Local community gather to celebrate a year of amazing Small Grants projects funded by OPDC
The Mayor of London’s development corporation for West London, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), together with local residents, unveiled a host of community-led projects at a showcase event for its Small Grants programme.
The programme, which funds community-led projects in Old Oak and Park Royal celebrating local people, heritage and culture, has awarded nearly £150,000 to 21 local community organisations, reaching 45,000 beneficiaries across West London.
The array of activities, all of which support communities in Brent, Ealing, and Hammersmith and Fulham, range from community newspapers, an A-Z of Park Royal, foodbanks, youth work, summer clubs, charity work, and projects that promote art, culture, heritage, sustainability, and intergenerational activities.
Held at Excelsior Studios in Park Royal, the showcase event - attended by awardees, residents, businesses and councillors - exhibited the projects, with talks from the awardees and fantastic performances from talented dancers, singers, and rappers from organisations including Society Dance and Key Changes.
Find out more about OPDC’s Small Grants programme and the organisations supported.
The breadth of work that’s been accomplished and continues to be done by our Small Grants awardees is truly inspiring and a reflection of the talent, creativity and culture in Old Oak and Park Royal. Thousands of local people have benefitted from the fantastic initiatives that have been run by the awardees and it’s been great to have had the chance to celebrate their achievements with the local community and see the positive impacts that are now felt across.
our area.
We are now in our third year of providing multiple creative platforms for young people to obtain new skills and develop their creative practice further. We want to thank the team at OPDC for their continued support which has allowed us to build positive relationships with both communities and organisations by providing us with the support to pursue our mission of increasing the likelihood of young people from different community groups taking part in the arts, irrespective of their background, gender, social education, or financial circumstances.
ArtWest is a community of 30 artists that reside in five studios in NW10. Each year, we all come together to open our studios to the surrounding community and beyond where we offer a unique insight into our vibrant and creative community.
The OPDC small grant has enabled us to successfully open our studios last year and have an additional young person inclusion initiative which included creative workshops and family activities run by local artists. Having been running for the last 10 years with a mixture of emerging and renowned artists, the ArtWest weekend has something for everyone, each year drawing in a gloriously diverse crowd, from local families, young professionals, and art lovers to London explorers.
Inspired by the London A-Z and Yellow Page directory, we created a time capsule of creatives in West London. It is an area bursting with talent across a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines, and we wished to document this in a coffee table book that marks this moment.
We think documentation is key when areas are constantly changing and regenerating, so we wanted this book to show the rich and diverse creatives and art this area has to offer.