THE ALICE BILLING HOUSE BLOG
Follow the journey of Alice Billing House as it evolves from an empty space on Stratford’s High Street to creative home to artists with a community-arts project space.
MONIKA SZOLLE: ALICE BILLING HOUSE’S PHOTOGRAPHER IN RESIDENCE
Monika Szolle has been Alice Billing House’s photographer-in-residence for 2024.
OPEN STUDIOS 2024, PART OF OPEN HOUSE LONDON
On Saturday 21 September 2024, Alice Billing House had its first Open Studios. We welcomed over 70 visitors who enjoyed perusing the studios or our resident artists as well as joining our community stitch project The Supper Cloth.
THE SUPPER CLOTH: COMMUNITY STITCH ART PROJECT
Over 3 weeks in September, we ran our community stitch art project, The Supper Cloth. A collaborative piece of embroidery art created by the residents of Newham.
SOMATIC MOVEMENT WITH AYEBAINEMI ABIEYUWA ÉSE
On 23 August 2024, Ayebainemi Abieyuwa ése’s (they/them) held a somatic workshop that explored how our identities can displace us from our local surroundings and communities and how we can create tools of resistance that help us transmute that loss and grief.
FUTURE OF ALICE BILLING HOUSE
Find out about the artist behind the new window panels in the North Block as well as the history and future plans of Alice Billing House.
ANDY MAC MANUS - WINDOW INSTALLATION
Andy Mac Manus, a local Newham artist and designer has been part of Grow Studios’ artist-in-residency programme at Alice Billing House in Stratford in which he designed, created, and installed original artwork for the windows of the building.
SUPPER CLOTH - MAKING ART THROUGH COMMUNITY STITCHING 16 - 27 SEPTEMBER
We’re inviting people to sit down, slow down, and feed their creativity through stitching and co-creating a communal piece of embroidered art!
POETIC MOVEMENT WITH CHLOE FILANI
On a Sunday afternoon in June, interdisciplinary artist, performer and writer, Chloe Filani, hosted a somatic movement and writing-focused workshop at Alice Billing House to explore themes surrounding queer identity as it intersects with the historical roots of the local area.
MAKE AN ARTIST APRON OUT OF A SHIRT
On 16 June studio holder Laura Holland led a workshop where participants brought a favourite but unloved shirt and transformed it into a useful and trendy cross-back artist apron.
ZINE MAKING WORKSHOP
Zine Making Workshop on the 12 June. Back in the day, before the internet, with a pair of scissors, glue sticks and the humble photocopier, enthusiasts around the globe communicated via a world of DIY fanzines, posters and flyers!
PLACES, SPACES AND FACES
Local residents joined us for afternoon workshop ‘Places, Spaces and Faces’ This fun, free, digital self-portrait activity explored Alice Billing House, as part of Newham Heritage Month.
OPENING ALICE BILLING HOUSE
Grow Studios together with the Creative Land Trust were pleased to mark the official launch of Alice Billing House on Tuesday 4 June 2024
ONE-DAY BASKET MAKING
On May 11 we had our first free workshop for Newham residents where studio holder Faye Gosling facilitated a One-Day Basket Making Workshop in our Project Space .-
PLANTING WILDFLOWER -STUDIO HOLDER MEET-UP
An afternoon of planting wildflowers with studio holders
PROJECT SPACE FOR COMMUNITY HIRE
The Project Space at Alice Billing House in Stratford is a self-contained room within the studios which is available to studio holders, local community groups, and individuals of Newham for meetings, community engagement, learning and outreach activities.
ARTISTS FILL THE STUDIO SPACE
Grow Studios moved into Alice Billing House in January 2024 and since then, the main focus has been to fill the studio spaces with artists, with a focus on those who are also residents of Newham.
IN OUT EXHIBITION
As part of Alice Billings Connects, University of East London (UEL) students curated a new exhibition - In Out - at Gerry Raffles Square in Stratford from 27 January to 25 February 2024.
LIGHT UP STRATFORD
As part of a cultural programme along Stratford High Street to reinvigorate interest in Alice Billing House, in December 2023, Hive Creates commissioned Irish artist Andy Mac Manus to design artworks to showcase in the windows at The Westbridge Hotel and XIX Nineteen Cafe.
WHAT IS HOME TO YOU?
To celebrate South Asian Heritage month 2023, as part of the Alice Billings Connects programme, Hive Curates teamed up with local Newham based photographer Sylvie Belbouab to capture the stories and images of South Asian women in Newham.