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Organised by Holborn Community AssociationCaragh Thuring is inscribing a public artwork into the new building by 6a Architects which will bring visibility and identity to Holborn Community Association for the first time.
Closed 20/11/2020
Our targets increased mid appeal but even so we were able to make the 39k needed with your amazingly immediate and generous support. The two storey etched glazed facade artwork is now in production. The offline donations & giftaid are included below. We will be closing this page at the end of the week. If you have donated and have not already been personally thanked and would like email updates of the work please send your email address to lucy@6a.co.uk .
It is 100 years since Holborn Community Centre began life, first as Holborn boy's club in the early 1920s and since 1989 as Holborn Community Association (HCA), a grassroots neighbourhood organisation, where it has flourished under the care of HCA's wholly voluntary community board.
We are now delighted to announce that our Lambs Conduit Street home is being rebuilt by internationally established, Camden based, 6a architects, who have created a luminous new building for the 21st century. Caragh Thuring, an artist with an international reputation for the storytelling iconographies of her paintings is embedding a public artwork into the fabric of the new building to bring visibility and identity to the centre for the first time.
Thuring's artwork is etched into the full height and width of the buildings glass façade, a woven frieze lining the gym/events hall and in metalwork and colours throughout. It is in the new sign designed with John Morgan studios and the light and the bench and planting onto the passageway that welcomes you in.
Thuring brings the rich and varied story of the centre and its community to light uncovering the visual iconographies of the area. The irregular mortar of different brick bonds is etched softly into the glass façade in a slender dark metal framing, creating a portrait with names and symbols of people and places inscribed across it, telling the story of its past and future. She creates a deeply associative feel, taking you back to the many eras of brickwork in the area, making a metal profile feel like it's been there for 300 years, a Georgian Meccano of sorts, but also a 19thC brick warehouse or a lantern glowing softly, its interior activities glimpsed through the ghosted brick wall.
HCA will continue to be a home to social, sporting and cultural provision in the neighbourhood and as throughout its history, promoting grassroots development to provide accessible, affordable opportunities that reflect the needs of the community, from under 5s to over 95s. The new low energy, fully accessible building will allow HCA to increase their support from 1000 to 1500 people a week. It will also be available for hire, with new spaces allowing us to engage with more audiences and become more financially independent.
Holborn has a strong community, but it also has a notably high poverty rate, with over 42% of children living below the poverty line, compared to 28% across the rest of the UK. 74% of Holborn residents are on the deprivation register, and 48.2% of those over 65 live alone. Holborn Community Association plays a crucial role in providing services to the local community, and in an area as diverse as Holborn is fundamentally important to social cohesion and neighbourhood support. Thanks to the generous support of Camden Council, the GLA Good Growth Fund, Sports England and Marathon Trust, Power to Change, City Bridge Foundation, Garfield Weston and others, HCA has managed to secure significant funding for the construction of the essential building fabric.
Caragh Thuring's work is shown and collected around the world, and included in the collections of Tate, the Government Art Collection and the Arts Council. We feel incredibly lucky to have her work for the community on this building. The Arts Council have supported the development of her work for HCA with a grant.
Caragh Thuring, Snake Wall, 2018
I am always pleased to see quality public artwork. It shows that the space is cared for, valued and loved. It gives a uniqueness to the space and if done well, is always a joy to see. The built environment can be a cold place, often constructed at lowest cost to be functional and no more. Artwork shows that the place is appreciated by the people who use it and think it worthy of higher meaning, more than just a postal address. J. over 55s community resident and HCA member
The project is on site and due to be finished in spring 2021. It is a pivotal moment in securing the final funding for the Public Artwork of the etched glazed façade and artists building components.
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