Launching UCL's impact in London campaign

LONDON OFFICE UPDATE

In this issue of the London Office update I am delighted to share our recent campaign, amplifying key impact messages for UCL in London. These messages, collated over the past year, are a culmination of research and London-focussed initiatives led by the London Office as well as teams across UCL. They span reputational research carried out by opinion consultancy Deltapoll, as well as findings from UCL's London's Economics Report and Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2022.

The research entailed qualitative and quantitative in-depth interviews with our core partners in London, followed by fieldwork amongst 1,251 adults living in London, to understand perceptions of UCL in London. Core themes of the research included:

• How stakeholders understand the university and what it offers to individuals, organisations and the community;
• What impact does UCL have in and around London;
• Awareness and understanding of UCL in London to Londoner.

London is an exceptional capital city; a population of nearly 9 million people with 270,000 of these people living in the London Borough of Camden alone, the home of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus. Furthermore, over 350,000 people reside in Newham, the home of UCL’s new campus, UCL East. London is a city of brilliance, enterprise and diversity, not just in terms of its communities, workforce and visitors but also in its health service, culture, heritage and economy. 

It comes as no surprise that students and staff want to live, study and work in such an inspiring place and UCL contributes some 16,400 staff, 41,800 students and 150,000 London-based alumni to its foundations. These component parts enhance UCL’s Mission to be London’s Global University.

From Bloomsbury to Newham, UCL is well positioned to bring together, with is partners, its purpose, people and place in order to create impact and real change in London. The attached impact messages consolidate our findings from partners, local people, economic activity, research and knowledge exchange to demonstrate our value and place in the capital city.

You can follow the full campaign on our Twitter page, which will conclude on Wednesday 16 November when the full set of messages will be published on our website.

I hope you enjoy reading just some of our impact in London, and please do get in touch with the London Office if you'd like to discuss more!

UCL EAST UPDATE

We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to our new One Pool Street building on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the first site to open on our new UCL East campus at East Bank, London's new culture, education, innovation and entertainment district. Students are settling into brand new degrees in cutting-edge UCL research centres tackling some of the biggest challenges facing cities around the world. Collaboration is designed into everything we will be doing at UCL East, as we work together with partners on solutions to local issues that will have a global impact.

Following the opening of the City Mill Skate, the UCL East Engagement team have launched three funds to support further collaborative research projects between students, staff and local residents.

The UCL East Schools Engagement team will begin hosting groups of year 9, 10 & 11 students at an Art & Design Club as part of the National Saturdays Club initiative. Sessions will be held at One Pool Street and will continue through to the summer months to inspire students to consider further study in the creative sector beyond school.

We are delighted to welcome Simon Magness to the team as Partnership Manager for UCL East. If you have any questions regarding further work with partners in East London and the East Bank Development please email Simon (s.magness@ucl.ac.uk). 

CELEBRATING HIGHLIGHTS OF UCL'S ART PROGRAMMING

In this months feature, Sam Wilkinson, UCL’s Head of Public Art, shares with us some of the highlights of the current arts programming that contributes to UCL’s capital developments and campus experience in Bloomsbury, at UCL East, and at the IoN/DRI.

The IoN/DRI is a partnership development with UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, the UK Dementia Research Institute and UCLH National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. As part of this development a programme of contemporary arts commissioning is underway; to date five artists have been selected to create works for the new space. 

Since 2020, Annie Cattrell has been working with Hawkins Brown Architects and the academic communities at the QSIoN, to develop a series of works: two which will welcome visitors to the building; an installation will animate the most public facing elevation of the new building; and an uplifting work will grace the archway entrance of the Alexandra Wing. Freya Gabie has been researching the history of the site and has developed a body of work under the title Underflow which plays with the ideas of treating the building itself as a patient, in finding the connections between the techniques used by neuroscientists and building constructors on site. Harun Morrison is working with the Calthorpe Community Garden, using his arts practice to further build relationships with local community. Krystal Patel has been welcomed into the Plum Favreau Lab as artist in residence.

Unique to this project is our provision of studio spaces at the old Eastman Dental Hospital where all our artists and their collaborators can create, collaborate, and feel inspired by the building’s history, people, and legacy as well as its vision for the future. The studio provision plays an important part in how we will deliver our newest programme of work, launched in July this year, Trellis Arbor. In October we held a mixer event where 15 neuroscientists and 15 artists met and explored potential partnership activities. Following a two-stage application process a number of applicants will take forward their collaborative projects and work together until the end of 2023.

The UCL East programme office has championed an expansive and innovative programme of public art and cultural engagement over the last 5 years: from the establishment of a Slade Student Artist in Residence programme to the UCL East Provost Prize, this work has seen us collect over 20 artworks from Slade graduates for permanent exhibition at UCL East, as well as the commissioning of two significant public artworks to be unveiled during 2023.
 
Other highlights include City Mill Skate, now launched at Pool Street, this skate environment is open and free to use. CMS is a 4-year research project lead by Sam Wilkinson, Dr Esther Sayers, (artist, researcher, lecturer, skateboarder) and Sam Griffiths, (skateboarder, and Slade Alumni) with support and guidance from Professor Iain Borden. This exciting community engagement project has delivered lessons and engagement activities to communities’ from 8yrs to 65yrs old, including 3 summer schools, leading to the creation of design for ‘Skate Dots’, skateable architecture. Please view the gallery on the City Mill Skate website.

The UCL Trellis programme has now run for three successful years during which we have worked with 30 artist 31 researchers and a diversity of east London communities including those with lived experience of the UK’s hostile environment immigration policy, D/deaf east Londoners, young autistic people, through to works with people with experience of cancer. There is an extensive list of delivered projects available on the following website.

I am pleased to announce that the UCL East Cultural and Community Engagement team have been successful in securing funding from the Foundation for Future London and the EPSRC to continue the valuable work of Trellis for two more rounds of the programme over three years.

On a final note, watch out for a new work by Abi Ola who was selected as one of the UCL East Artists in Residence and subsequently awarded the Paola Lettieri Art Prize and has created a wallpaper which will be hung in both of UCL East’s new buildings. 

Annie Cattrell Concept Proposal for IoN/DRI

Trellis Arbor Mixer Event. Photo Credit: K Holst

City Mill Skate at Pool Street. Photo Credit: Rafal Wojnowski

IN OTHER UCL NEWS

Community Research Initiative Showcase 2022

The Community Research Initiative, led through Students' Union UCL, have released a video celebrating students and local community partners who spent the summer collaborating on a research project. These cross-sector collaborations have contributed to student's dissertations, as well as to communities partners own workstreams. View the student dissertation showcase.