Cultural Producers Programme
Project
People’s Pavilion 2021 - Cultural Producers Programme
Client
Beyond The Box Creation
Location
East London
The People’s Pavilion Cultural Producer Programme saw us work with young East Londoners aged 14-25 years of age who were interested in cultural production and festival curation.
Using the insights gathered from our young creative researchers, we had discovered that one of the biggest barriers to accessing cultural experiences was young people not seeing themselves reflected in the cultural institutions they wanted to visit. In response, we curated an online masterclass series spanning the creative arts disciplines, with leading industry practitioners and producers that reflected the racial diversity of East London, to inspire a new generation of cultural producers.
ONLINE MASTERCLASSES
Beyond The Box produced a series of Masterclasses, collaborating with ten leading cultural institutions comprising of 19 producers and curators, each sharing industry insights, detailing how they approach co-production and co-design, whilst also sharing their personal career journeys into the creative sector. Each online masterclass was accompanied by a 10-track playlist curated by one of our cultural producers, each song selected to fit that weeks masterclass theme. Over the ten episodes, 120 young people attended.
The series saw masterclasses delivered from some of the UK’s leading cultural organisations and creatives, including The BBC Proms, V&A Musuem, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, Studio Wayne McGregor, British Pavilion Designers for Venice Biennale - Unscene Architecture, Musuem of London, London College of Fashion, ENSPIRE management, The Royal Institute of British Architects and Bloomberg Media Studios.
V&A MUSEUM - LUND POINT COLLABORATION
Working with artist Brendan Barry and the V&A Museum, Lund Point created a multi-lens camera obscura from currently empty homes in a 23-storey tower block in East London. The work is proposed as an act of cultural democracy, reframing and documenting a site through the lived experience of people living in east London. This installation of photographic prints offers a unique perspective from the 23-storey tower block on the edge of the Olympic Park, close to where The People’s Pavilion was to be built.
The work was created with our young Cultural Producers, Shirin Al'Rashid, Doua Attafi, Condoleezza Baiden, Maddeline Balogun, Simone Casimiro, Tapiwa Cronin, Shirin Naveed, Aiden Nip, Fome Owuasu, Sumaya Rahman, Samreen Sabeer, Lucie Shackley and Seby Wright.
Lund Point was curated with V&A Research Institute and V&A East Public Engagement Fellow, Matilda Pye and is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with assistance from Populo Living.
The exhibition was opened at The People’s Pavilion and was on display throughout the 10 -day festival, later moving to the V&A Musuem in South Kensington as part of London Design Festival, where it was on display on the architectural landing.
“This project is unique because unlike a lot of things commissioned by cultural spaces, it actively engaged with the voices of the community that it situated itself in. We spoke to residents past and present to make the project as ethical and open as possible. The project allowed for young East Londoners to ‘take up space’, something that is at the heart of the Envision East festival.” Condie Baiden, Lead Young Cultural Producer
Cultural Exchange - Liverpool
As part of the project we were keen for the young cultural producers to engage with other young producers outside of London, to share creative ideas and build upon their cultural networks. As part of another project Beyond The Box were delivering in the city of Liverpool, we took a study trip to the Liverpool Docks and National Museum of Liverpool to see a temporary pavilion we had built on the waterfront.
The young producers meet with a team of young creative Liverpudlians we had been working with, engaging in a cultural exchange. The temporary installation on the waterfront, titled Sankofa Docks, explored the history of the docks and its role with the international slave trade, it feature a soundscape by artist Peter Adjaye, inscriptions from the archives within the museum detailed by architect Jayden Ali and performance space for artistic activation. We were treated to a special performance from local artists Capoeria For All, before we facilitated a dialogue of exchange.
Envision East Festival
The young cultural producers put their skills into action to produce a 10-day festival at The People’s Pavilion.
We collaborated with an incredible array of cultural and creative partners, including the V&A Museum and artist Brendan Barry, with our Lund Point photographic exhibition, live performances by Poetic Unity, immersive DJ sets by Space Black with projected archival images from the Black Cultural Archives, local East London group Your Are Capoeria, workshops with the Royal Drawing School, Vogue workshops with tutor Tony Tran, music from DJ Mark-Ashley Dupé, House of Henna and wellbeing facilitator YSM8, photographer workshops with Brunel Johnson, performances from Sunny Steel Band, panel talks with Resolve Collective, Urban Symbiotics and PoOr Collective, and our LGBT inclusive day with special guests Lady Phyll Founder of UK Black Pride, legendary model and activist Winn Austin, artist BamBam, Stonewall Housing advocate Joshua Asare, and a special screening of the short film ‘There’s always a black issue dear’.
Watch the video
BBC Proms
In celebration of all the young cultural producers had achieved on the project, and the incredible resilience they had shown through a period of extreme challenges due to the corona virus, we took the team on a special trip to a Night at the Proms (a gift from the team at the BBC Proms).
It was a fantastic evening of live music and culture and a great way to celebrate a successful programme.
The Producers
