The best of East End artistic talent showcases at Town Hall Hotel, London

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East London’s radical Town Hall Hotel, in the imposing former Bethnal Green Town Hall, and East London-based arts producers Artsadmin have announced that Phase II of their arts installation programme has been fully installed in the hotel. Following an open submission process, the seven artists selected to install the  new works in the hotel are Bernd Behr, Bethan Lloyd Worthington, Corinne Felgate, Kristian de la Riva, Michaela Nettell, Sarah Baker and Toby Christian.

Continuing the theme of collaborating with emerging creatives and organizations on all facets of the hotel, Town Hall’s founder Peng Loh first approached Artsadmin in early 2009 to launch an open commission scheme asking East London-based artists to submit pitches for a major series of site-sensitive artworks for the Grade II listed building. The traditional 1930s building now houses an array of work by artists involved in the first phase, including pieces by Peter Liversidge and Debbie Lawson.

It’s rare to be given so much freedom in a commissioning project and exciting to be involved as curators of artwork in a public building from the construction stage onwards. Rather than adding in some art almost as an afterthought, we are able to work on a long lead-in time with the artists, architects and building team to make sure that the artworks are sensitive to the context of the hotel, explore the rich history of the Town Hall building and Bethnal Green, and looks to the future embracing the local and the global
say Manick Govinda and Nikki Tomlinson of Artsadmin. 

For this particular series Artsadmin encouraged local artists to thematically explore works that convey the future, embracing exuberance, desire and the notion of hotels as transitory and utopian sites of pleasure and mobility. All artists selected had the prerequisite of living or working in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney or Newham, and had to have been making work for no longer than 10 years.   In collaborating with local artists, Peng Loh aims to give something back to the local East End community:

I really wanted Town Hall to be part of the local fabric and Artsadmin was right organisation to help me achieve this vision. Our criteria of working with artists that live or work in the area made sure that we engaged with local residents and young local artists and ensured this landmark building had relevance to the locality.

From 183 submissions a shortlist of nine artists were given a fee to develop their pitch further and given the opportunity to meet with project partners Artsadmin and Rare Architecture on site.  The final seven artists selected have each been commissioned to create several pieces for the hotel sharing a total commissioning budget of £99k.  Work will be launched in and up to the Spring of 2012.

Town Hall Hotel Apartments is located on Patriot Square. For further information visit  www.townhallhotel.com

          Artsadmin is a unique producing and presenting organization for contemporary artists working in theatre, dance, live art, visual arts and mixed media. For more information visit

www.artsadmin.co.uk