ALICE BILLING HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2025
Highlights from 2025
2025 marked our second year of operation, during which we continued to nurture our creative community and strengthen our ties with the wider Newham community through our Cultural Engagement Programme. As the year comes to a close, we would like to reflect on and celebrate the achievements and milestones of 2025.
We began in January with the Speculative ReMemory showcase at Grow, Hackney (also part of Grow Studios), presenting digital and physical works shaped by community storytelling, a project led by Sandra Falase.
In February, we celebrated our first anniversary in Stratford with the reveal of the Community Supper Cloth, alongside floral patch-making with Stitch School and digital portraits by studio holder Francesco Tassi.
April saw a community planting day led by garden artist Stephen Shiell, followed later that month by a lively metal-bashing workshop with sculptor Darcy Turner, where participants helped create the aluminium fireman’s hose sculpture now installed in our courtyard.
In May, during London Craft Week, Artist-in-Residence Beverley Sommerville led a Tile-Making Workshop using materials gathered from the derelict North Block. The tiles made will be a feature of the new Pavilion space once completed. Soon after this, we received confirmation that new capital funding had been secured for the North Blocks restoration
Over the summer, our Inspector of Nuisances Newham Heritage Month project unfolded through storytelling and animation workshops with Frames of Mind, a two-week residency and a collage session by Newham artist Sam Ikhuoria. In August, Ramaa Sharma’s residency explores heritage and motherhood for the Time Capsule and South Asian Heritage Month.
In September, we celebrated the outcomes of the Inspector of Nuisances project with a screening and an exhibition. We welcomed over 90 visitors to our second Open Studios as part of the Open House London Festival.
October concluded the workshops for this year with a Black History Month fabrication workshop with studio holder Jot Dean and two illustration workshops led by Lydia Thornley, where participants created zines and self-portraits for the Alice Billing House Time Capsule.
Last but not least, Ed Shamwana started his maker-in-residency with us, where he'll design and build the time capsule itself. This residency will continue into next year and form the theme of further upcoming workshops.
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“My own journey through the project was transformative. It rekindled a sense of creative agency I hadn’t felt in years and reignited a long-dormant belief in the value of my own voice and work. That renewed confidence inspired me to reapply to university, something I had not previously imagined was within reach this year.”
Suaad, Inspector of Nuisances workshop participant
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