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Barking Open Studios: Bow Arts x The Boathouse Studios
Saturday 17th May 2025 , 10:00am to 4:00pm
Join the artists working every day at our Barking studios for a spectacular artist-led Open Studios. Meet the inspiring creatives inside the studios and explore the work on display. We are excited to announce we will be opening our doors alongside The Boathouse Studios!
Across one day, 30 artists across our studios will be open to the public for Bow Arts’ upcoming open studios. Our artists in Barking are especially innovative and entrepreneurial with their practices, featuring the work of leather makers, prop makers, textile artists, sculptors, photographers and fashion designers. The joint event with The Boathouse Studios offers a unique opportunity to connect with talented artists and experience their work up close. Our Barking studios are formed of two buildings: Ice House Court and Riverside Mills.
Both studios, alongside The Boathouse Studios, will be open to the public on Saturday 17th May.
All are invited to join us for a day of creative workshops, and an exhibition at The Boathouse Studios. Further information below on artist-led workshops running throughout the day.
For our 30th anniversary, we have a series of Open Studios events happening across the year. Please join us to celebrate! Find out more here.
Featuring artists
Tom Coates, Alice Hsieh, Laura Johnson/Jilted Quilts, Georgia Gough, Liam Stonier McDonald, Rachel Bailey, Sophia Daly Rossin, Ian Kirkpatrick, Thierry Boissard, Uzo Okwuosa/Frank Horn, Lucy Ali / Haus Decor Ltd, Laura I. Art Gallery and more.
Workshop: Creative Iron-On Repair Patches from Scraps with Jilted Quilts
1.00pm – 2.00pm
Instead of saying goodbye to your favourite garments, learn how to mend them with style! Visitors to the open studios are invited to join Laura from Jilted Quilts for a fun and eco-conscious workshop, reclaiming textiles and transforming fabric scraps into unique and eye-catching iron-on repair patches.
In this hands-on session, you’ll discover how to:
- Explore Laura’s scrap stash: Learn how to identify suitable reclaimed fabrics and other textile bits for patch-making.
- Design your patch: Get creative with shapes, colours, and textures to create a patch that reflects your personal style.
- Master the iron-on technique: Discover the simple steps to create a durable iron-on backing for your fabric creations.
- Add your personal touch: Embellish your patch with simple hand-stitching or other reclaimed materials for extra flair.
No prior sewing experience is necessary – just bring your enthusiasm and a willingness to get creative! All materials, including a vibrant selection of fabric scraps, fusible webbing, and basic tools, will be provided. You’ll leave with one or more unique iron-on repair patches ready to mend your beloved clothes with a touch of artistic flair and a commitment to sustainability.
Free, drop in | Family-friendly
Meet The Artists
Georgia Gough
Georgia is a seamstress, pattern-cutter and designer with a technical background in luxury design, teaching, and costume for film. Recently, she returned to education completing an MA at London College of Fashion, kick-starting her design journey. Her work celebrates the value of craft through research that challenges exploitative practices and champions makers and their histories. Her latest collection draws inspiration from Scottish witch trials, experimental pattern cutting, workwear details, and 16th-century clothing. Using needlework embroidery and patchwork techniques, Georgia honours skilled craftsmanship while promoting sustainability and learning through waste reduction in her community workshops.
Alice Hsieh
Alice Hsieh is a Brazilian poet and artist of Taiwanese heritage with a background in architecture. In Alice’s art, Alice explores experimental photography paired with poetry, focusing on minimalist design and challenging the mind’s deceptions. She aims to capture visually insignificant aspects of life that evoke discomfort, inviting viewers to reconsider their perceptions of reality. She previously worked at C.F. Møller, a Scandinavian firm, contributing to the design of NHS mental health hospitals, including facilities for the Forensic Psychiatric Unit and the Eating Disorder Hospital.
Tom Coates
Tom Coates is a sculptor and performance artist, making objects having an identity crisis and performing attempts to meet them where they’re at. At the start of this year Tom was on a residency at Bow Art’s creative space in Soho, Shaftesbury Avenue.
Thierry Boissard
Thierry is a self-taught photographer with an interest for the mundane, the over-looked taken for granted daily objects we surround ourselves in our daily lives.
Thierry takes pictures of “things” to see what they will look like once photographed.
Will they reveal their inherent beauty to the viewer ?
Lucy Ali / Haus Decor Ltd
Haus is a bespoke interior décor studio rooted in minimalist luxury and earthy elegance. We specialise in artisanal floral preservation and custom canvas art, each piece thoughtfully handcrafted to capture timeless beauty. No two designs are the same—offering one-of-a-kind creations that elevate interiors with meaning and style, far from anything mass-produced. Haus is where nature meets refined design.
Laura I. Art Gallery
Laura I. Art Gallery is a multi-award-winning contemporary art space led by visionary artist Laura Iosifescu. On the Open Day, visitors can experience some of Laura’s breathtaking artworks, known for their vibrant textures and kinetic elements that create an immersive, sensory journey. The gallery is also home to the popular environmental project Noah’s Ark, a community-driven initiative inspiring climate action through creativity. Discover how art meets activism, explore powerful visual storytelling, and learn how you can get involved in building a greener, more connected future through the gallery’s imaginative, hands-on approach to making art matter.
Rachel Bailey
I have been in Barking for three years. The studio has been a place to explore materials and develop some new ideas about symbolic journeys through forest and labyrinth – from edge to centre. I’ve been working with textiles, brambles and cardboard.
Laura Johnson: Jilted Quilts
Laura is a textile artist with a decade-long passion for transforming reclaimed, second-hand, and discarded fabrics. Through intricate techniques honed in workshops and self-led exploration, she creates one of a kind art quilts, functional quilts, and distinctive soft furnishings, driven by a commitment to environmental sustainability and the inherent beauty of repurposed materials. Laura has been at our Barking studio since September of last year.
Sophia Daly Rossin
I’m an Italian/Scottish sculptor from Bristol, and I’ve been living in London for the past 10 years. I work in the film industry, bespoke and commercial art fabrication. I freelance as a sculptor, prop maker, and all-around creative maker.
My post-college education was mostly hands-on and traditional. I spent three years in Venice and then five years in Barcelona, studying and working with well-known artists. I’m currently working on a series with mythological, surreal-looking creatures composed from a collage of sculpts & casts from the natural world. There’s a strong emphasis on preserving and capturing their natural textures and patterns.
Access information
All studio blocks have step-free access throughout from street level, including to the accessible toilet, and is service animal friendly. This venue does not have a hearing loop system.
Accessible parking is currently available, and if required please contact our studios team for more information via property@bowarts.com.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility at this venue or event, would like to make us aware of any access requirements that you have in advance of visiting, or would like this information in an alternate format including Easy Read, please call 020 8980 7774 (Ext. 3).
The exhibition is also step-free access, taking place at The Boathouse Studios, First Floor, The Malthouse, 62-76 Abbey Road.
Transport Information
56 Ground Floor, Ice House Court, Abbey Road, Barking, IG11 7BT
Nearest station(s): Barking (District and Hammersmith & City, London Overground, National Rail)
Bus: 62, 325, 366
Parking: No Parking
Bike: No Bike storage. Ground floor access will allow you to take your bike indoors.
