OPEN STUDIOS 2024, PART OF OPEN HOUSE LONDON

On Saturday 21 September 2024, Alice Billing House had its first Open Studios as part of the Open House Festival. We welcomed over 70 visitors who enjoyed perusing the studios and meeting our resident artists as well as joining our community stitch project, The Supper Cloth.

Visitors explored our historic, former fireman’s accommodation, building which was renovated into 11 artist studios, and opened in January 2024. Guests got the opportunity to talk and buy directly from the makers and creatives. We also encouraged people to visit the North Block and behold Andy Mac Manus's recently installed artwork installation. Taking inspiration from the building's firefighting history, Andy produced a series of 12 painted panels which were installed over the existing boarded-up windows, adding interest, intrigue, and art to this soon-to-be-renovated block.

We also invited people to sit down, slow down, and feed their creativity through stitching and co-creating a communal piece of embroidered art, The Supper Cloth, our community stitch art project. This facilitated embroidery event is based around the large 3-meter embroidery table with a printed cloth designed with iconography relating to the history of Alice Billing House and Newham. Participants, many from the local Newham community explored a wealth of embroidery stitches, many staying for over an hour.

Thank you to everyone who took part in and visited us this year! We look forward to the next one in September 2025!