15 year olds – who take part in weekly Community Writing Labs.
- PEER - PEER in the LIBRARY - a three-part programme of exhibitions, events and workshops focusing on the power and potential of the spoken and written word in a variety of media.
- Snooze Fabric - 5 Pillars Project - a community arts project which involved designing a mural at Hoxton Hall.
- Studio Wayne McGregor - HOME - a dance film showcasing the talents of young people, as well as the Shoreditch Trust’s Stroke project, which enables stroke survivors to highlight their experiences.
For application eligibility, criteria and key information - and to apply - please visit hackney.gov.uk/culture