Arts & Business New Partners Award, Elizabeth-Jane Grose

HS Projects received funds from the Arts & Business New Partners initiative to run a series of workshops with lead artist Elizabeth-Jane Grose for Brunswick residents, business tenants and primary school children and staff of a nearby after school support centre.

The Brunswick, a listed development built in the 1970’s, was undergoing extensive redevelopment as part of the North Bloomsbury area regeneration and this project formed part of the art strategy for the Brunswick. The workshops examined the unique social history of the area, dominated by the socio-cultural legacy of the Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first home for abandoned babies and infants, founded back in the late eighteenth century by Captain Thomas Coram. Many of the mothers whose babies had been accepted into the Foundling Hospital would leave tokens with their babies in the hope that they may some day be re-united with their child.

The workshops looked at the social reality and legacy of the Foundling Hospital on the area and also in a wider context, through their life time experiences, ending with each participant designing and drawing their own tokens.

Commissioned by HS Projects in 2005, Elizabeth-Jane Grose worked with Brunswick Residents, business tenants and Coram After School children & staff.