Last year the City of London launched its Destination City strategy, designed to showcase the City as a visitor destination, as well as encouraging workers – and a bit more buzz - back to the Square Mile.
Culture is a large part of the offer, and it’s been exciting to see City companies supporting the use of art to bring vibrancy and interest to the built environment.
Lacuna’s refreshed Sculpture in the City trail was re-launched in July with lots of activities taking place in London Sculpture Week this September. As well as the City Corporation, project sponsors and partners include Aviva, Bloomberg, Hiscox, Brookfield, CC Land, The Gherkin, and Nuveen. We love the energetically graphic Untitled by Arturo Herrera beneath the staircases of the Leadenhall Building.
The Business Improvement Districts are also playing their part - the EC BID hosted cultural events at Broadworks over the summer by Hive Events including music and performance and Fleet Street BID sponsoring St Bride Foundation’s Design Conclave.
During Open House London the buildings themselves provide the inspiration as visitors enjoy free entry to private homes and spaces. This year’s festival was aptly in partnership with AirBnB. Wonderful City locations included the headquarters of some of the prestigious Livery Companies – Apothecaries’ Hall and Stationers’ Hall.
Finally, its exciting to see the art linked to the Elizabeth Line stations being unveiled. These projects have been a very long time in the fundraising and making, and we love Yayoi Kusama’s Infinite Accumulation, her largest ever public sculpture at Liverpool Street Station, with Bloomberg as one of the funders.