Event category: Talks and Discussions

We are delighted to welcome Henry Tadros, Chairman of Ercol and great grandson of its founder Lucian Ercolani. Henry will speak about the brand’s relationship to Walthamstow and how a furniture company has continued to thrive for over 100 years.

Ercolani’s family emigrated to Walthamstow in the 1890s and Lucian studied furniture making at the Shoreditch Technical Institute before founding Ercol. Henry is the fourth-generation Chairman of this family business. Tadros will speak about running Ercol, a company still based in the UK and committed to skilled craftsmanship and sustainability principles.

With furniture design and manufacturing having something of a renaissance in the local area, this talk will address the challenges and opportunities for the continued production of high-quality furniture in Britain, how this links to the principles of both William Morris and the Gallery’s current exhibition Art Without Heroes: Mingei, and the factors that have contributed to this iconic company’s enduring success.

Hosted by Hadrian Garrard, Director of William Morris Gallery. The talk will be followed by a Q&A and a chance to see Art Without Heroes: Mingei on its closing weekend.

• 6.30pm: Doors open
• 7pm – 8pm: Talk
• 8pm – 9pm: Q&A, drinks & private view

About Henry Tadros

Henry joined Ercol in 2010 and, like his father before him, began on the factory floor working across all departments before working in the office and founding L.Ercolani, the refined modernist design brand from the Ercol family.

About William Morris Design Line

William Morris Gallery is excited to be part of this year’s William Morris Design Line, which shines a light on the richness of Waltham Forest’s past and present creative community and encourages visitors to discover, learn and interact with an incredible range of design, making and creative activity.

The William Morris Design Line was created by Wood Street Walls in 2020, as part of the Local Trust’s Creative Civic Change Programme in collaboration with William Morris Big Local. It helped establish a community-led design route through Walthamstow as part of London Design Festival.  The 2024 edition, programmed in partnership with Waltham Forest Council, will extend to Lea Bridge for the first time to showcase designers and makers across the Argall Industrial Area. It is a Design District for London Design Festival 2024.

Join us for a special event bringing together our Radical Landscapes commissioned artists: Abel Holsborough, Zaiba Jabbar and Graeme Miller. The event will include a panel discussion followed by a private view of the Radical Landscapes exhibition. The artists will be exploring how their memories and experiences of Waltham Forest and home have influenced the social sculptures that they have created across the borough.

• 6pm – doors open
• 6.30pm – panel discussion followed by Q&A
• 8.30pm – private view of Radical Landscapes

About the artists: 

Abel Holsborough 

Abel is an artist who uses photography, writing and performance to explore the un-monumental and question what constitutes ‘useful’ art. Their interest in obscure histories and ‘not-quite’ archives also feeds into their work at Brixton Windmill where they are the lead miller of the last working windmill in London. Their collaborative works with organisations such as Artsadmin (Artist in Residence 2023/24), Grizedale Arts and Create London often link to ideas of home, place-making and community. 

Commission: Small Things Are Possible 

Zaiba Jabbar 

Zaiba is an award-winning director, moving image artist, commissioner, independent curator and Founder of HERVISIONS. She’s interested in the democratisation and accessibility by how we experience art outside the white cube. Her curatorial project HERVISIONS is an investigation into how people in the margins are using technology to create art outside of traditional formats, making space for themselves through the experience of expanded moving image. She is a leader in augmented reality and digital art exhibitions online and offline working with partners and institutes that include Tate Modern, LUX, i-D, Google Arts and Culture, IAMSOUND, The London College of Fashion, Loom Festival, Spectacles, arebyte, Furtherfield and The Photographers Gallery. Zaiba was curator in residence at LUX in (2018) and a board member of Abandon Normal Devices. 

Commission by HERVISIONS: Wild Wired! Rewilding Encounters of Langthorne Park

Graeme Miller 

Graeme Miller is an artist, composer and performance-maker working internationally across a wide range of media from radio to gallery installation and is known for his sited, performative social works. 

His practice emerged from UK performance of the 1980s as the co-founder of the influential theatre company Impact Theatre Co-operative. While continuing to make his own stage works that include A Girl Skipping (1990), he evolved a wide-ranging practice as an artist. He makes work that often responds to ideas about place and time, creating situational pieces that shift the attention in his audience. He also composes music and designs sound for theatre, dance, TV and film and is Associate Artist Tutor on the MA Performance Making Course at Goldsmiths University, London.  

Graeme lived for a decade in artists housing in Leyton between 1984 and 1994. His family home ended up in the epicentre of the protests to stop the M11 Motorway and was one of the final houses to be demolished for its construction. His radio work LINKED has broadcast in the area since 2003. 

Commission: LINKED

Please ‘pay what you can’ for your ticket. Our suggested donation is £7.50.

Image: Abel Holsborough

We are proud to be welcoming Veronica Ryan in a discussion about her extraordinary career and the themes and motivations around her work. Ryan won last year’s Turner Prize for her solo exhibition Along a Spectrum at Spike Island, works from which are included in our current exhibition Radical Landscapes, and for her public sculptures celebrating the Windrush Generation in Hackney. Her sculptures and installations examine environmental concerns, personal narratives and memories, as well as the wider psychological implications of history, trauma and recovery.  A former resident of Leyton, Ryan last showed work at the William Morris Gallery in a group show  ‘E11 Works on Paper’ in the 1980s and we are very proud to see her return.

The artist will be joined in conversation with Hadrian Garrard, Director of the William Morris Gallery, co-curator of Radical Landscapes. Garrard worked previously with Ryan, leading the Hackney Windrush Commissions as Director of Create London. The event will be followed by an audience Q&A.

• 6.30pm – Doors open
• 7pm – Talk and Q&A
• 8pm – Radical Landscapes curator’s tour

Please ‘pay what you can’ for your ticket. Our suggested donation is £7.50.

Image: Veronica Ryan. Photographed by Erdem Moralioglu for Harper’s Bazaar