Creative Croydon

As founders of the cultural blog the Croydonist, which highlights Croydon arts and culture, it was a pleasure to partner with the Croydon Business Improvement District (BID) on an art exhibition for our hometown which launched in 2022.

We collaborated with Croydon BID to bring the work of five celebrated local artists to our streets. This free outdoor group art exhibition, which we named ‘Creative Croydon’ showcased 15 different pieces of art depicting some of Croydon’s notable places and spaces. From the cherished Richard Seifert No. 1 Croydon skyscraper and Ikea’s industrial towers to Park Hill’s Victorian Water Tower and our historic Surrey Street Market, the art depicted the variety in our town centre’s landscape. 

The art was exhibited on lamp post banners across Central Croydon, bringing vibrancy, colour, creativity and joy to our wintery streets ahead of Croydon becoming the London Borough of Culture for 2023. 

We curated the work of artists Kate Marsden, Gavin Kinch, Tina Crawford, Lis Watkins and Bev Jones, and created a distinct visual identity that literally framed their diverse styles of art, showcasing the 15 works in a unifying way. 

Read more from the artists on the Croydonist blog.

We collaborated with Croydon BID again in 2023 to curate a second season of the exhibition with five new local artists, Divya Sharma, Matt Bannister, Skye Baker, Miguel Sopena and Melanie Russell, which was displayed on our streets for the end of Croydon’s year as London Borough of Culture. Read more about the artists and the second exhibition here.

We’ve recently worked on the third season of the exhibition with Croydon BID, which this time included a competition to find five young Croydon artists (aged 16 to 25). Several previous Creative Croydon artists judged the entries, and the work of the winning artists was unified by the theme 'Happiness is'. Read more about the artists, Thomas Oldfield, Erika Gomez, Beatrix Finch, Autumn Ng Fong Tiao and Iulia Taropa, and the third exhibition here.