2025: A Recap
Thank you for supporting Art in the Docks in 2025
Another fantastic year in the books for our Art in the Docks community. In 2025, we delivered free artistic and cultural events to more than 6,000 Newham and East London residents. We partnered with more artists, schools, universities, local authorities, and grass-roots organizations to help make culture and art accessible to all. As we reflect on 2025, we look to 2026 with ambitions of connecting more people with their creativity.
At the heart of Art in the Docks’ 2025 programme was a commitment to making creativity part of everyday life. Through a wide range of free and open workshops, we strived to create welcoming spaces where people could arrive as they were and take part without pressure or prior experience.
Saturday Kids Club
The Saturday Kids Club became a familiar and trusted rhythm for many families. Week after week, children and carers gathered around tables covered in clay, fabric, paper, and paint, making everything from self-portraits and masks to sun-catchers, embroidery, candles, and marbled cards.
Nature in the Docks
Nature and care for the local environment surfaced through a programme of focussed activities that included the first ever Big Draw event in Newham. Themed as ‘Bee Friendly’ multiple drawing and planting workshops invited participants to engage with the natural environment around them and observe bees, flowers, and patterns in the natural world.
We also encouraged the Royal Docks communities to get their hands dirty, taking part in sunflower growing competitions, tomato planting and bulb planting projects, preparing people for a wide reaching community greening project: the Hanging Gardens of Beckton – One Balcony at a Time.
The fortnightly Sewing Bee workshops encouraged a mindful approach to making, using visible mending and upcycling techniques such as Sashiko to extend the life of clothing while sharing skills and stories across generations.
Creative Health and Wellbeing
Art in the Docks is pioneering Creative Health and Wellbeing activities in Newham, working with local communities and groups to co-design ‘best practise’ Creative Health and Wellbeing outcomes.
Our sessions offered a calm, social space where drawing, painting and textile design became a way to connect, reflect, and support one another. These fortnightly gatherings prioritised process over outcome, emphasising creativity as a tool for wellbeing rather than performance.
Heritage Projects
Art in the Docks looks to the past as a way of understanding the present. Through Bells & Whistles – a project that reflected the working history of the River Thames and the enclosed docks, participants responded creatively to historic photographs and stories from the Royal Docks, using print, paint, and drawing to explore personal and collective memory.
Collaboration with Art in the Docks
Collaboration was central to many of our projects. Compressor Housewarming: Royal Docks Reimagined brought lots of people from social groups around Newham together to construct a shared, three-dimensional cardboard model of the docks, transforming architectural memory into something playful and communal.
The Community Coat Project extended this spirit through slow, collective stitching inspired by bees, with each contribution becoming part of a larger, shared artwork.
Seasonal events like the Carnival Costume Makeover Day celebrated reuse and self-expression, as participants transformed old materials into vibrant costumes and headpieces.
Exhibitions and public events further expanded the programme’s reach. The Social Art of Braided Hair, presented David Sainsbury’s photographic work during Black History Month at the Beckton Globe Library, foregrounded braided hair as both cultural practice and artistic expression, creating space for reflection, recognition, and dialogue.
Partnerships played a key role throughout the year. From hosting conversations like The Creative Cure, which explored links between art and health, to contributing to the Royal Docks Originals Festival, Art in the Docks positioned community creativity within wider cultural conversations. Multi-day programmes during the Deputy Mayor’s Community Weekend further reinforced the organisation’s role as a connector, linking artists, residents, schools, and civic partners through hands-on creative activity.
Large-scale celebrations such as the Bells and Whistles community parades and Into the Night, the midwinter lantern procession, brought making into motion, art was carried through streets, lit from within, accompanied by music, performance, and cheer..
Video credit: Goodness Duru
Photo credit: David Swainsbury
A Big Thank You to our Funders, Supporters and Partnerships
Funders
Notting Hill Genesis, Royal Docks Trust, London Borough of Newham, DiNN, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Mayor of London, Culture Within Newham, Skinners Charitable Foundation
Commissions and partners
Royal Docks Team/GLA, University of East London, Culture within Newham, One Newham, Creative Newham, ELBA.
Corporate donors and sponsors
Standard Chartered, Tokio Marine, Chaucer Insurance, Financial Reporting Council, AXA, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
