Forecast for Plaistow: Cloudy with Art Installations

Olli has been working in partnership with Newham council's 1.5 million public spaces town centre improvement programme called "Shape Newham" delivering this creative project on the shopping parade in Plaistow broadway. Working with residents using a co-design and co-production approach, the community had input throughout the process from choosing the locations for the projects, influencing the briefs, to participating in the creation of the actual designs themselves.

Shape Newham is actively supporting community well-being by commissioning local artists and Olli Group to deliver the project. The art collective Dis/order focuses on people and public spaces and helped develop the project
encouraging local participation and through workshops with young people in Newham and Lister Community School.

The project is themed around clouds as a tribute to Luke Howard, who was a former resident of Plaistow and was the first person to classify different types of clouds. Howard identified seven different cloud formations and discussed how to use cloud types to forecast the weather.
He identified three basic types: fibres, heaps or sheets, and named them Cirrus, Cumulus, and Stratus.

Olli Group's art and design team hand painted artwork of cloud formations on the ceiling and added inspirational quotes to the fascia of the parade of shops. Olli produced and installed the metal 'cloud' sculpture on the roof
of the canopy to finish off the overall design. A new seating area was created to open up the space and allow the community to rest and enjoy the art project.