Virtual Gallery @ Hothouse screened the young people’s animations as part of Hackney’s season of Events in Parks and created a great opportunity to celebrate Hackney young creative talent. The Virtual Gallery was launched on Monday 21st March, when the young people were joined by local residents and Councillor Geoff Taylor, Speaker of Hackney, to view the digital projections.

The Visual Arts Galleries Association recently cited that 82% of Londoners think arts play a valuable role in the life of the country. With just over a third of the population visiting a museum and/or an art gallery in the past 12 months, we hope that this project will encourage local young people to explore Hackney’s range of exciting museum’s and galleries.

Free Form’s award-winning Stand Up Tall programme is aimed at young people accessing Bootstrap Enterprises’ ‘Schools Inclusion Programme’, who are at risk or excluded from Hackney Secondary Schools. The accredited NVQ course offers students an introduction to digital photography, image manipulation and animation, alongside developing their skills for working life. Tutor Ben Johnson said ‘ They’ve really overcome difficulties, they’ve focused on the course and achieved immensely because of that. It’s great to see them move forward and see them showing off their design work and chatting about it so purposefully.’

Chris Williams and William Au were delighted to win awards for their contribution to the project presented at the Hackney Youth Awards at Hackney Empire on 7th April 2005.