Celebrating the theme ‘Our Creative Newham: Newham’s Arts and Cultural Heritage’, Newham Heritage Month will return for a triumphant fourth year in 2023, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Royal Docks Team. The first insight into this year’s exciting line-up is announced today.
From vanished film palaces to Stratford’s stand-up comedy scene, and from Pearly Queens to Grime MCs, via Bharathanatyam, Sonia Boyce and Bentleys, the thirteen projects selected for Community Grant funding this year will bring Newham’s extraordinary creative heritage to life through live events, workshops and installations.
Councillor Charlene McLean, Cabinet Member for Resident Engagement and Resident Experience said, “Congratulations to all the projects that have been awarded a total of £95,000 of community grant funding to participate in this year’s celebrations during Newham Heritage Month. Our borough has a very rich, diverse and creative heritage that we are all proud of, and the wide selection of projects awarded are a reflection of that”
“This will be the fourth year that Newham Council in collaboration with our partners, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Royal Docks, will host the Newham Heritage Month. This shows our commitment to ensuring that we continue to thrive and move forward from strength to strength, whilst working together with the local communities to showcase Newham’s heritage.”
Stuart McLeod, Director England – London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “We’re thrilled to support Newham Heritage Month again this year and celebrate the fantastic and diverse heritage in the borough. For us, Newham is an Area of Focus which means it’s somewhere we see real potential for heritage. We want to support projects that help to build a thriving community and bring people together. Thanks to National Lottery players, we’ve already been able to work with some fantastic projects and look forward to working with those who have been awarded a community grant for this year’s celebrations.”
The projects selected for funding for this year’s programme are:
Performance Infinity CIC – Modern Times: Albert Cinema Pop-up Experience – Researching the history of and recreating the experience of visiting the Albert Cinema in North Woolwich, which ran from 1912 until 1938.
Catalyst in Communities – From Pearly Queens to Grime MCs – Celebrating the impact that migration to Newham from the 1920s to the 2020s has had on the development of language, and thereby on music, poetry and the arts.
Hartley Primary School – Hartley – Art in Newham – In partnership with Bow Arts, local students will learn about historic artists from Newham before creating their own mural for the school’s early years area.
Farzana Hakim – Hear My Voice: Stories from the South Asian Diaspora – The project aims to find out how migrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh entertained themselves with music, film and dance in Newham during the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.
Rendezvous Projects – 23 Barking Road, the hidden history of a Canning Town music venue – In collaboration with Newham Music, this project will research the history of Bentley’s – a cutting edge soul nightclub from 1982 to 1987.
UKIM Masjid Ibrahim – Art and Islam – This project will take a group of young volunteers on a journey to research the history of Islamic creativity in Newham, from nasheed and literature to calligraphy and architecture.
Hafza Studio – Celebrating Sonia Boyce – This project aims to bring the work of artist Sonia Boyce – who grew up in Plaistow – to new audiences through a variety of creative workshops in schools and community centres.
Elena Juzulenaite & Oliver Wallace – Madge Gill and The Messages To The Flower Future – A series of workshops will be delivered with local children to share and reflect on the work of Madge Gill through a variety of creative disciplines.
Rights & Equalities in Newham – Reclaiming our history: Let’s get creative! – This project will focus on the acting and music industry and its influence on Black people in Newham, from early local pioneers to modern stars.
East London Textile Arts – The History of East London Textile Arts – Celebrating fifteen years of community textile projects in Newham, this project will archive ELTA’s history and share it through an exhibition and booklet.
Community Links – The Newham Dictionary of Culture – This project seeks to find out what arts and cultural heritage means to people in Newham and to create a ‘dictionary’ of podcasts, each focusing on a different word, term, name, place or moment.
The New Black Film Collective – Only Joking: Remembering Stand Up Comedy in Stratford – Stratford has been a springboard for the launch of many comedic careers in recent decades, a story which this project seeks to share through workshops and a digital booklet.
Malayalee Association of the UK – Bharathanatyam – the Newham Connection – This project will research and document how the relatively unknown South Indian dance form Bharathanatyam was propagated in Newham from the mid-eighties and into the nineties when it gained popularity in the U.K.
