Woodford Arts Group has been without a place to call home since Packfords Hotel closed last autumn. Here, group founder Julia Brett appeals to the community for help in their ongoing search for local exhibition space
Like the proverbial orphans, Woodford Arts Group is looking for a home again. Since the demise of Packfords Hotel, who gave us great support, we have found ourselves searching for suitable venues to hold our local exhibitions. So, this is an appeal to anybody who thinks they might be able to help us.
The Stow Brothers on George Lane have been a great help to our group and we had a small exhibition of our work on show in their office over the summer. They are very community-minded and that’s just what we’re searching for now.
Woodford Arts Group was started as there was no local focus for artists. The Woodford Arts Trail was well meant, but biannual, and didn’t feature artists that well. Recently, a Redbridge Arts Trail was mooted, but it soon became apparent this is very much Ilford-based and that’s where any funding and exhibition space would be directed, a common complaint for us ‘orphan’ wards on the periphery of the borough. Vision RCL have so far been little or no help, and it’s a morass of box-ticking, demanding we must be an incorporated body.
So, an appeal was put out to our local councillors and Ian Duncan Smith MP. We suggested the very underused Sir James Hawkey Hall foyer could be utilised by us and other residents. A good idea that even a former Redbridge mayor agreed with when he opened our first exhibition at Packfords in 2019. Duncan Smith replied and agreed, so he followed it up and was referred back to, yes, you’ve guessed it, Vision RCL, who have not replied, yet again.
Beyond that, what is next? We have been very active trying to find spaces that allow us to use them in our unique way. We are an easel exhibition, which means we do not affect the fabric of any space and we have our own stands to hang work. We steward each exhibition and the artists love to meet the public. As a group, pre-COVID, we wanted to start offering some art sessions locally en plein air and hope to get that in operation sometime soon.
So, what have we tried? We’ve tried church halls, but they have so many community events on, they can’t accommodate us for more than an afternoon. Local restaurants and pubs can’t help us, even when we’ve offered to pay to hire the rooms. They get so much more money for a wedding or birthday party, so we can’t argue with that.
We try to keep to Woodford, but we may have to become WAGs on tour to show our work! It’s a shame because our unique selling point is local artists wanting to exhibit to local people. So, can you help to keep us local? Do you have a space where we could hold a pop-up exhibition? Do get in touch with any ideas.
For more information on Woodford Arts Group, visit swvg.co.uk/wag
