Following the success of the courtyard print sale last Friday among the people of Perseverance Works please note we are still open for a few more sales during the week, the Central Illustration Agency at 17b will be open during office hours for a charity print sale in the courtyard. Charlotte, who has volunteered with local charity Hackney Pirates for nearly a year, saw opportunity in the spare prints laying around the studio; the sale is the perfect way to raise funds for a cause close to her heart and a great chance to rally the PW troops for a summer soirée.
Hackney Pirates is an enterprising charity working to develop the literacy, confidence and perseverance of young people in Hackney, so that they achieve both in school and in the world beyond. They work with young people aged 9-12 whose teachers think they would benefit from some extra support. After school these young pirates embark upon a Ship of Adventures – a weird and wonderful out-of-school learning environment complete with secret passageways, an underwater cave and a ship’s cat. Here the young people receive help with reading through targeted support programmes.
The charity also works on unique creative publishing projects, where young people work with professionals to write their own books, CDs and websites. These creative projects give young people the chance to practice their writing skills but also see the whole project through to publication. And the resulting products are sold in the charity’s own high street shop, the Shop of Adventures.
The charity’s mission statement is ‘to support young people in developing literacy, confidence and perseverance by delivering motivating learning projects in a dynamic environment using the resources in our community.’ Given the Hackney Pirates extraordinary dedication to helping young people in the local community, it’s really no wonder that the Central Illustration Agency is passionate about supporting their work.
Representing a diverse group of illutrators and animators from all over the world, the Central Illustration Agency (read our piece on CIA here) had previously run an online shop for their varied array of print pieces. Charlotte says ‘since closing the online shop, hundreds of amazing prints have sadly been gathering dust in our planner chest.’ And so it seemed a fitting opportunity to create an event for everyone to enjoy, while raising some well-deserved cash for the Hackney Pirates.
Never ones to miss out on an opportunity to advocate community spirit and support a worthy cause, Them Design have also offered to donate a sample of prints to the sale. These prints are the works of numerous artists and designers that they collaborated with on an exhibition which took place last September. Like the team at CIA, they too felt the prints currently housed within their studio, could find better homes. And for Creative Director, Dan, ‘raising money for the Hackney Pirates is an added bonus!’
