Creativity and Community: the response to the #londonriots

When the purse strings of government are tight and budgets are scrutinised, invariably one of the first things to vanish is the arts funding. This is wrong and the importance of the arts should be noted.

If there is one thing that people need during hard times its a sense of community. Art and creativity bring people together; raising morale, showing that there are other ways of seeing and encouraging people to step up and create things.

The recent #londonriots have shown that our captial is in dire need of refreshing its community spirit. Residents need to have pride in the area that they live in, an atmosphere they help to create.

I love this photograph taken by David Levene in Peckham. It shows a message board set up by local theatre company Peckham Shed outside a Poundland store that was damaged during the rioting.


Spontaneity, a splash of colour and bucket loads of community spirit. More please.