Bartlett Walks: Walk the Line - Public Art in London's Docklands

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled.

These walks are open to Bartlett postgraduate students.

The Line is a public art project funded by a number of private patrons and produced in partnership with the Canal and River Trust, the London Legacy Development Corporation and the Boroughs of Greenwich and Newham. It is London’s first purpose-commissioned modern and contemporary art walk, and it is set in the East, between the O2 Arena and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. This walk will follow the trail of artworks starting at the Greenwich Peninsula, via the Emirates Air Line and the DLR, and ending near Stratford.

There are two main aspects that this walk will focus on: one of them is the value and function of public art, and its adequacy to location. We will examine and discuss each of the nine works on The Line, created by artists like Anthony Gormley, Eduardo Paolozzi and Gary Hume. The other theme which this walk will explore is the urban regeneration process of the Greenwich Peninsula, the Docklands and Stratford, especially in the light of UCL’s imminent move to the area. How is this area of London evolving, and how does a public art commission contribute to its development?

Significantly, over £140,000 of the funding needed for The Line was raised by crowdfunding, and the artworks were chosen from an open submission. Although many of the works are on loan from private collections, their public accessibility in a non-gallery context is unprecedented in many cases, and facilitates a discussion about who art is for, and where it should be seen – another theme of our proposed walk.

This walk is three miles in a straight line but much of it follows either the Thames or the River Lea waterways, so it takes about three hours to complete. You will need valid travel cards for the walk, as we will be taking the Emirates Cable Car and the DLR as part of our route. The walk offers rare perspectives of Canary Wharf, Bow and the River Lea, and it provides an opportunity to discover and critically engage with a less frequented part of the city.

This walk will be led by Sabina Andron, Bartlett School of Architecture.

To sign up for this event, please register via Eventbrite. Places are limited.