A day of workshops for London's culture and community spaces
At the end of November 2022, the Mayor of London’s Culture and Community Spaces at Risk office ran a ‘Skills Forum’ - a pilot event where 30 at risk organisations from across London attended 30-minute introductory workshops on a range of topics. These included workshops on engaging your local authority, how to navigate planning, filming and archiving your work, alternative business models and re-imagining governance. The sessions were led by a brilliant group of facilitators including Principal planning officer at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Rikki Weir, Co-founder of film co-operative, not / nowhere, Taylor LeMelle, Chair of the Friends of the Joiners Arms, Amy Roberts, cultural producer, Sara Dos Santos and writer, producer and development manager at Camden People’s Theatre, Tom Ryalls.
The ‘Skills Forum’ was an opportunity for organisations to gain new skills, share insights and network with one another. In many instances, culture and community spaces in the North London are facing the same challenges as organisations in the South – but neither space is aware of one another. One of the exciting outcomes of the ‘Skills Forum’ was to connect different groups and enable them to forge organic links to share advice and or resources beyond the event.
Many of the organisations in attendance are the heartbeat of the city, they are often on the frontlines, and this was a space for them to vent, breathe and take solace in the idea of strength in numbers. As participants introduced themselves, one attendee remarked that a ‘a problem shared is a problem halved,’ a sentiment embodied throughout the afternoon.
Alongside the workshops, we had a live scribe, Somang Lee, brilliantly illustrate some of the headline insights from each group and a photographer, Eric Aydin-Barberini on hand to capture some of the fun. After the success of our inaugural ‘Skills Forum’, we’ll be planning further in-person ‘Skills Forum’ sessions with colleagues from across the GLA and external partners.