Introducing East Bank Summer Programme 2022
- Written byLondon College of Fashion
- Published date 21 July 2022
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London College of Fashion, UAL is delighted to be a part of East Bank's first creative programme, a series of free cultural events running 23 July – 25 September 2022 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and neighbouring venues across the four Olympic boroughs – Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. Bringing together new art commissions, live performances, talks and tours, and a series of community workshops, the programme is supported by the Mayor of London, Foundation for Future London, the City of London, London Legacy Development Corporation, and the councils of Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. Marking 10 years since the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the programme will celebrate the continued legacy of the Games in east London and provide a taste of what’s to come at East Bank. East Bank is a unique collaboration between world-leading universities, and arts and culture institutions on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
It is so exciting to launch East Bank’s first public creative programme on the 10th anniversary of the London 2012 Games. East Bank is unique in bringing together art, design, fashion, music, education and performance, and is all about creating opportunities and platforms for young talent and showcasing east London’s creativity. It’s fantastic to work with gal-dem and so many talented artists, designers and performers from across the four Olympic Boroughs to commission such timely new works in the Olympic Park and across east London, and we can’t wait to expand our programme as East Bank opens.” - Catherine Ince, V&A East Chief Curator and Tamsin Ace, Head of Cultural Programming at UAL, both co-chairs of the East Bank Creative Programme Group.
The programme kicks off with The Great Get Together on Saturday 23 July 2022. East Bank partners will host a series of live events, activities, performances and workshops as part of The Great Get Together’s biggest ever annual programme of music, dance, arts, sport and food across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. LCF will host family-friendly creative workshops exploring mixed media and fashion zine-making, as well as showcasing work by BA (Hons) Costume Design for Performance student, Mathilde Louise Lina Weihrich with a performer roaming the grounds promenade-style throughout the day.
Also launching on 27 August 2022, East Bank is collaborating with London-based editorial and curatorial platform gal-dem on a major new series of public art interventions. gal-dem works with young people of colour from marginalised genders and has commissioned four artists to explore the ways in which our daily lives have been changed by the pandemic. Erin Aniker, Hannah Ceren, Kirsty Kerr and Cherelle Sappleton will contribute to a series of public realm artworks jointly named ‘Getting Back to Normal – Utopia/Dystopia’ and curated by Leyla Reynolds, founding member of gal-dem. The works will appear in and around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park as digital screens, large-scale easels, printed hoardings, installations and more. East Bank has also co-commissioned a new creative project with each of the Olympic Boroughs, running throughout August and September.
A finale performance, ‘Dystopia to Utopia: reimagining our future’, will be choreographed by Dannielle ‘Rhimes’ Lecointe and co-produced by East Bank and East London Dance. Tony Nwachukwu will be musical director. At sunset on 22 September 2022, the East Bank building site will come to life with projections and genre-bending performance imagining our future as we rebuild as a community following the pandemic. The performance will conclude the creative programme, as well as celebrate the upcoming opening of the first building on the UCL East campus, a major landmark for the East Bank partnership as it begins to go live.
In addition to all of these free cultural events, East Bank has also launched a call-out for East Bank SEEDED, a series of five-month-long residences for east London-based creatives, communities or collectives. V&A East, London College of Fashion, UAL and UCL East will each run a residency, from autumn 2022 to spring 2023.