From music video set to birthplace of artist collective ‘The Wapping Project’, the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station has been connected to arts throughout its recent history. Now it sits in a beautiful semi-derelict state awaiting the next phase, its next performance.

In the context of the global climate emergency, renovating and retrofitting such old and disused buildings is an essential part of our journey to minimise our carbon emissions. Adaptive reuse is a non-destructive method of design that respects and remembers local and regional history.

A parallel ambition of this project is to react to the ever-present cuts in the funding of arts education at all leves, from primary school all the way to university level, this reducing equal access to the arts at every step. It is Tate’s mission to tackle these issues through sites of creative learning, and in partnership with artists.

Tate Wapping suggests a new approach to arts education by creating an artists’ residencies with teaching conditions attached. Six artists are given accommodation and studios in exchange for organising workshops and lessons for local pupils, widening access to arts and culture in Tower Hamlets.