18 January launched Brent’s year as London’s “Borough of Cultures” at a spectacular outdoor show RISE. Featuring a community of hundreds, the event charted the story of how this diverse corner of North West London impacted culture in Britain through its music, activism, and rebellious spirit.
The event was commissioned for Brent 2020 and hosted by Wembley Park as Principal Partner. Since 2016, Futurecity has worked closely with Quintain (the developer behind Wembley Park) creating and delivering Cultural Placemaking and Public Art Strategies that set out a toolkit to define Wembley Park as North West London’s newest Cultural Neighbourhood.
Futurecity worked across Quintain’s teams to challenge how they saw their site, proposing to view Olympic Way as a Cultural Spine designed to provide a major new outdoor events space for London, feeding into a series of distinct creative neighbourhoods, all of which were activated this past Saturday evening.
The Strategy created an internal framework outlining cultural placemaking projects and partnerships across the site, leveraging Wembley’s sport, music and entertainment heritage. This led to key initiatives including Boxpark, artist studios created in partnership with Second Floor Studios, a permanent creative community facility at the Yellow, the independent and established merchant, makers and doers at the Market, and a dedicated programme of activation and public art.
By 2018, Wembley Park’s ambitions to be a hub for creativity and culture was delivering tangible results including a new theatre in partnership with Troubadour Theatre, a new cultural venue at The Corner, Getty Images Gallery, and a regular year-round programme of publicly-accessible events.
In December 2019, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and Quintain announced a major partnership, brokered by Futurecity, that will see the Orchestra move its headquarters to Wembley Park from May 2020. The RPO’s role as a key arts anchor tenant represents a major milestone in the transformation of Wembley Park into a new cultural neighbourhood for North West London, with music at its heart.
Wembley Park is now investing in its cultural infrastructure with appointment of Josh McNorton as the first Cultural Director for Wembley Park and their amplification through Claudio Giambrone, Head of Marketing.
Read more about the Strategy here.
Other Futurecity Cultural District Strategies to Explore:
Cockle Bay Wharf (Sydney, Australia)
Avenues to the Arts (Boston, USA)
Greenwich Peninsula (London, UK)