Featuring voices from leading contemporary painters and thinkers, this half-day symposium will dive into the works and lives of the East London Group and the longstanding legacies and impact of their work on a generation of artists today.

Through a programme of presentations and conversations, this event will provide context to the East London Group, introducing their work to new audiences and offering deeper insights to existing followers to be captivated by the work of this earlier generation of mostly working-class men and women, who captured the streets and scenes of the east London of their time.

Traversing the work of the Group through a constellation of themes such as the ‘self-education’ ethos of an earlier age, artistic representations of London across time, the artist’s studio and gallery scene in east London, and the contemporary context that artists make and show work today, this symposium will shine a light on the impressive legacy of the East London Group, weaving together the stories and histories of the London of now and that of nearly 100 years ago.

This symposium is curated and presented Alan Waltham (Curator of the East London Group), Ferha Farooqui and Frank Creber (Curators of Urban Contemporaries) and the Nunnery Gallery.