Creative Barking & Dagenham: Neighbourhood Commission

The Creative Barking & Dagenham programme is bringing artists together with local communities for exciting creative adventures and experiments that aim to leave a lasting positive legacy in the area. It will take place from 2014 to 2016.

The project on the Marks Gate Estate in Barking & Dagenham is part of the Neighbourhood Commissions strand of the programme. The commission places artists at the heart of communities in the borough, engaging with people and place on an intimate level over a period of 6 months and with a depth of focus, responding to local priorities and testing out different models of co-creation.

Artist Sadia Ur-Rehman will be working closely with the communities of Marks Gate from April till September 2014 to create art in their neighbourhood, instigated by the people living there; the project aims to challenge preconceptions about where art takes place and who it’s by, and for. She will be testing ideas about the role and value of the arts in this context. She plans to use a series of pop-up events and art activities across the estate to engage local residents.

The programme is generously funded by the Arts Council’s ‘Creative People and Places’ fund and Barking & Dagenham Council.