26B Rathbone Market was a shop unit earmarked for demolition to make way for a new housing development During an interim period designated by contractors John SISK & Son, the unit was transformed into a temporary creative community hub which became known as Rosetta Rathbone Art Studios or RRAS. Consisting of an old public facing shop space, a kitchen area, two toilets, and back room storage spaces, it was a hive of lively activities with a range of programmes and initiatives from artists-in-residence, workshops, a gallery for exhibitions and venue for hosting special events for artists, families and school visits. This artistic intervention spanned two years providing rich cultural experiences and opportunities for thousands of local people, schools and groups of all ages.
Rathbone Market opened for trading on the Barking Road in 1963. Having moved from its previous location in Rathbone Street, this new site opened with 60 shops and 160 stalls. Much loved by the local community, the market has been an important part of the regeneration process. To make way for the developments during the transitional period the number of stalls, market days and size of the market were reduced. It was within this context that the opportunity came about, as part of the regeneration of Rathbone Market, led by the English Cities Fund & the London Borough of Newham.
Specifically, Phase One development of the Vermillion Building provided an opportunity to occupy 26B Rathbone Market, which had previously been a charity shop and was now vacant. After discussions with the London Borough of Newham, they were able to support the project by offering peppercorn rent, and John Sisk & Son gave in-kind support towards the initiative, helping to prepare the space for usage, paying the utility bills, as well as contributing towards some of the programme of events and provisions. The initiative came about to address a significant gap in creative provision for the local community whilst also fulfilling a need for creative engagement. Through an Arts Council England survey, Newham was identified as having one of the lowest levels of engagement within creative arts in the country; the survey included all forms of creative arts from dance, music, theatre, cinema and poetry as well as visual arts. Other areas in the borough have even lower levels of engagements, particularly in the visual arts. We set out to address this imbalance and to give the community of Canning Town and it surrounds the opportunity to engage with creative visual arts in their locale.
The full report about the project can be downloaded here.
Artists-In-Residence
RRAS was home to four local Newham based artists. Initially Richard Moon and Joanna Phelps both Royal Academy graduates – as residents with studio spaces in the rear of the old shop. They were later joined by multimedia artist Steve Marriott, who in 2012 used the old kitchen as his painting studio and textile artist Juliana Dugbatey who occupied the smaller office space.
The resident artists acted as the caretakers of the whole space: opening and closing the Rosetta Windows Gallery on weekdays and were also involved in some of the projects with Newham Visual Artists Network and the Young Newham Artists project in a mentoring capacity.
The residency opportunities offered artists a chance to develop their practice in a dedicated studio environment that they would not have been able to access elsewhere without incurring substantial artist studio fees. Each artist was also given an opportunity to showcase the work they developed as part of their residency with an exhibition in the Rosetta Windows Gallery which ran from November to December 2012.
