BuildHollywood

Reimagine Newham

Reimagine Newham is a project that saw a collective of artists and the community come together to examine and interpret the world we live in. Centred around their experiences of the borough and angled as a new genre of public art, it encouraged participants to “deal with socio-political issues” and “search for the good” in trying times.

Curator Nicole Tatschl and creative director Kamila Szymkiewicz collaborated with artists, local students, and residents to create a programme that felt both representative and fruitful. Conversations among participants and their shared ideas worked alongside free augmented reality workshops – because it’s a medium that ‘allows for seeing things differently… to re-imagine, to recreate, to reinterpret’ – to produce AR artworks that reflected their concerns and covered a spectrum of issues from war to social housing.

Reimagine Newham culminated in a public exhibition at Royal Victoria Docks, making it Newham’s very first public AR exhibition. We worked alongside them to showcase it across the way in West London, with the 12 participants’ artworks featured on street posters for passers-by to scan and experience. As the borough with the lowest cultural investment in London, the Newham project was a wonderful way to cultivate connections and expand artistic engagement – showcasing art away from typical, sometimes intimidating gallery settings, and placing it right within London’s communities.