hackneywick.org

The Hackney Wick & Fish Island Cultural Interest Group was founded in 2010 to facilitate a permanent, sustainable, creative community in Hackney Wick and Fish Island and particularly to advance the arts and culture.

Hackney Wick and Fish Island was once a thriving Victorian industrial suburb with its main products including petroleum, plastics, inks, dyes and confectionery. Hackney Wick and Fish Island currently has the highest concentration of creative practitioners and artist studios in Europe which means that today, creativity drives the HWFI economy.
The Cultural Interest Group’s role is to facilitate the conditions in Hackney Wick and Fish Island in which creative practitioners can develop their practice to become sustainable. The CIG supports the local creative economy by encouraging links between:

1. Local creative practitioners
2. Creative practitioners and the local residential population
3. The local, regional, national and international creative community

This is achieved through engagement, partnership building, resource sharing and collaboration.

Hackney Wick & Fish Island Cultural Interest Group Code of Conduct
“Working together to build a permanent sustainable creative economy in Hackney Wick and Fish Island since 2010″

Hackney Wick & Fish Island Cultural Interest Group (CIG) suggests a Code of Conduct for all corporate bodies,
commercial entities, brands, institutions,charities, established social enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, investors and
developers wanting to operate in and engage with local residents, artists, creative practitioners, makers, designers, workspace providers, businesses and arts and cultural institutions (the HWFI creative sector) to ensure that mutually beneficial
relationships are established based on respect, honesty, integrity and trust.

The CIG Code of Conduct seeks to ensure:

That commercial, public sector, third sector and institutional entities operating in the HWFI creative sector deliver a tangible economic benefit at grassroots level – no one is asked or expected to work for free;

That commercial, public sector, third sector and institutional entities join the CIG or a similar local network and that they publicly sign up to a minimum of 4 of the 7 options.

The CIG Code of Conduct:

1) Local sourcing of employment, skills, training, talent, supply chain and services wherever possible;

2) Pro-active support and promotion of Hackney Wick and Fish Island as one of London’s foremost authentic centres of art, culture and creativity;

3) Provision of access to networks, expertise and knowledge including key personnel for board, trustee or advisory roles to the HWFI creative sector;

4) Development of commercial partnerships, joint ventures and other economic opportunities with the HWFI creative sector for mutual growth and benefit;

5) Formation of sustainable reinvestment loops to ensure that a minimum percentage of profit generated in the HWFI creative sector is reinvested locally;

For Property Owners, Landlords and Developers:

6) Sign up to a public register of responsible landlords with self-imposed caps on workspace rent increases as well as residential rent/leases for creative practitioners (suggested maximum increase linked to rpi or similar);

7) Provision of an agreed minimum level of affordable workspace and/or housing for creative practitioners and residents in all new developments.

CIG Terms of Reference

1. The Cultural Interest Group (CIG) is the regular, private sector led networking meeting of Hackney Wick and Fish Island’s (HWFI) stakeholder community and particularly those involved in the arts, culture and creative practice as their business.
2. The CIG is seeking to facilitate a permanent, sustainable, creative economy in HWFI, particularly for those residents, businesses and institutions with an interest in the long-term success of the arts, culture and creativity in the area.

3. The 5 pillars of the CIG are: Art and Culture, Education and Learning, Enterprise and Innovation, Environment and Community, Health and Activity.

4. CIG meetings are non-incorporated, informal, open-membership, open-agenda and apolitical and take place monthly (on the second Friday of every month) during business hours at different locations in and around HWFI.
5. The CIG seeks to provide a level playing field with equal access to relationships with public sector stakeholders, institutions, developers and commercial organisations.
6. The CIG seeks to enable all members to build a sustainable creative economy in HWFI through networking, relationship and partnership building, resource sharing, capacity building and the exchange of information and opportunities across all sectors of the community.
7. Residents, creative practitioners, businesses, institutions, landowners, developers and all other stakeholders are encouraged to join the CIG by attending meetings and developing their own relationships with its members.

8. CIG members are encouraged to submit news, contacts, information and opportunities to the CIG mailing list for circulation to the wider CIG community subject to a preferred frequency of one email per day.
9. The Company hosts the CIG mailing list as well as the Hackneywick.org website and is responsible for keeping both up to date.
10. To become a CIG member, simply attend a meeting or provide a current email address to the CIG mailing list (info(at)hackneywick.org). To leave the CIG simply request to be removed from the mailing list.

Legal positions:
Chair – William Chamberlain

The CIG core principles are:

• To help establish a permanent, sustainable, creative community in Hackney Wick and Fish Island
• To support the sustainable artist led regeneration of Hackney Wick and Fish Island
• To protect the availability of affordable workspace for creative practitioners
• To provide a regular forum to facilitate relationship building, partnership forming, sharing of resources and collaboration between all members of the community
• To provide a link between the creative community and local stakeholders: LLDC, LBTH, LBH, CRT, Legacy List, GLA
• To facilitate fundraising, grant applications and public sector financing of the local creative economy
• To bring together a wide range of partners to promote Hackney Wick and Fish Island
• To ensure that the heritage of Hackney Wick and Fish Island informs its future
• To enable the community to take more control of its own future, and develop a genuine legacy for generations to come
• To help create a community that is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable
• To help create a high-quality, well-designed environment that creates a strong sense of identity and belonging and a vibrant public realm
• To create commercial partnerships to fund social and entrepreneurial initiatives
• To partner the community, the private and the public sector as joint stakeholders to enable local people to directly invest in local development

Successes to date:

• Influenced changes to the LBTower Hamlets and LBHackney AAP’s for Hackney Wick and Fish Island to acknowledge the importance of the creative community
• Persuaded LLDC to designate HWFI as a cultural quarter for London
• Facilitated successful funding applications, awards and commissions through CIG networking opportunities. E.g. Richard Brown, Cre8 Life Style Centre, Wick Newspaper, Public Works, Front Side Gardens
• Influenced the design of the Neptune wharf development to include affordable, flexible creative workspace and recreational facilities
• Influenced the design of the Canal Park proposal to include recreational facilities
• Influenced the design of the Hackney Wick station hub
• Was the catalyst for the development of the White Building
• Influencing content on Legible London maps and introducing innovative data collection method

Sub Groups

Planning & Development: Joint Chairs Richard, Lee; members Daren, Isaac, Tom, William, Anna, LLDC
Canals and Waterways: Chair Lee, members tbc
Events: Chair William, Hackney Wicked Art Festival, Hackney Wick Festival, Open House, LLDC
Website: Chair William, members Andreas, Martin, Daren, Omar
Education and Learning – Chair Tracie Trimmer; members tbc

How to join

Free, open membership, personal invitation, word of mouth.

Minutes of the HW&FI Cultural Interest Group

• 2019: March – February – January
• 2018: Extra CIG – December – November – October – September – July – June – May – April – March – February – January
• 2017: December – November – October – September – July – June – May – March – February – January
• 2016: December – November – October – September – August – July – June – May – April – March – February – January
• 2015: December – November – October – September – July – June – May – April – March – February – January – Extra Meeting
• 2014:  December – November – September – August – July – June – May – April – March – February
• 2013 : November – October – September – August – July – June – May – April – March – February
• 2012 : December – November – October – September – June – May – April – March – February – January
• 2011 : December – March

The Hackney Wick and Fish Island Cultural Interest Group is wholly owned by the Hackney Wick and Fish Island Community Interest Company registered in England under Company No. 8431081