Inspired by Newham’s Year of the Young Person, and its themes of Hope and Celebration, the iOi worked with 100s of young people across the Borough to bring their ideas to life. The Big Build celebrated the extraordinary contributions of young people across Newham, using our creative programmes to empower them with the opportunity to begin rebuilding their cultural community, together.
The reach of this special programme was immense: 2000 children and young people across 14 schools were involved in the creation of the project across its 7 locations including Westfield Stratford City, Queen’s Market, East Ham Library, Beckton Globe Library, Thames Barrier Park. Its reach was also widespread with 60,000 members of the public and a digital reach of 120,000 during the month of June.
“The project is really clever, it had our students enthusiastically folding paper to create their geometric shapes into small 3D models, which then led them to work collectively to connect their small shapes to form their one large whole school sculpture.
“It incorporated lessons in maths, science, technology, engineering, and art rolled up in one – Deputy Head Teacher
“I learned that it’s good to be hopeful and to try my best. Our tower fell over, and that taught me that sometimes things don’t work out the way you first thought. I also learned that I can just keep trying, I can just build it again.” – Year 3 student
The Big Build – the iOi’s launch event into our new home in Newham was a public sculpture project devised with 2000 primary school students resulting in 7 large-scale sculptures erected in key civic centres across Newham.
Inspired by the themes of Hope and Celebration as part of Newham’s 2021 Year of the Young Person, The Big Build celebrated the extraordinary contributions of young people across Newham, using our creative programmes to empower them with the opportunity to begin rebuilding their cultural community, together. The reach of this special programme was immense: 60,000 members of the public, 58 classrooms across 24 schools, and a digital reach of 120,000 during the month of June.
Using unique modular cardboard designs from Netherlands-based Collective Paper Aesthetics, the children’s vision was brought to life by Danish born East Ham artist Anne Harild. Sculptures were on show across the Borough – including Westfield Stratford City, Queen’s Market, Thames Barrier Park, Beckton Globe Library and East Ham Library – throughout the month of June.
For the launch event on 27th May, we were fortunate to be joined by the Year 1 class of Calverton Primary School as they participated in a live outdoor workshop with our facilitators and resident artist.
This exciting initiative brought much needed creativity to the heart of Newham, one of the boroughs hardest hit by the pandemic. In Newham’s first ever Year of the Young Person, this provided an opportunity for children and young people along with their carers, families and friends to design and build together in a symbol of collaboration and hope.
The Big Build was supported by the Charities Aid Foundation.
