Celebrating 100 years of Edgware

Edgware
Centenary Programme

Public art organisation, UP Projects are working closely with Barnet Council to curate a programme of artist-led activities to celebrate 100 years of Station Road in Edgware, North London. The programme, that consists of a series of events and a new public artwork, will take place throughout 2023, activating public spaces and places along Station Road and beyond.

The programme is developed in close collaboration with a host of key partners and local stakeholders including Barnet Council, the London Festival of Architecture, the emerging Business Improvement District, Middlesex University, Ballymore, Transport for London as well as local Edgware-based community groups, businesses and youth centres. Read on to hear more about the events we have planned and the development of the new artwork on Edgware High Street.

London Festival of Architecture

Local collective, Adrienne Lau, Daniella Levene, and Leila Taheri won the LFA competition ‘More Edgware, Less Anywhere’ with ‘Let’s Meet on the Edge’: a new public realm installation in Edgware that tests ideas for re-greening the town centre. Their interventions – Creating a Buzz at Edgware Station, Planting Life at Garden City, and Breaking Bread at Bakery Path – aim to excite, enliven, and remind us of our commonality with nature and each other.

The London Festival of Architecture was brought to the whole borough for the first time this year and  lots went on in Edgware including talks planned in Edgware Library exploring architecture connected to the northern line. To find out more visit The London Festival of Architecture.

Events Programme

Events celebrating Edgware’s past, present and potential futures will take place throughout 2023 involving artists in exploring how culture can activate the High Street and permeate the local context to contribute to social change.

The events programme is an opportunity to celebrate Edgware’s history and heritage and allow people to come together through artist-led activity. Our aim is also that they proactively contribute to what Edgware is today – the communities that live and work in the area, the organisations and groups that are already established such as the local library, Middlesex University and independently owned business along the high street.

The centenary events programme will culminate with a community-led performance developed by artist, Emma Smith. The performance will be informed by a prolonged engagement period that will focus on working with community members to create a highly participatory performance project. As part of the centenary events programme, artist, Ruth Beale will activate the public space in front of Edgware Library through a weekend of activities in September 2023. Designed to explore how this currently underused space can be reclaimed by the local community, Ruth Beale will work closely with Edgware Library to curate a series of events and activities that can be used as a catalyst to inspire future use of this space.

The Edgware Mural

Artist Holly Graham has been selected to develop a mural located at 158 Station Road, a prominent location on the high street which will be launched in late 2023.The mural will explore the climate emergency through the lens of access to clean air and green space – calling for greater awareness and action. The project has been developed through a participatory process that has, to date involved over 100 young people local to Edgware through a series of workshops led by Holly Graham. During these workshops young people learned how to use creative wordplay and collage to create their own advertising posters that promoted a vision for a green future for Edgware. Sessions were held with FUSE Youth group at Stonegrove Community Trust, Year 4 students at Edgware Primary School, and Year 10 students at Northgate School, as well as at a drop-in session for the public at Edgware Library. An interim installation titled, Edgware is a site for… showcasing scaled up versions of campaign posters created by local young people during these workshops will go on display at 158 Station Road from November 2023. The posters represent a curated selection of over 75 posters that were created by young people during the workshop process.

Accompanying the installation is a digital display of images from the workshops which are displayed on the digital billboard located directly in front of the wall. The interim poster installation is printed on environmentally friendly blue-black paper and pasted onto the wall. The wall will then be painted with a clear pollution absorbing topcoat. production of the mural.

Holly Graham is a London-based artist whose work looks at ways in which memory and narrative shape collective histories.