LONDON.- CREATE and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, are pleased to present this year’s winner, Robin Turner Roam, with a mobile arts space-come-reading-room that will celebrate a slower pace of life and encourage a playful discovery of local landscape and heritage as part of this summer’s CREATE10 Festival.
CREATE10, 19 June - 1 August, is an arts festival that celebrates the unrivalled wealth of home-grown, world class artistic talent that thrives in the Olympic Host Boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest . East and South East London is home to Europe’s cultural quarter and the CREATE festival is a partnership of over 100 arts organisations including The Barbican, Whitechapel Gallery, 02, Arts Admin, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Punchdrunk, Arcola, Chisenhale Gallery and Greenwich and Docklands International Festival.
The Bank of America Merrill Lynch CREATE Art Award is a core CREATE project and is the largest participatory art award in the UK, giving artists who reside in the Host Boroughs an opportunity to win an award of £40,000 to involve local people in the realisation of a public art commission.
From 1 – 22 July, Roam will present a rural adventure across East London ’s rapidly changing urban landscape in a specially commissioned roaming vehicle. From fishing to wild swimming, bird watching to foraging, nature trails to map making, nature photography and field recording, Roam will uncover East London ’s natural gems in the most unexpected places. Each evening, Roam will become the smallest arts space in London presenting acoustic gigs, DJ sets and audio installations, and readings and talks from local authors on East London ’s art and history.
Roam will feature musical, conversational and practical contributions from Will Hodgkinson (’The Ballad Of Britain’); Chris Watson (Sound Recordist for David Attenborough; Touch Recordings); Ian Vince (’The Lie Of The Land’); Ceri Levy (The Bird Effect); folk trio The Kittiwakes; Paul Kingsnorth (‘Real England’ / The Dark Mountain Project); author Luke Jennings (‘Blood Knots’ / The Observer); Grasscut (Ninja Tune); The Outdoor Swimming Society; local angling historian John Andrews (Andrews of Arcadia) and The Seahawks (Pete Fowler and Jon Tye).
Rena Desisto, Global Arts and Heritage executive, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said: “CREATE Art is an exemplary community project that successfully provides free access to arts projects for local East and South East London communities. Through CREATE, local residents have developed a deeper understanding of their communities’ history and landscape – providing clear evidence that art plays an invaluable role in binding communities together. This is something our company strongly believes in, and it is fantastic to see this working in practice.”
“Bank of America Merrill Lynch wishes to congratulate Robin Turner on his exciting winning entry, Roam. His work is a just one example of the broad range of artistic talent in East London and helps to firmly place the region at the heart of London ’s cultural map.”
Robin Turner’s curatorial expertise stems from years working in the music industry and editing magazines and books. Most recently, as part of a collaborative project with Director Kieran Evans (Finisterre) Robin was shortlisted to the final five in the Artists Taking The Lead competition for Wales . Robin has co-founded the angling, nature and culture website Caught By The River and edited the spin off book – subtitled Words on Water which collected first hand tales of life on the banks written exclusively by friends of the site, including Irvine Welsh, Bill Drummond, Chris Watson and Jarvis Cocker. In 2008, Robin co-wrote and edited The Rough Pub Guide, was published by Orion.
In his past life Robin spent two decades working in the music, first as a press officer facilitating the careers of bands such as The Chemical Brothers and Primal Scream and then in 1994, he conceived and set up The Heavenly Sunday Social club night. He is co-creator of The Social, a central London bar and performance space which is still going strong some 11 years after opening.
