PEER is an independent arts organisation that has evolved from the ground up over the past twenty years, putting down deep roots within the socially, culturally and economically diverse area of Hoxton in East London.
PEER’s core ethos is to embed its activities into the local community and to offer and promote the highest quality art as being part of daily life. We have done this through our ambitious programme of projects working with nearly 150 artists, writers, curators and educators over two decades. It is equally our ambition to nurture and provide a platform for the talent of a diverse range of emerging, mid-career and established artists enabling them to take new risks. Past and recent examples include important commissions with Mike Nelson, Bob & Roberta Smith, Siobhan Hapaska, Fiona Banner, Emma Hart, Jimmy Robert and Catherine Story, to name but a few.
PEER’s big aspirations and modest size play key roles in securing our place within the broader London art ecology. We offer both emerging and established artists the opportunity to test bold ideas in an intimate environment that stimulates experimentation and dialogue. Our human scale makes us less bureaucratic and opaque in comparison with many larger institutions. Artists cherish the opportunities that PEER has to offer, and the position that we occupy within the art world.
For our exhibitions programme each year we work with mid career and established artists from the UK and further afield to develop four solo exhibitions often featuring new work commissioned especially for the gallery. Each of our exhibitions provide important opportunities for artists to develop their practice, reach new audiences or highlight under represented work. Our 10-metre windows facing directly onto Hoxton Street allow the work to be visible 24 hours a day, bringing it straight onto the street and enabling diverse audiences to experience and engage with visual art.
Alongside, these solo exhibitions, we partner with ACME studios once a year to present a group exhibition of work by four recent MA graduates from London-based art colleges, who have all just completed a yearlong studio residency at ACME’s Warton House studios in Stratford. In addition, we regularly programme another, usually locally-focused exhibition during the year.
In parallel with our Exhibitions Programme is our PEER Local Programme, devised and delivered by our Curator for Local Audiences, which is designed to actively engage those living, studying and working in the local area through workshops, talks, community events, employment opportunities and artistic engagement activities. PEER is based in Hoxton East and Shoreditch Ward and lies within the 15% most deprived Lower Super Output Areas in England (source: Indices of Multiple Deprivation, 2015). A growing number of affluent cultural and tech businesses sit alongside the typically poorer, Hoxton community consisting of 48% black and minority ethnic including large Turkish and West African populations and the longer-established white working-class families who have been resident for generations. PEER’s Local Programme aims to prevent increasing isolation and widen the artistic and cultural participation of groups within our local community.
