MyPlace, Platform Festival & LIFT Launch

Islington Council secured £3.5 million of MyPlace funding (a DCSF fund managed by Big Lottery) to develop Platform - a new, world-class performing arts centre for young people, in the old laundry rooms and washhouse of Hornsey Road Baths, which opened in Summer 2011.

The centre aims to make a real difference to the lives and prospects of young people in the area, raising their ambitions and aspirations. All Change employed and managed 14 Young Advisors aged 16-25, working alongside a team of artists including Sarah Butler, Yemisi Blake and Abdul Shayek - to carry out a creative consultation with young people and the local community to make sure the building met their needs. The Young Advisors, supported by All Change, worked as the design team with the architects Van Heynigen and Haward and designer Morag Myerscough to design the new centre based on the consultation findings. To launch the new centre, All Change led a year-long project from 2010 onwards, which culminated in July 2011 with the Platform Festival – a 2-week arts festival co-produced with and for young people. The festival showcased exhibitions, performances and events created as part of a programme of outreach projects from local arts companies including: - Sadler’s Wells, National Youth Theatre, Candoco Dance Company, Scarabeus, Company 3, Film and Video Workshop, Almeida Projects, Apples and Snakes, Free Word, Shape, Islington Music Forum and Little Angel Puppet Theatre. Platform Festival aimed to establish partnerships and build relationships with the local arts community and young people - involving over 2000 young people aged 13-19 and reaching audiences of over 15,000 - and to establish a vision for the future of the new space. In 2012, Artists Carl Stevenson, Mila Sanders, Esther Yarnold and Yemisi Blake worked with young people ahead of the launch of Platform’s sister youth hub - LIFT to develop an ‘I am’ poem to capture the centre’s healthy living aspirations and to design and create interior artworks and furnishings for the entrance and ground floor.

Photo by Sorrel Foundation