Waterloo Festival TeamIlluminated River #1: an introduction
Coin Street have been funded by Illuminated River Foundation’s Community Fund to develop and deliver art workshops for young people aged 9+ for the local community.
At Waterloo Festival, we are thrilled to be offering a platform from which to showcase and share the work more widely! We’re hoping to share the young people’s efforts here on a weekly basis.
Photo: Tomm Godber
Illuminated River is an ambitious, new public art commission that is transforming the capital at night, lighting up to 14 bridges on the River Thames. Once complete, it will be the longest public art project in the world. The Illuminated River Community Fund supports local groups in delivering publicly accessible activities that engage with the first phase of Illuminated River (London, Cannon St, Southwark and Millennium Bridges) and encourage more people to enjoy the Thames, its bridges and riverside surroundings at night.
Coin Street’s project will ensure that the Illuminated River artwork’s impact is translated into meaningful public engagement. Their established Youth and Community Programmes team and excellent links with the local community means they are very well placed to deliver this successfully.
Anna Glarin, Coin Street’s Community Programmes Coordinator, writes:
“We were initially intending to run these workshops face to face; seeing the bridges illuminated, create artwork based on them and exhibit the artwork in a local gallery. However, as a result of the current lock-down situation, we’ve been forced to reconsider our approach, and decided to still go ahead but run remote sessions online. The young people will instead of seeing the bridges in person be able to see images of the them illuminated and will create their artwork as a response to these images, while also considering different historical art-movements, such as surrealism, abstract art etc. We have artist Eleanor Watson on board to deliver the interactive art workshops via Zoom. Eleanor has a longstanding relationship with Coin Street and has been involved in many of our art-activities over the years.”
You can also follow Coin Street’s Youth and Community Team’s Art and Wellbeing Instagram account on @artatcoinstreet for updates on all things art-related in the Coin Street community.
Photo: Alexander Danila