Artistic Regeneration in Tooting
By Catrina Pickering 19th January 2011
In the wake of the epic Trashcatcher’s Carnival of 2010, Transition Town Tooting’s attention is drawn to further seeds of creative renewal in Tooting. Once packed with cinemas, but recently lacking any creative public space, Tooting has two exciting new artistic ventures taking flight this week:
Tooting Market Project to be found at Unit 32 in the market for the next 3 months launches on Friday 14th January at 4.30 p.m. Local artists are joining forces with Tooting Market to regenerate some of the empty space into a thriving art gallery and studio between January & March 2011, creating an innovative “Heritage Wall” with the immediate community of stall holders and market users and facilitating the wider community in arts and heritage workshops. More on facebook here and on the Tooting Market project site.
Tooting Arts Club, meanwhile, launched on Saturday 15th January with a party at Tooting Bec’s revamped Wheatsheaf (promising a bill including both Sadiq Khan (Tooting MP) and Arthur Smith – a new double act?) and states its aim to “produce plays both old and new, in various venues in Tooting” which sounds great! A debut play “Invasion” will run at the Selkirk from 1st to 19th February. The play is described as “at once hilarious, disturbing and poignant, this deeply subversive play deconstructs an identity – the Arabic male – and forces us to confront our own cultural identity”. Further information.
Transition Town Tooting website