Futurecity is delighted to support Bow Arts in their Kickstarter campaign to raise the remaining funds to help deliver 90 new affordable artist studios in the Grade II listed Pennington Street Warehouse, a key building within the heart of the new London Dock development within the former News International site in Wapping, East London. The warehouse – a vast vaulted building formerly used to store rum and other cargo arriving into London at the docks – has been closed to the public for over 200 years and this will be the first meanwhile use of the space. Following restoration, the warehouse will be brought back into permanent use with a mix of retail, restaurants, galleries and offices.
The new partnership between Bow Arts and St George plc is borne out of recommendations made by Futurecity within the Cultural & Placemaking Strategy document we developed for St George, which was submitted as part of the London Dock planning application. The strategy suggested opening up the unique, historic and characterful building for meanwhile occupation while construction across the development was underway – activating the space, putting it on the map as a new cultural and business destination and helping to create a sense of place for London Dock in time for its completion. The document proposed a range of potential cultural partners appropriate for the space, including studio providers such as Bow Arts, performing arts, events and tech companies, higher education providers and festival / markets who were invited to view the space.
As Bow Arts CEO Marcel Baettig said during the site visit, “it could be London’s newest prestigious hub. The scale of the opportunity … makes it possible to contemplate a cultural impact on the emerging neighbourhood akin to that of … King’s Cross’.
At a time when artists are increasingly being pushed out of the city by rising rent prices, this is a positive step forward and supports the GLA’s desire to acknowledge the value of artist workspace provision both on a local and national level, to protect its vulnerable status, and to encourage partnerships between the public and private sectors to extend its growth and accommodate the ever growing need (Artists’ Workspace Study: Report & Recommendations, Sep 2014, GLA).
According to the GLA’s study, up to 3,500 artists are likely to lose their workspace in the next 5 years, which represents 30% of the current provision. With an estimated 3,500 on waiting lists and 35,000 Art & Design graduates leaving college per year, the need is great and increasing rapidly.