Help Support the Future of Stour Space

Help Support the Future of Stour Space

UPDATE FROM STOUR SPACE DIRECTORS:

On Thursday 2nd May we held a meeting with our landlords along with the LLDC, the London Mayor’s office, Tower Hamlets Council and Hackney Council. Without being able to go into too much detail, it was a fantastic meeting (!!) and had the following outcome:

1. Stour Space will be issued a new lease by the 16th May.
2. The lease will be for 18 months in the first instance and afterwards we will be looking at either a 25 year lease, or longer.

Regarding our campaign fundraising, we did hit our original £50k target through a mix of donations (big and small, online and in person), a number of our studios prepaying their rent, local organisations paying upfront for future bookings. Landlords will be landlords however and now want more upfront via quarterly upfront payments instead of monthly. So we still need to make another £15k by the end of May.

As well as our team now being able to take bookings for after May, this 15k target can be easily achieved through visitors coming by to enjoy breakfast, coffee and beer at our cafe and bar, and booking in birthday parties and events during the summer/winter.

Stour Space became one of the first buildings in the UK to gain an Asset of Community Value listing under the Localism Act in 2011, due to its role as a civic building delivering huge social and economical impact. Please help us keep this vital creative community hub open to all and ensure its services can continue to flourish for our neighbourhood and its future. 

We started this organisation with zero budget and hundreds of amazing volunteers, a feat we are very proud of. Over the last decade we have grown and adapted with our community to the ever changing environment around us, the Olympics on the other side of the water and afterwards the continuing regeneration of this area.

How you can support us:

• Please donate via this page. Any amount is incredibly appreciated and welcomed. We are offering various goodies/perks for your kind donations, scroll down for details.
• Sharing this page on your social media / with your contacts to raise awareness
• Come into Stour Space and grab a lunch/coffee from our Cafe
• Visit us during one of our numerous free events and have a drink or two at the Bar
• Purchase a piece of artwork from one of our exhibitions coming up in 2019
• Contact our events team to book your event / hire the space in 2019
  

Please see this article to read more about what we do and why it's so important to keep grassroots spaces like ours open and engaging with the community: romanroadlondon.com/stour-space-fish-island-celebrates-ten-years

Below we have outlined some of our key achievements from the past 10 years of Stour Space, we hope you'll take a moment to read through and see why we are fighting so hard to continue Stour Space and the work that we do.

Thanks,

The team at Stour Space

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What We Do

Affordable Studios 

Over 150 artists, creatives and businesses supported since 2009. We currently house a range of practitioners including fine artists, jewellers, and makers as well as small businesses. We haven't changed our prices in 6 years and don't intend to any time soon, these guys are the bedrock of Stour, giving it that special atmosphere.

Co-Workspace  

Local freelancers are welcome to use our mezzanine and cafe space to work on their projects for zero £ fees. A perfect way to get to know other practitioners and find exciting projects. The bottomless coffee is a super deal for these guys.

Small Business Support 

Stour Space has always had a regular platform for small business, for example our regular Designers Market and (now closed) SHOP space, as well as being a welcoming space for local businesses and practitioners to share ideas and experiences.
Our team is made up of some real business hotshots who are happy to give some free advice or signposting to our huge network across the area and beyond.

Community Cafe

Open daily, the cafe has a core number of patrons who visit daily, and the cafe team is made up of talented local creatives, chefs and cafe staff. We serve a menu that is locally sourced and produced and prioritises East London suppliers.
It's one of the best places to get a feel of the vibrant community in Hackney Wick and sitting on the River Lea on a floating terrace, where better to take a break.

Exhibition Programme 

Since 2009 Stour Space have hosted and organised over 150 exhibitions from local and emerging artists. With zero £ hire fee, we offer vital support and experience for emerging artists in terms of production, promotion and administration. Our exhibitions regularly feature as London's Top  and attractions and gains visitors from around the world.

Asset of Community Value Listed Building 

Stour Space became the UK's first art centre listed as an asset of community value (Localism Act 2011) and has since been listed a second time! As a forerunner in the use of these policies, we have tested out all the problems that they have and now serve as a unique example of how to change these national policies to be effective for true community empowerment.

HWFI Creative Enterprise Zone 

Hackney Wick & Fish Island is now one of London's first Creative Enterprise Zones. Stour Space is proud to have been part of the working group in partnership with local stakeholders, LLDC, Tower Hamlets & Hackney Council that developed the bid to win the CEZ. Further to this, Stour is a founding member of the HWFI Community Development Trust (CDT) a consortium of local cultural and civic venues and organisations working hard to effectively steer the CEZ.

Local Polling Station

Stour Space has been the polling station venue for local Tower Hamlets residents for the past few years, as one of the few accessible public buildings in the area we serve a wide range of needs and uses for the local community. Imagine the conversations sparked!

Educational Programmes

Alongside our programme of cultural events curated by our events team, we also organise and host numerous workshops/classes/courses. This ranges from creative classes - such as life drawing, flower arranging, creative writing and music/digital classes to educational facilities such as local universities using our space to conduct talks/discussions with students.

Health and Wellbeing

We have a weekly programme of yoga, meditation and gymnastics sessions that are aimed at the local community (of all ages). We encourage local practitioners to use our space for their classes and have hosted regular health/wellbeing/mental health sessions (such as massage, capoeira and yoga) for 6+ years. Each Wednesday we give our space for free to HW Life Drawing, a truly amazing project.

Raising Awareness and Local Campaigns

Our events and exhibition programme is predominantly focused on creative projects as well as raising awareness of issues such as women's rights, LGBTQ+, refugees, homeless and human rights. Over the years we have hosted a wide range of organisations such as Nasty Women UK, Sisssy, Femini Festival and ACE Rio.
Stour Space and its team have been involved in a number of local campaigns, creating effective and viable models to support community empowerment as well as meet authority objectives. #SaveHackneyWick #affordablewick #HWFICDT

Performance and Art Space
Stour has hosted over 1500 art and cultural events helping artists with free space in times when affordable venue spaces are scarce, making it hard for experimental and emerging performers to reach an audience. We are particularly interested in those who work in experimental and cross-disciplinary art, live art, sound art, audio visual performances, new media, those who run projects or develop work focused on diversity, social inclusion, displacement, and those who focus on empowering people from marginalised communities and minority groups through, art, culture, and creative skills development.

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DONATION PERKS

You can donate as much or as little as you like and by way of thanks we’d love you to come buy and let us treat you to some goodies! You don’t have to collect but we’d love to say thanks in person!

Yummy Stuff

Donate +£10 and come in for a coffee and pastry
Donate +£20 and we’ll get you a beer for you and a friend (or two for you, enough time to make some friends with the lovely people always around)
Donate +£30 and we’ll serve you up some brunch with a drink of your choice
Donate +£50 and we’ll serve you and a friend a champagne breakfast

Useful Space

Donate +£500 and you can book our meeting room for a day for up to 8 people including lunch and bottomless filter coffee

Donate +£1000 and you can book our beautiful mezzanine for a day for up to 15 people, including lunch and bottomless filter coffee

Donate +£2,500 and you can use the whole venue for a day or evening, great for conferences or special birthdays or company away days

Donate +£5,000 and you can use the whole venue from morning till night

Donate +£10,000 and we’ll throw in some amazing live art, performance and music! As well as some drinks!

Donate +£20,000 and we’ll have to think of something super special!!

NOTE: 

All tasty perks must be redeemed no later than 31st May 2019. Events can be booked up to 31st December 2019, contact [email protected] to discuss your event requirements and dates.
Stour Space will not knowingly accept donations from companies, organisations or individuals who are directly involved in or support activities that run contrary to our ethics and aims. These include companies, organisations or individuals who actively work against community empowerment, social justice, human rights, and whose activities are harmful to the environment and well-being of others.