Bold Arts and music
Geraldine Pilgrim’s Well, which celebrated the history of the Sanofi manufacturing plant in Dagenham.
We work with people across the borough... getting more and more involved with the arts. It’s growing all the time
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Programme director, Miriam Nelken, says: “We work with people across the borough and so far we have pulled in about 110 people for the project, who we call cultural connectors. They range in age from about five to those in their 60s, and the concept relies partly on us going out and talking to people and partly on word of mouth. It’s an approach that really seems to have worked in terms of getting more and more people involved with the arts. It’s growing all the time.” Current commissions include a project by production company Close and Remote, who are making 50 one-minute films to look at the impact of global issues on the borough. Summer 2015 in Parsloes Park saw a performance of Artonik’s Colour of Time, a music and dance show with explosions of colourful powder – a reinvention of the traditional Indian Holi festival, a spring celebration also known as the Festival of Colours.
It was organised by CBD in July, as part of the One Borough Community Day festival and attracted crowds of almost 15,000. A production called Well was another major project. Artist Geraldine Pilgrim’s show told the story of the Sanofi manufacturing plant and its history through musical and dance performances, featuring choirs, line dancers, contemporary dance groups and strictly ballroom couples. Building on the success of initiatives such as the Ice House Quarter, the Boathouse and CBD, the council has now submitted a bid to the London Regeneration Fund for the borough to become a creative industries zone. If successful, this will provide the borough with workspace for the sector across a number of venues. It was a memorable summer in Barking and Dagenham. During the half a century since the borough was established, art and music have continued to spur change on both a social and reputational level. Longheld and inaccurate connotations of Barking and Dagenham as the run-down and dilapidated end of east London have been transformed by new and creative use of the borough’s spaces, which are attracting artistic entrepreneurs into the fold and fashioning a new legacy. But Barking and Dagenham is rightly proud of its history and the organisers of the 50th anniversary celebrations have been astute enough to understand that a big part of this heritage is in its musical past. The sounds of tribute act Pink Floyd UK in Central Park over the summer served as a reminder of the swirling psychedelia of the early 70s at the Dagenham Roundhouse; just as Billy Bragg singing in the Abbey Ruins about once helping to drive fascism out of his home town, reminded the locals of the borough’s colourful past. As more cultural events appear on the horizon and creative companies continue to discover its advantages, Barking and Dagenham’s artistic adventure continues apace.