In the 1970s, an independent television company offered to sponsor the arts in a "culturally deprived" area of London, and three boroughs were invited to make proposals, including Tower Hamlets. A public meeting was held, the original proposal was thrown out, and alternative plans were formulated - while the grant looked good in public, it was declared irrelevant and useless to most people in the East End.
The grant was instead used to fund the Tower Hamlets Arts Project, which drew together the large amount of existing arts activity in the Borough, most functioning on a shoe-string budget and often unaware of each other's existence. This included the A-Team, who provided (and continue to provide) free youth clubs and arts activities for young people, including the video making workshops that produced the fun and fantastical works in this collection.
Unintentionally, the original misjudged project had performed a vital function in bringing together different arts groups for the first time, uniting them in a common purpose and bringing their work to the attention of the wider community of Tower Hamlets and the Borough Council, who gradually came to recognise their importance. These videos capture not just the events but the strength of community that they helped create.
The A Team: Amina's Dream
- Tower Hamlets
- 1985