Bromley by Bow Centre

http://www.bbbc.org.uk/

Art and Design 

The arts have been part of the Bromley by Bow Centre story since the beginning. Local artists were amongst the first people to get involved and lend their skills and energies. The arts remain central to our work today.

In our Working Wonders enterprise programme, people experiencing disabilities, learning difficulties and/or mental distress are encouraged to be creative and enterprising, supported by professional practitioners.

Arteast and Artychoke are now successful design and print enterprises, producing to commission and selling through independent shops.

We also provide an arts programme for people aged 50 and over who suffer ill health and may be experiencing social isolation.

The Centre has three spacious project rooms and studios for stained glass, stone carving and ceramics. The many public spaces provide excellent exhibition venues, including shows for outside organisations.  

The Centre's resident artists create their own works here and run courses at weekends.

In 2011 the Centre's artists formed Flyover Arts and are developing a rolling programme of open studio events, art workshops for corporate and community groups and London-wide gallery exhibitions. 

The Centre's pioneering Healthy Living Centre has a history of developing innovative art and health projects to educate local people.

We have found new ways to engage with hard-to-reach groups including  Planet Asthma (managing asthma), Your Blood Too (tackling vitamin deficiencies) and One Blood (health and biomedical science).

We have a keen interest in local heritage. Facing East is an important record of the local Bromley by Bow  community, now held in the Centre's archive. We commissioned world-renowned artists Sir Colin Hampden White (photographer), Sally Hampson (personal memorabillia) and Shamim Azad (story-teller) to produce a series of portraits and a temporary museum for those most affected by the rapid changes in the East End. For more information go to Facing East. 

Working with young people and creating positive pathways for them is one of our central aims. Signs of Life is our public art and design enterprise that engages with young people to create works in all media.

Young @ Art

Young @ Art is a group of elders who meet weekly on Thursday afternoons and take part in arts activities, reminiscence work, complementary therapies, outings and events. Centre staff escort group members from home.

Arts activities covered include painting, silk-screen painting, drawing, pottery and others. These activities have been led by professional artists who have had training in reminiscence work.

In addition, elders take part in complementary therapy sessions provided by professional therapists from Inside Out, including reflexology and hand massage. These sessions can be very popular!

The group take part in outings, including to tea dances, a family Eid party at the Marner Children’s Centre, Stanton (a country house social enterprise in the Cotswolds set up by Centre founder Andrew Mawson), the Centre’s Passover and Bangladesh Independence Day celebrations and the Eat London festival.

“I never would have expected I would end up here. I was born in a Welsh mining village, then moved to Worcestershire, and now here [Ann moved to London at the age of 85]. But the group’s helped me settle in London. I thought this was the last thing I’d do.”
Anne, 92.

“My social worker… says I shouldn’t go out on my own. But I go crazy stuck indoors. I want someone to talk to. But I don’t have friends. That’s why I come here, for the company.”
Group member, aged 89

The Young @ Art group is generously supported by The City Bridge Trust.