Hackney WickED have announced that they will attend the upcoming European Creative Hubs Forum, that takes place 13-15 Jan 2015. They have been selected amongst many other creative organisations by the British Council. Hackney WickED in its 8th year as an artist and volunteer led organisation, has won a grant to attend the upcoming European Creative Hubs Forum, which is due to take place in Lisbon, Portugal on 13-15 Jan 2015.The ECHF is a platform for creative hubs around the world to meet and discuss ideas, best practice and devise collaborations across Europe.
The event will be documented via social media and you can follow progress of learnings and meetings via our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with handle
Hackney WickED, in its 8th year, has become one of London’s biggest and certainly most uniquely creative art events and collectives, promoting local culture and providing a platform for local emerging artists to showcase their work alongside more established names. At a crucial point in its history and at a time of vast redevelopment in the once small ‘post-industrial village’ of Hackney Wick, the organisation has won a grant from the British Council to attend the first ever European Creative Hubs Forum (ECHF) in Lisbon 13-15 January 2015, which it hopes will inform a process of organisational development and a review process for a sustainable future in an ever changing landscape.
Spokesperson from Hackney WickED says, “We’re overjoyed to have been offered this fantastic opportunity to meet similar art organisations from across the whole of Europe, offering learnings, how they have survived and developed. We can also to share our stories and experience gained in fundraising and management of a freestyle contemporary art event. It’s hard to imagine that Hackney WickED has been successful in putting on one of the most dynamic and exciting art events in London for 7 years with minimal funding and largely volunteer work and contributions of all of the artists of Hackney Wick and beyond. This is a chance to share our knowledge and learn from our peers about how to create a sustainable model for the future.”
The European Creative Hubs Forum is the first event of its kind.
There are an increasing number of international opportunities for arts and creative industries policy-makers to meet and exchange ideas. So, too, are there many moments when artists and entrepreneurs from individual sectors can meet and share thoughts about design, for example, or dance, or digital innovation. However, a bespoke opportunity for the managers of Creative Hubs from every corner of Europe to gather together, share best practice, raise questions, problems and ideas, and above all get to know each other, simply has never taken place.
“Creative Hub Managers with their important but lonely jobs of supporting a whole range of young, vulnerable businesses themselves need support, information and inspiration. At this, the start of a new year, and at the start of what feels like a new cycle for the Creative Industries in Europe, we hope that ECHF Lisbon ’15 provides at least some of each.” Ben Evans, Head of Arts Projects and Partnerships, British Council Portugal.
Other UK Creative Hubs attending include Unity Works, Baltic Creative, Noise Festival, Eigg Box, Wired Sussex, This For That, Cardiff Start, Generator NI, Studio 223, Impact Hub Birmingham, The Cultural Capital Exchange, Institute of Ideas, Primary, Volcano Theatre, Nest, Maker Space, Future Media, The Saturday Market Project, Folkestone, Residence, unMonastery, Watershed, BOP & European Creative Business Network, Jonathan Robinson, Maker Library Network, Creative Frontline, CP Creative Project Management, Creative Scotland, Birmingham City Creative Partnership, Creative Edinburgh, Creative Dundee, TAKTAL, CodeBase, The ROCO, Lighthouse, Creative England, Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy and Glasgow School of Art and Journey Associates.
The first festival in 2008 was a joint initiative from a mix of galleries & studios. In 2009 the festival expanded as local artist Gavin Turk became Patron and visitor numbers reached 10,000. Dubbed “the most vital event of the Summer” by NY Arts Mag, word spread and the festival expanded in 2011 (25,000 people) to include: 17 Galleries, 20 open studio buildings, 600+ artists, pop-up events, 2 live music stages & more. 2013 saw the return of the festival after the 2012 London Olympic Games and the streets came alive again with impromptu performance, exhibitions, open studios, live music, art markets, film, talks, development workshops, live installations and more… Firmly on the contemporary art map in 2014 with 35,000 attendees with three amazing days that have “become an energetic fixture of summer in London”