Emerging Potters – 27
April - June 2022
What the pandemic has changed By Stella Cassanelli, Turning Earth The decision to expand Turning Earth studios into new communities came during lockdown when it looked like we might go under. Our users in Hoxton and Leyton fought hard to keep the studios afloat, providing critical financial support before the government loans kicked in. Their generosity really moved us, and all the messages of support helped us to see just what the studio meant to them. However, many of them couldn’t easily return to the studio even as the government lifted restrictions because the commute was just too much in the new world that Covid had created. We made the commitment then that, if we survived, we would open Turning Earth studios within an easy walk or cycle for more people. Our management team live in Tottenham, so we are very interested in this area. While we are planning to open other sites in London over the next couple of years (next stop Highgate) we will continue to do our own creative work at the new West Green studio. Tallie, our Creative Director, saw the West Green building while walking along Downhills, while on one of her post-lockdown walks. It’s a beautiful Victorian factory with a saw-toothed roof and even from the street you could see that it would have incredible natural light. When randomly searching it out online, she found that it had just been listed for rent. It feels fitting that the commitment to bringing Turning Earth into more communities in the wake of the pandemic means that we now have one on our own doorstep. The West Green studio has already proven more popular than we could have expected. We sold out all our class at the very beginning of January and had to add more. So now we have over 100 people a week on our courses. Around 100 people have signed up as open-access members so far and the majority of these people are living locally.
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