Uma Kumaran MP at Bow Arts
Bowfest: Open Studios was a weekend of connection, celebrating 30 years of art and local community, and supporting Bow Arts’ mission to provide affordable studios for artists–now and into the future.
During the celebration, Uma Kumaran MP visited artists across the Bow Road site to ask questions, and understand more about the work of artists in her constituency.
Sculptor Andrzej Szymczyk creates figurative works from his studio at Bow Arts, which he has held for nearly 10 years. We asked him about his conversation with Uma after Bowfest:
“I felt genuinely honoured to host Uma Kumaran at my studio during Bowfest Open Studios. She was a warm, inquisitive presence and seemed sincerely interested and moved by my sculptures. There happened to be quite a number of bronzes gathered in the workshop at the time, so there was plenty for her to take in.
It was a real pleasure to welcome Uma, and I hope the visit offered a meaningful glimpse into the realities of artistic practice in Bow. I’d like to think it helped her form a clearer picture of the value and vibrancy of our creative community.”
In a speech at the Nunnery Gallery to launch our 30th anniversary exhibition, Uma Kumaran MP pledged support for Bow Arts’ work and our artist community:
“I get to do lots of interesting things as an MP, and one of my favourite things was coming visiting and listening and speaking with Marcel and the team.
You don’t leave here without a smile on your face. You feel the love, you feel the vibrancy and you feel the real passion and determination. It’s so important, not just in terms of our mental health, but what you are bringing to east London is invaluable.
Often the arts is looked at as a nice to-do. It’s actually so much more than that—you are revitalising east London, you are keeping culture and creative artists alive. And actually, economically, the arts bring in 100 billion pounds to the UK every year. That is a huge sum of money.
It’s so sad that it’s not often looked at as a viable future, or something you can succeed in—and not just succeed, but excel in. What Bow Arts does is put new and emerging artists— and not so new and emerging artists— people, on the map, to be creative, explore and to make mistakes and try again, with a community that supports your creativity.”
The Bow Open: Connections brings together artists from across Bow Arts’ Learning programmes and studio sites, and affordable housing schemes. For our 30th year, the Nunnery Gallery has invited three longstanding members of our studio community back to Bow Arts to curate the annual exhibition. Bobby Baker, Albert Potrony, Nye Thompson have selected a showcase of work that touches upon relationships with the body, family, and friends while also examining the global connections that bind communities, nations, systems, and natural forces in a complex web.
See the speech live on Bow Arts’ Instagram, visit the Bow Open at the Nunnery Gallery before August 31, or find out more about Bow Arts’ upcoming open studios events here.
