Strategic Aims and Policies
The public resource of Gillett Square is open for creative interpretation as a local, London-wide and international location. Its regular use as a venue for enterprise and cultural activities is crucial for its positive impact on the local economy.
The formal programming of cultural activities by its management group Gillett Squared will be determined through ongoing conversations between local organizations, arts producers, professional artists, acclaimed musicians, and other established creative practitioners from all walks of life and from all over the world. The square offers an important opportunity to inspire new audiences to a range of cultural activity through access to free public events.
Gillett Squared is now developing and participating in a Dalston Arts Hub, which aims to promote collaborative work between creative organizations in the area for their mutual benefit. Key founding partners are the Rio Cinema, the Arcola Theatre and the Vortex Jazz Club, with future plans to extend this resource to the many other creative groups working in this geographical area.
Gillett Squared is also consulting with a number of key local community groups including representatives of Age Concern, Colvestone Primary School, Hackney Council for Voluntary Services and the Learning Trust.
It is a key aim to ensure that Gillett Square is a place which is open to all members of the local community to enjoy. To that end, a proposal for a street drinking ban was given unanimous support through local consultation and has come into force in January 2008. This should lay the ground for many of the arts and enterprise activities for this square to attract regular users and participants from all sections of the community. These current conditions are particularly pertinent to the successful use of the square for markets.
This process to formally designate Gillett Square as a street trading location is currently underway in partnership with London Borough of Hackney. The plans for a market here, complementary to the nearby Ridley Road market, are focused around the following aims, for which much consultation has already been undertaken:
- to create a place where people can relax at lunchtime/afternoons and purchase affordable, healthy food (meals, snacks, hot drinks, smoothies) whilst having space for children to play. This would extend the current offer of hot food stalls and the exterior café of Little Sardegna restaurant into a more general outdoor eating venue.
- a regular carbon neutral market exposing a range of new innovations and technologies for more sustainable living
- Saturday games event incorporating a food market as described above. Developing the Community Games Day 2007 model (more information about this can be seen on our Previous Events page)
- weekly Sunday ‘music market’ incorporating live performance programmed by the Vortex amongst others
A key milestone target for 2008 is to see Gillett Square playing a significant role as a Cultural Olympiad venue, showcasing East London’s diversity and creative energies in a series of special events.
Funding is currently being sought to meet all these aspirations from public, private and charitable sources. Please contact us if you are interested in assisting with this crucial area of our work.
The current draft business plan for realizing these aims can be downloaded here
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Gillett Squared is the management group led by Hackney Co-operative Developments for arts and enterprise projects on Gillett Square.
