Our projects engage local communities through activation and education initiatives and attract old and new visitors via festivals, feasts and a variety of public events.
Aldgate in Winter 2022. Courtesy The Community. Photo © Aldgate Connect BID.
Sculpture in the City Family Day, 2021. Courtesy Urban Learners. Photo Luke O Donovan.
Kathrin Böhm. PSQ Tanner Lane Wall: Community Engagemement Workshop, July 2021. Courtesy The Artist & The Showroom.
Our clients are often wanting to create, build, expand and bring together communities. Public programming activations amplify community engagement and contribute to the enlivening of the spaces and offer further engagement opportunities. Our wide ranging portfolio of offerings often exceed client expectations.
SculptureFest, The City of London's annual family-friendly activation programme, coincided in 2023 with London Sculpture Week: a series of free public events organised by Sculpture in the City, Frieze Sculpture, the Mayor of London's Fourth Plinth and The Line to celebrate the best of public art in London.
Aldgate in Winter 2022 united the Aldgate community of residents, workers and visitors with an end of year community festival. The Local Heroes portraiture exhibition celebrated leading community figures through the work of Metropolitan University photography students. The Lantern-Making Workshops and Parade brought together families, community members and local creatives to celebrate the place and people of Aldgate. The end of year celebration returns in 2023.
This annual outdoor sculpture park engages several communities through programme partnerships with EC BID (SculptureFest), Bloomberg Connects (App), Urban Learners (education) and MSCTY (music lovers). Between (2018–2022) SITC was a key programme partner to the Whitechapel Gallery’s popular Nocturnal Creatures summer festival, celebrating the best of contemporary culture London’s East End has to offer. Workers, students, residents, general public, art and music enthusiasts are offered countless opportunities, including free guided-tours, to engage with the rotating exhibition and the broader cultural, retail and hospitality offerings of City of London throughout the calendar year. Open City (2011–2013) and Urban Learners (since 2018) support an education programme, attracting over 250 local primary and secondary students each year from the neighbouring and often under-privileged communities, to engage with the City’s built environment and the artworks on display.
In the framework of the Paddington Square Public Art programme, Lacuna launched an ongoing curatorial collaboration with The Showroom (2024–2026), a local non-profit arts organisation specialising in community engagement and supporting UK-based emerging artists engaged in social discourse practices. Over three years, three contemporary artists will generate community participation in the research and production of three temporary artworks. The first art commission by Kathrin Böhm (launching 2024) produced 12 community workshops and attracted the participation of over 120 local residents and community group members, including women’s collectives, construction workers at Paddington Square, NHS staff at St Mary’s Hospital and the broader arts community of London. Catherine Yass’ permanent public art commission, entitled NHS Swimmers, also relied on the cooperation of the NHS Imperial Charity’s staff to produce a 24-metre long photographic mural of 10 underwater swimmers.
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