Stratford High Street – update on activities
Over the last few months Creative Land Trust has appointed two teams to run two concurrent programmes based around Stratford High Street that are funded by the Greater London Authority’s High Streets for All Challenge.
We appointed Office S&M along with local Newham partners Rosetta Arts and Khan Boshek to produce a High Street Strategy report for Stratford. This report will outline opportunities along the high street in underused and disused locations, both in the public realm and in private spaces that might be activated for creative or cultural purposes, and funding methods to deliver them.
It will put forward possible partnership opportunities between local organisations, businesses, property owners and the local authority to best support each other’s needs and ambitions along the high street. The study will question how our high streets and town centres can better serve their local communities despite a rapidly changing landscape due in part to an area’s regeneration.
Alongside the report Hive Curates will develop a programme of creative activities that respond to the needs of the local community. These activities will take place in venues near to and along the high street. The team at Hive Curates is now looking for a Newham based curator to join them to develop and deliver the programme. You can read more about it by following this link.
These activities follow an art commission programme run by Paint the Change that has created a rotating gallery of artworks displayed by Newham residents on Stratford High Street. This initiative was also funded by an initial grant from the High Streets for All fund. This project runs for a further 18 months.
These three programmes precede the launch of artist studios at Alice Billing House in Stratford, following an extensive refurbishment of the existing building which is expected to begin soon. When open the studios will host a public facing project space for the local community.