October news: introducing Hortus Collective, new timber toys from Anderssen & Voll and new talent on Team Zetteler

Architects Citizens Design Bureau and Bennetts Associates have collaborated on the £30 million transformation of the 1970s local authority-run Hertford Theatre, into BEAM, a ‘once-in-generation’ multi-purpose arts centre in the centre of the city.

Bennetts Associates extended the facilities of the existing site, including the addition of a 547-seat theatre and three cinema screens. Citizens Design Bureau brought their expertise in elevating arts venues to the centre’s interiors, developing the foyer area into a series of discrete but interconnected ’rooms’ arranged around a central atrium, creating spaces that are just as welcoming on a quiet Wednesday afternoon as a buzzing Friday night. Their thoughtful design solution to the acoustics of the venue utilised distinctive concertina felt panels combined with timber floors and exposed brickwork.

BEAM me up

With the backing of WeTransfer, The Supporting Act Foundation is donating an extraordinary €800,000 to 32 emerging artists and community-focused initiatives this year. With payouts totalling nearly €2 million since 2022, the foundation’s grants programme is dedicated to providing opportunities for an exciting and diverse cultural landscape, with every donation given with no conditions attached.

Bucking the trend of cuts to the arts seen in the UK and around the world, the Supporting Act is investing in the careers of artists and non-profits who need it most. From theatre groups empowering those experiencing homelessness and a magazine championing Ukrainian artists, to poets, painters and performers exploring cultural heritage, decolonisation and LGBTQ+ stories, the 2024 cohort represents an exciting and eclectic vision of how considered, no-strings arts funding can make a real difference.

Take a look

Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll always like to add a playful touch to their projects. How perfect, then, is the Norwegian design duo for Finnish Design Shop’s plans to mark its 20th anniversary with PELATA, a collection of designer games. Anderssen & Voll has contributed three designs to the commemorative collection: a wonderfully tactile (and really rather Zen) ball-bearing maze, and a pair of beautifully contoured timber percussion instruments.

In a world where millions of cheap plastic toys pile up in landfill (Yale Environment Review says toys make up as much as 6% of all landfill plastic – yikes), PELATA products are made from natural materials and thoughtfully designed – ensuring each piece can be enjoyed for generations.

Go and play

From their interdisciplinary exhibition of unique sound-inspired vinyls at Dundee Design Festival, to their eye-catching commission of Pauline Lochtin’s paper sculptures during LDF, the creative sector’s favourite feelgood paper people G . F Smith has been spreading colour up and down the UK last month.

Both projects celebrate the visual variety and creative possibilities of G . F Smith’s Colorplan – the signature coloured paper range at the heart of its collection. More projects are on the near horizon – drop us a message if you’d like to be the first to hear about them.

Follow the (Color)plan

In any development, a public arts strategy is often an afterthought – something to be tacked on once the final breeze block is in place. With the new Begbroke Innovation District, Oxford University Development has broken with placemaking convention by prioritising the arts from the get-go. Focusing on collaboration, cultural exchange, community research and scientific endeavour, Vickie Hayward of Company, Place has implemented a forward-thinking strategy that informed masterplanner Hawkins/Brown’s material choices and influenced the landscaping of the site.

Company, Place’s first three arts interventions have now been unveiled. The Rodina takes advantage of STORE’s ‘Outdoor Canvases’ to present Ungrounding – an archaeological exploration of the Begbroke site through time. Autopoietic, a multi-year residency exploring no-dig agriculture by artist Jaimini Patel, is now in progress. The third intervention, The Weed Garden by Assemble challenges assumptions about what plants are considered weeds while creating a beautiful and ecologically beneficial garden.

Get in touch for more…

Award-winning landscape design practice Hortus Collective creates gardens and outdoor spaces that are rooted in place, celebrate nature, and are shaped by ecological principles.

Founded in 2019 by Mark Rogers and Amy Langron, the collective comprises a team of like-minded designers, gardeners and makers who collaborate with work with ambitious private clients and forward-looking public institutions. Their work with Clementine Blakemore Architects on transforming disused Dorset dairy farm Wraxall Yard into a community resource helped the project take home RIBA’s Stephen Lawrence Prize 2024 and put it in contention for the Stirling Prize.

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Bisila Noha’s skillful and story-rich new ceramics project Baney Clay Parts 3 and 4 is being shown in two simultaneous exhibitions. The collection of handmade pots traces her ancestral links to Equatorial Guinea, exploring the long history of clay, body and labour alongside personal and poetic reflections on identity. Check out Bisila’s work at Miradas Ecofeministas at Centro Cultural de España en Bata in Equatorial Guinea, running until 22 December, or head to the Thrown Contemporary website until 27 October to catch her online solo show.

In addition, Bisila will be In Bloomsbury at the Paul Mellon Centre on 6 November to talk about The Lives and Legacies of Black Women Ceramicists. Then on 14 November, she will be challenging western notions of productivity at Ottilie Tattoo in East London.

And finally, you can have her writing delivered straight to your inbox, courtesy of her newly launched Substack ‘In the thick of it’.

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