The CIG was founded in 2010 to build a local network of stakeholders with the shared goal to connect and inform the local creative sector to demonstrate that creative placemaking leads to a stronger, more resilient and better-connected community.

Today, the CIG supports the local creative economy by encouraging mutually beneficial relationships between creative practitioners, residents, businesses, the public sector, the 3rd sector, academic, cultural and creative institutes and the development sector.

The Cultural Interest Group (CIG) meets every second Friday of the month at 9.30-11am at various venues and online.

The CIG gives equal access and an equal voice to local residents, businesses, artists, entrepreneurs, cultural and education institutions, local authority councillors and officers as well as the development sector. 

We recently partnered with London Festival of Architecture (LFA) for a special of the Cultural Interest Group. Watch our short film about this celebratory event.

The Wick Newspaper newsletter includes CIG

The newsletter goes out every Thursday afternoon. It includes local events, classes, exhibitions, programmes, call-outs, opportunities and area updates as well as funding and job opportunities.

Please feel free to contact us or forward some text and highres image that you would like to be included in the newsletter to info@hackneywick.org by 5pm on Wednesday for inclusion the next day.

Access the archives from over the past 10 years.

Read the vast track record of progress, discussion and actions which has been instigated during and after the CIG meetings. 

Organised in year and month for easy access, this portal will be updated regularly. Please do check back for added past meeting documents.

Home to some of the capital’s most awe-inspiring artists, musicians and designers, East London is synonymous with nurturing its creative communities, maintaining its reputation as one of the city’s most exciting cultural melting pots.

Since 2010, the Hackney Wick and Fish Island Cultural Interest Group has been positively contributing to this rich and diverse landscape, building meaningful relationships with creatives, local authorities and developers and helping to raise the profile of the area’s Creative Enterprise Zone (established 2018), while at the same time striving to preserve the identity of existing neighbourhoods.

This work will be more valuable than ever as the plans for East Bank – one of the world’s largest and most ambitious culture and education districts – are realised, opening up even more opportunities for local residents.

Justine Simons OBE 

Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, London

The CIG has been a key factor in the growth of Hackney Wick Football Club. It has allowed us to connect to sponsors and collaborate with brands such as Aitch Group, Nike, HeyBigMan! and The Wickers Charity. It’s an important and impactful organisation to be a part of in the local area.

Bobby Kasanga

Founder, Hackney Wick Football Club

The past, present and future of HWFI is defined by the people who keep the place close to their heart. We need more spaces for people to connect, collaborate and learn from each other. Groups like the CIG are instrumental in ensuring we continually stop, reflect, challenge, and celebrate all the pieces of the stunning puzzle that is HWFI

Patrick Scally

 Creative Enterprise Zone Manager Hackney Wick  & Fish Island

Over the last twenty years, East London has seen a remarkable transformation and nowhere more so than Hackney Wick. The area is home to one of the largest concentrations of artists in Europe as well as the site of extensive regeneration near to the Olympic Park.

That both these elements co-exist is down to the extraordinary work of the Hackney Wick and Fish Island Cultural Interest Group led by William Chamberlain, which has worked to protect the creative energy of the area. It has galvanised local groups and artists, engaged intelligently with councils and developers and made the case for improvements. This model of local cultural entrepreneurship is vital if London is to remain a world capital for culture.

Munira Mirza 

Former Deputy Mayor of London, current Director of policy at Number 10 Downing street

The Hackney Wick and Fish Island Cultural Interest Group has my full and whole-hearted endorsement. Since its inception it has been the go-to forum for those wanting to meet residents, creatives, businesses, developers and politicians. As a local Hackney Wick politician it has put me in touch with the movers and shakers beyond the boundaries of my own ward in a way in which no other organisation has.

It is an invaluable forum for challenging the established norms of regeneration policy and I believe it has played an important part in forging Hackney’s approach to the preservation of affordable work-space. As this area of London booms in the post-Olympic era, the CIG is a vital voice for the local businesses and creative artists who first led the area’s renaissance.

Councillor Christopher Kennedy

London Borough of Hackney